Civil War Letter from 1862

     The following is a letter written in 1862, during the Civil War.  The writer, Lewis Eugene Childs, was the son of Aaron Childs, one of the first settlers (from New Hampshire) in Augusta Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan.  Aaron and Hannah Bemis Childs had nine children.  Their first child was Col. Jonathan Webster Childs.  Next week I will transcribe a letter he wrote in 1861 while he served in the Civil War.  I have the originals of both of these letters.  Lewis E. Childs, was born on  May 25, 1836 and died February 1, 1889.  He married Frances Hazeltine Richardson on June 12, 1866 in Fitchburg, Worcester, Massachusetts. He served three years in the Army of the Cumberland. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Chickamunga, taken prisoner and later exchanged. They had five children with only one, Herbert Ward Childs, surviving to adulthood. Although Herbert married, there were no children and he died at the young age of 37. Lewis and Frances are both buried in Highland Cemetery, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

      Lewis wrote this letter to his uncle James Webster Childs. J. Webster was my great-great grandfather. He was a Representative and then a Senator in the Michigan Legislature in the 1860s and 1870s. I will write more on him later.  As you can see from the letter, Lewis was asking a favor. He had apparently done so before. 

     The spelling, underlining, and punctuation are as written.                                                                                            

                                                                                          Head Quarters

                                                                                          11^th Reg’t Mich Vols

                                                                                Belmont Ky March 31^st – 62

Dear Uncle

Knowing the willingness you have allready manifested to use your influence for my bennifit, I again ask a favor of you.

Lieut Col Stoughton (The man of the Reg’t) with some of the other officers of the Reg’t have written Gov. Blair to give me a Capts commission and Ephraim G. Hall a 2^nd Lieuts commission. The Col. requested me to write to you requesting you to recommend us to the Gov for the same. The Col’s letter was sent last Saturday. If you will write the Gov as soon as convenient and can conscientiously recommend us for those positions you will much oblige. The Col said there was no doubt but the Gov would grant them but he wished you to write so the Gov. would know and feel satisfied.

Fortune has seen fit to cast our lot in the Def. of the Ohio but not in the advance of that army which has lately moved its Head Quarters from Louisville to Nashville.

Four months have we been anxiously waiting to be ordered into more active service, but today finds us scattered for thirty miles along the R.R. guarding its depots and bridges. This line of RR is indispensable to our army and every bridge from Louisville to Nashville is guarded night and day. The trains run on the road so one can go to Bowling Green and back in a day. Some of us are talking of going to see the cave (?)In a few days, but situated where we are one does not want to go far to find scenes interesting and wonderful, to us who have never seen hills much higher than (our heads?).  Just to the South of our camp are three high hills and the one in the center which is a number of hundred feet high looks as if it was monarch of all it surveyed.  I went to the top of it a few days ago and for the first time in my life stood where I could look in every direction just as far as the eye could reach.

Today the paymaster is here and we are being payed off. The paymaster is late from Washington and he and his clerk were well acquainted with Webster. This afternoon as soon as they [sic] are through payin we are to ride out in the country. I am to be pilot and shall direct the way to where two young ladies live

And by the way you remember the Browns. They attended this school at Mount Washington, and have given me a whol history of their   __vadings?  in Ky. But I must clos for the room is full. They are paying in my room. Please answer soon and receive this hasty note from

                                              Your affectionate Nephew       Lewis E. Childs

New name for my blog

Greetings  -  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and found much to be thankful for - I certainly did, and do.

I decided to change the name of my blog to "Relatives in the Attic."  I should have done it when I started my new website awhile ago and then changed both names at the same time - but better late than.....

The study group met this last month at the West Valley Genealogical Society's library, had a tour and did some research. Thank you, Peggy, for a great tour and answering all our questions.

These last two months we have all been working (hopefully) on a new writing assignment. Many of us have either already written, or would like to write, stories about a relative or ancestor. I can't wait to start reading the stories at our November meeting.  I have mine almost complete, it just needs more fine tuning.  I will put it in the blog next month. Three of us from the study group had stories in the Fall edition of the West Valley's "Desert Tracker" publication that comes out twice a year. I submitted my story on "Who Was Mickey" - it was the same story that I detailed on this blog several months ago.

More to come, but wanted everyone to be aware of my new address. Watch for the new website name to come soon.

Fall and Writing and Scramblin!

Fall is coming to Phoenix. That means cooler evenings and mornings (great for walking) and days under 100. I know it still sounds warm, and it is, but it is a huge relief from over 100 and it is surprisingly comfortable.

