He Came Of A Valiant Race

Source

...leaving Fort Peyton on the 7th inst., and proceeding south....

Fort Peyton (Florida) LOC 1839 Map

...a large Seminole villae, near Mosquito Inlet, was reached, and, after surrounding it, at dawn of day on the 10th the dragoons, under McNeil and May, charged the enemy... .  Our loss was the gallant McNeil, who received a mortal wound while leading his men.  This officer--one of the youngest in service--was deeply regretted, both on account of personal and professional worth; he came of a valiant race--son of General John McNeil, late of the army, and grandson of General Benjamin Pierce,* of New Hampshire, a hero of the Revolution.

*Father of McNeil's mother, Elizabeth Andrews Pierce McNeil, and President Franklin Pierce

 

Dr. Wasdin First To Attend To President McKinley

"The fatal shots were fired at seven minutes past four [on September 6, 1901].  Dr. Herman Mynter, accompanied by Dr. Eugene Wasdin...was the first surgeon to arrive." President McKinley died on September 14, 1901.

Source

"Surgeon Eugene Wasdin of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 17, 1911. Dr. Wasdin was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, September 28, 1859; he graduated from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1882, and was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the Marine Hospital Service August 2, 1883. He was stationed successively at New Orleans ,Louisiana; Galveston, Texas;, New York NY; Chicago, Illinois; Mobile, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; South Atlantic Quarantine, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Havana, Cuba; Washington, D. C.; Buffalo, New York; and Memphis, Tennessee. He also served upon the Yellow Fever Commission of the service to which he belonged and was a delegate to the International Medical Congress in 1899. He was also detailed for special duty at Bremen, Hamburg, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. While in Buffalo in 1901 he was assigned to special duty with the President. On July 22, 1909, Dr. Wasdin was relieved from active duty at Memphis, Tennessee on account of ill health."

Daniel Bedinger, Revolutionary War POW

Project Gutenberg's American Prisoners of the Revolution, by Danske Dandridge:

To The Memory of my Grandfather, Lieutenant Daniel Bedinger, of Bedford, Virginia

 Daniel's father was born in Alsace, and he himself had been brought up in a family where German was the familiar language of the household. It seems that, in some way, probably by using his mother tongue, he had touched the heart of one of the Hessian guards.

In some way Daniel was conveyed to Philadelphia, where he completely collapsed, and was taken to one of the military hospitals.

Here, about the first of January, 1777, his devoted brother, George Michael Bedinger, found him. Major Bedinger's son, Dr. B. F. Bedinger, wrote an account of the meeting of these two brothers for Mrs. H. B. Lee, one of Daniel's daughters, which tells the rest of the story. He said:

"My father went to the hospital in search of his brother, but did not recognize him. On inquiry if there were any (that had been) prisoners there a feeble voice responded, from a little pile of straw and rags in a corner, 'Yes, Michael, there is one.'

"He placed his suffering and beloved charge in the chair...and carried him some miles into the country, where he found a friendly asylum for him in the house of some good Quakers. There he nursed him, and by the aid of the kind owners, who were farmers, gave him nourishing food, until he partially recovered strength.

After Daniel Bedinger returned home he had a relapse...however, recovered, and re-entered the service, where the first duty assigned him was that of acting as one of the guards over the prisoners near Winchester. He afterwards fought with Morgan in the southern campaigns, was in the battle of the Cowpens, and several other engagements, serving until the army was disbanded. He was a Knight of the Order of the Cincinnati.

Lieutenant Bedinger...died in 1818 at his home near Shepherdstown, of a malady which troubled him ever after his confinement as a prisoner in New York. He hated the British with a bitter hatred, which is not to be wondered at.

Daniel Bedinger's entry at Wikitree.

See a YouTube video of Bedinger's experiences by one of his descendants.

Elkanah Watson

Source

FindAGrave Memorial for Elkanah Watson.

Scarcely Any Taxes - Illinois In 1817

Lincoln-Berry Store In Illinois

Letters from Illinois ...., By *Morris Birkbeck, John Melish:

November, 1817

"...a few miles farther West [in Illinois] opened our way into a country preferable in itself to any we had seen... ".  "...foresee greater than in the state of Ohio, being so much nearer the grand outlet at **New Orleans." 

"...we have no rent, tithe, or poor's rate and scarcely any taxes, perhaps one farthing per acre." 

"Where we are settling, society is yet unborn as it were. It will, as in other places, be made up of such as come...".

*Morris Birkbeck's memorial at FindAGrave.

**After Abraham Lincoln returned from taking a flatboat to New Orleans, he clerked in New Salem for Denton Offutt, the boat's owner. A year later he and William Berry bought an interest in a general store... . (Source)

The Old Holland Land Office

"The Holland Purchase Historical Society, of which Mrs. Dean Richmond is President...".

Reverend John Tevis

Science Hill Inn, Shelbyville, Kentucky

"Without my knowledge, I was appointed to take a list of the taxable property in one of the districts of Shelby County.*"

A church in Abingdon, Virginia (Not necessiarly Mr. Tevis's church)

Source - Sixty Years In A School-room

John and Julia Tevis enumerated with their family and students at the Science Hill School:

Census 1850

Shelby county, Shelby, Kentucky, United States

J Tevis M 58 Maryland [John]

J Tevis F 50 Kentucky [Julia]