It has been a busy summer with traveling (a wonderful family wedding in Michigan) and escaping the heat of Phoenix, for the cool summer in Colorado. I have been working on small projects, not getting a great deal done, but keeping busy. I am having trouble keeping motivated on the book I am working on about my Beckington grandparents. I have submitted an article locally to a society's publication in the Phoenix area about Mickey, which will appear in the Winter edition. I have written extensively about Mickey Bruner on my blog in the past. The Writer's Group I belong to meets next week so I need to get busy on another article. I am going to write about the Court family that stayed in New York. My great-great Grandfather, William Wallace Court, came to Michigan. He was one of five children born to James and Janette Bouquet Court, and the only one to migrate to Michigan. The others stayed in New York and didn't seem to fare as well.

I watch a blog called "Life from the Roots" by Barbara Poole. It is an excellent blog. She has the name Scramblin on her surname list. Maria Court, William's daughter, married a Lewis Wilson Scramblin. They lived in the Jackson County area of Michigan at one point. Maria had at least three children who died in infancy. Maria died at the age of 43 in 1928. I did some further research on the Scramblin name and am trying to figure out a connection to the family that Barbara highlights. Since Barbara is in the New England area and most of her ancestors are from there, we have a great many names in common.

Our monthly study group has been going very well. Everyone is trying new things and learning a great deal. I certainly learn putting the meeting and lessons together. This September was our one-year anniversary so we went over the goals we had set last year. It was amazing how many of those goals had been accomplished already or were near completion. We then started a new list of goals for this next year.

The group is heading for the West Valley Genealogical Society's library in Sun City in late October. It is a wonderful library (over 12,000 books and 1,500 periodicals) with an extensive map collection. Some of the ladies have never been. We are also all going to start a writing project on an ancestor who has an interesting story to tell, which we will work on over the next couple of months. Many of the group are avid writers already, but we are ALL going to start on a new project to write about and then will present them - and maybe do some editing - at our November meeting. I will be working on the Court story I mentioned above.

Final note on Mickey and new possibilities on my grandfather's wife

I did indeed have the death certificate for Mickey waiting for me on my return to Phoenix. What a surprise to actually find a name in the "father" category. I did not really expect there to be one. You have to wonder if Dorothy also named the father on the birth certificate (which I can't get because of privacy laws), or did she decide - now that the child had died, it didn't matter anymore? I, of course, immediately started doing research on this person. I will not give his name. There are several reasons for this - 1) did he know?  2) did his family know?  3) is he really the father?  4) I guess if someone else really wants to know, they can also ask for the death certificate.

By the way, Washtenaw County in Michigan, has a wonderful system for this very thing. For any death certificate (years available) and marriage certificates, you simply request online what you want with appropriate information and give your credit card information. If they have it, it will be mailed to you within a week or so, if they don't have it - you don't owe them any money. I wish more counties had this set up. Thank you, Washtenaw County!

Anyway, back to Mickey's father. I did some checking. There is a man with that name in Ann Arbor about that time. He is about a year older than Dorothy. He would have been 17, Dorothy 16, when she got pregnant. Did they go to the same high school? same church?  I don't know. This man died in 1982 and I noted that he was a Sr. when he died, so there is a Jr. I don't know if the family knew about Mickey. Since these two parents would have been in high school and Mickey died not even ten years later, maybe not. It solves a mystery for me. If this man is indeed Mickey's father, then there was no incest involved. Rape?  Maybe, maybe not. We will just never know.

The second "mystery" I have been researching is my grandfather, Garth Beckington, and the woman he married after my grandmother's death. Edna died in April, 1952. Garth remarried a woman by the name of Luddie in November 1954. He died in March of 1956. No one knows much about Luddie. Again, most cousins remember a small, round woman from the south, maybe Alabama. How did they meet? And who was she? His obituary does state that he married Miss Luddia M. Hensen. A start! I started searching Luddia/Luddie Hensen. I was amazed at how many Luddies are out there. Mostly in the south.

I found a very likely candidate. Luddia Mae Perkins was born in 1906 in Alabama. She married J. Chart Henson (spelled Henson in most cases) about 1920. I was able to follow this family through the 1940 census. She had two sons, Carl and Edward, and a daughter - the name is either Lion or Lucy, or something similar, all born in the 1920s. I can't find a death date or burial for J(ames) Chart, but assume he died between 1940 and 1954, when she married my grandfather. Or did she? Marry, that is? They were not married in Washtenaw County, in Lucas County (Toledo), Ohio or Chicago - three places that cousins suggested. Where did they marry? Why not marry in Washtenaw County, Michigan where he lived? How did they meet? She spent most of her life in Alabama, possibly some time in Georgia. Her sons lived and died in Alabama. I am having trouble finding descendants who might have an answer or two about this woman and if she was indeed the second wife of Garth. Did I follow the right woman and family? What happened to her after he died? I know Garth's children were not fond of her (for various reasons) and apparently one of her sons came in a "big car" to pick her up after Garth's funeral. That is the last anyone heard from her. She did not die with the name of Beckington, so maybe she remarried or just went back to Henson?  I can't find a burial for that name either.

I will keep trying to find a descendant mostly to learn if I have the right woman. Garth was born in 1878 and she was born in 1906. Most of the cousins were young and to a child - anyone over the age of 40 is "old."  There would have been 20+ years difference in their ages. My one surviving aunt was asked by her son if she thinks Luddie could have been that much younger than her father. She didn't live in Michigan during those years, but said yes, that was her understanding. Maybe a Henson will see this blog while Googling their name and make a comment.

Did I answer more questions than I added to my list of "don't knows?"  I guess I feel confident that I have answered some major ones anyway.

August in the Mountains and other thoughts

I have been enjoying the coolness of the Colorado mountains this last month, it has been a nice break from the Phoenix heat. I have gotten some genealogy research and writing done. Not as much as I would like, but - it all takes time!

Another note on Mickey (check my November and July posts). I requested his death certificate from Washtenaw County, Michigan, and it should be waiting for me in Phoenix when I return. I am anxious to see what details it might reveal that I don't already know. I suppose there could be "one more note" on Mickey later, depending on what the death certificate reveals.

I did go through letters that I have been saving from various family members to my grandparents. I will be writing about the correspondence between my grandparents (to each other, while they were dating) in a book - hopefully that will come out in the winter/spring. It is a larger undertaking than anticipated.

Among others, I have letters written by Dorothy Bruner Beckington (Mickey's mother) to Garth and Edna Beckington (her new husband's parents), after her marriage to Garth (my uncle Toot). Some of the early letters were written when he was stationed at Fort Atterbury, Indiana, where he was stationed for training during WW II and before he was shipped out to England. She was able to live on the base (or near by) with him after their marriage. They married June 6, 1942. As I wrote about in the previous posts mentioned above, Mickey was her son by a previous relationship. He would have been about six years old when Toot and Dorothy married. I am guessing he stayed with his grandparents, William Gross and Alice Marenger Bruner Gross, Dorothy's mother and step-father, while Toot and Dorothy were in Indiana. At least, I assume. She never mentions him in her letters. Where is he? She doesn't say she misses him, or anything. She always (even in the years to come) addresses her in-laws as "Mr. and Mrs. Beckington."  I don't think any other in-laws in the family did so. She did write many letters to them over the years so I do have to give her credit for staying in touch and keeping them apprised of their lives. But she never mentions Mickey - before or after his death.

At one point I assumed that Toot lived with the boy (and Dorothy) from their marriage until Mickey's death in August, 1946. Actually with WW II intervening and Toot having enlisted (or been drafted?), he was away from the family most of the time between 1942 and the fall of 1945. He made one comment in a letter home that he felt they didn't let the soldiers come home earlier (the war officially ended in Europe in May of 1945) because there were no jobs for the soldiers to return to. Toot spent most of his time during his service in England but he was in France for a short time in 1945 because he describes the destruction he sees all over France, including Paris. So, actually, he probably lived with Mickey (if at all, assuming Mickey did not continue living with his grandparents) for less than a year before Mickey died on August 28, 1946 of polio.

Michigan and Mickey

I just spent a great week in Michigan. I attended a beautiful family wedding and then stayed with my sister and her husband for a few days. While there, my sister and I took a road trip to the northern area of Michigan - not the UP. I have a cousin in Hillman and another in Elmira and we visited them both.  They were gracious hosts and they allowed me to "pick their brains" for memories of our grandparents. That part of Michigan, with all the little lakes is beautiful. It has been years since I did any traveling in Michigan. I thank my sister for allowing me to drag her along (and do the driving). It gives us a little "sister-time" also.

We left Monday morning and got back Tuesday evening. On Thursday, we made it to the St. Thomas Cemetery in Ann Arbor to look for the grave of Mickey.  I wrote about this step-cousin on my blog last November 11th and 15th, in two parts. I wanted to visit his grave and get a picture. We found it easily, with the directions given to us by the cemetery caretaker. Mickey is in the middle of three stones in a row. The names on either side of him have no connection to our family. I assume his parents bought this one plot and none others. Kind of sad as he not only is buried by himself, but there is really no one to visit his grave site, but the cemetery is well maintained.

Here is a picture of his stone:

I also asked the cousins if they knew anymore about Mickey or his father, mother, and her family. They did not. They pretty much knew exactly what has traveled down the family grapevine - he died of polio when he was about 10 years of age.

Ira Union Cemetery, Ira, New York

I have been trying to sit down and write this article for my blog for days.  Today is the day. 

I was in Syracuse and the surrounding area for a week and returned last Friday. It was a good trip. I got to spend the week with my husband and eat out every night (actually, I get tired of that pretty quickly). We spent the first weekend in Montreal. Neither of us had ever been there. What a beautiful city - clean, friendly and with a very interesting history. We did a guided walking tour of Old Montreal on Saturday. It is a very French city and 70% of the people are bi-lingual. Friday night we ate at a restaurant that served "rare horse" - I talked Bruce out of ordering it! But I had wild boar which tasted like pork ribs (as the waitress had assured me).

Back in New York, I did some roaming around the countryside of Cayuga and Oswego counties. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Ira Union Cemetery (also known as the White Cemetery or the Old Floridaville Cemetery) in Ira, so I headed in the direction of Ira and Cato to look for it. The countryside alone was worth the drive. It was one beautiful farm after another, rolling hills, green and peaceful - the word bucolic seems to fit here. I LOVE the old barns. I thought about taking pictures of the best ones - but I don't know how I would ever have chosen. My current residence, Arizona is not known for its green landscapes - now mind you, we live in a more central area of Phoenix that does have trees. We have a huge Aleppo pine in our side yard, a Brazilian Pepper tree in the front and a pecan tree in the back. Plus there are a couple of other big trees which help with shading, and palm trees. We also have a green lawn.

In Cayuga county, the cemetery was close to Floridaville Road and White Cemetery Road - that must be where the name came from :-) - in Cayuga County. I found it after many u-turns and traveling roads that seemed to lead nowhere. I stopped twice at little markets to ask directions. One in Plainville and another near a 'major' (two-lane) intersection. But, you know, if you want directions you are more likely to get them from people in a local market, not employees of a major gas station/convenience store. The Plainville market was in a very small area and a father and son helped me out. I did have my iPhone with Google maps, but sometimes the reception wasn't always available. There were also two old churches in Plainville. I wonder if either church was attended by the Lane or Rhoades families? One looked like it was now a home and the other was closed down.

I finally found the cemetery. The above is a picture of the (former church?) building that was within the cemetery grounds, near the gate. It wasn't open and no one was there, so I don't know what is inside. I was looking for the graves of my third great-grandparents, Roswell and Jerusha Rhoades Lane.  I already had pictures of their tombstones from another source, but I wanted to see the site and placement of the graves and who was buried around them. These things can be important. I knew that Jerusha's father, David Rhoades (sometimes this name is spelled Rhoads or Rhodes, among many other spellings) was buried near them. But, where was David's wife, Jerusha Hitchcock Rhoades buried? She died one month after he did in 1834, so she should be there. There is no stone for her.

Above is a picture of the gravestone of Roswell and Jerusha.  Roswell's name is on one side, and Jerusha's is on the other. The star you see in the picture is for his service in the War of 1812. The smaller stones on either side of the larger one say "Mother" and "Father." 

 This next picture is of the stone for David Rhoades.  He has an emblem with a small American flag attached for his service in the Revolutionary War. It was put there by the DAR Chapter in Ypsilanti, Michigan, requested by Mary Ella Hazelton Childs, my great-grandmother. I do think there is space for David's wife, Jerusha, next to his stone. Roswell's parents, Ezra and Sarah Chapman Lane, were also in that area when they died, but no records of where they are buried exist. Now that I can see the whole area, I think there is space for them in this same plot.

 If you look closely at this picture, you will see the Lane stone in the middle and a space to the left, then a square looking stone (more on that one ahead), a larger space and then David Rhoades' stone at the far left.  There is also space on the other side of David's stone - plenty for three more people.

This last stone, pictured above, the square one between the Lane and Rhoades stones, is for Adelbert Lane, Roswell and Jerusha's youngest son, and his wife, Sarah Earl. Adelbert and Sarah still have living descendants in this area.

So, because I was able to visit this cemetery, I was able to prove to myself that there is space, albeit no stones, for Ezra and Sarah Chapman Lane and David Rhoades' wife, Jerusha. Does that mean they are buried there?  No. Maybe some day I will hire a dowser. Google 'Dowsing' or check out articles by Brenda Marble ("Grave Dowsing: Basic Techniques for Dowsing Burial Sites" by Brenda Marble and Debbi Lehr, 2003). Or then again, maybe I will learn to do it myself.