B Tevis M 23 Kentucky

R Tevis M 21 Kentucky

J Tevis M 16 Kentucky

A Tevis F 14 Kentucky

B G Cyeryomios M 48 District Of Columbia

E Cyeryomios F 45 Kentucky

L Cyeryomios F 35 Virginia

H Martin M 35 Kentucky

A Martin F 36 Virginia

C A Martin F 4 Kentucky

A Martin F 2 Kentucky

A Bridgeford F 15 Kentucky

A Blood F 16

M Byers F 15 Kentucky

M Barber F 17 Kentucky

E Barber F 14 Kentucky

M C*D F 14 Kentucky

A Cook F 14 Kentucky

F Baker F 12 Kentucky

B Brush F 17 Kentucky

C Buchanan F 10 Kentucky

C Camaan F 14 Indiana

T Candy F 10 Kentucky

M Connelly F 12 Kentucky

M Davis F 13 Kentucky

A Daughtery F 12 Kentucky

T Cunningham F 15 Mississippi

M Elliot F 16 Kentucky

M Ellert F 16 Kentucky

E Delaney F 14 Kentucky

A Handy F 12 Louisiana

M Hutchinson F 14 Kentucky

E Jones F 17 Kentucky

F Johnson F 17 Kentucky

F Johnson F 15 Tennessee

F Johns F 12 Louisiana

H Jenkins F 12 Kentucky

A Jenkins F 12 Kentucky

M Lessute F 17 Mississippi

M C Lessute F 15 Mississippi

M Lacewell F 13 Kentucky

J Lindsay F 17 Kentucky

M Lindsey F 14 Kentucky

S Lampton F 16 Kentucky

A Lambert F 15 Kentucky

E Morgan F 17 Kentucky

M Morgan F 15 Kentucky

E Mills F 17 Tennessee

E Middleton F 14 Kentucky

M Moore F 16 Kentucky

E Moore F 16 Kentucky

L Moore F 14 Kentucky

T Miller F 15 Kentucky

M Miller F 13 Kentucky

E Miller F 16 Kentucky

E Mckay F 17 Missouri

E Putnam F 13 Kentucky

M Payton F 16 Kentucky

E Payne F 15 Kentucky

E Perry F 14 Kentucky

E Street F 14 Iowa

V Staples F 15 Kentucky

N Smith F 16 Kentucky

H Sidde F 15 Louisiana

H Surgent F 14 Kentucky

M Mckee F 17 Maine

M Thompson F 17 Missouri

V Williams F 16 Kentucky

L Wheeler F 15 Missouri

D White F 16 Kentucky

J White F 19 Kentucky

F Whitaker F 17 Mississippi

F Nielsen F 16 Louisiana

C Niven F 14 Kentucky

M Hidney F 14 Kentucky

E Hidney F 13 Kentucky

S Healecty F 16 Kentucky

M Wright F 14 Kentucky

E White F 16 Kentucky

E Adams F 12 Louisiana

M Carr F 12 Kentucky

J Wicklippe F 15 Kentucky

B Carr F 20 Kentucky

E Cammack F 15 Kentucky

H Marion Thor F 15 Kentucky

M Oren F 84 Maryland

C M Thorpe F 27 Kentucky

John Tevis's memorial at FindAGrave.

See portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Tevis here (in the book, Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley ..., By Estill Pennington, published in 2011).

Julia In Shelbyville

An excerpt from John Tervis's narrative:

Julia's story:

Source: Sixty-years In A Schoolroom

Julia's memorial at FindAGrave.


Descriptive survey of Science Hill from the NPS (also a plat map of Shelbyville)

Chicago's "True Founder" Thomas J. V. Owen

Chicago Blockhouse - Source

"Chicago's true founder, Thomas J. V. Owen: a pleading for truth and for social justice in Chicago history"...:

Source

Thomas Owen's memorial at FindAGrave.

Sad News For The Confederates

Also See Dear Diary: Visiting The Acklins

View Of Cumberland Gap

THE DIARY

Sad news this morning-- a battle at "Cumberland Gap" in which the Federals were victorious-- although we retreated-- yet they were greater losers.  We regret so much that Gen. Solicoffer fell-- [Source]

Cumberland Gap website at the National Park Service here.

Source

Study God's Word In The Morning

"My practice was this: I devoted the forenoon of every day, except Monday, to the preparation of my discourses. My motto was: 'Study God's Word in the morning, and door-plates in the afternoon.' I found the physical exercise in itself a benefit, and the spiritual benefits were ten-fold more." 

 Recollections of a Long Life  An Autobiography, by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler.

Source

"Washington Irving has somewhere said that it is a happy thing to have been born near some noble mountain or attractive river or lake, which should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794."

"During the summer of 1840, when I was a college student at Princeton, I went with a friend to the office of the Log Cabin, a Whig campaign newspaper then published in Nassau Street, New York. It was during the famous Tippecanoe campaign, which resulted in the election of General Harrison. I was introduced to a singular looking man in rustic dress. Horace Greeley, for it was he, who sat before me, has been often described as a man with the 'face of an angel, and the walk of a clod-hopper."'

One of the number [of young ladies in church] happened to be a young lady from Ohio who had just graduated from the Granville College, in that State, and had come East to visit her relatives in Philadelphia. The young lady just mentioned was Miss Annie E. Mathiot... .  My courtship was rather "at long range;" for Newark, Ohio, was several hundred miles away, and I have always found that a man who would build up a strong church must be constantly at it, trowel in hand.

Elizabeth's Life Among The Mormons

A Child of the Sea: And Life Among the Mormons, by Elizabeth Whitney Williams (see her memorial at FindAGrave).

THE STORY MRS. H. TOLD ME

I was born and raised in a dear little nook in York state.

There were four girls in our family, my oldest sister [Sally Hicox Minard] being deaf and dumb. My deaf sister was married to a deaf and dumb man He had a high temper and did not treat sister Nellie very kindly. After awhile Nellie came home to live with our parents, bringing her little twin babies with her. We all helped to care for them and then John, her husband, seemed more kind. Five years rolled around when one day three Mormon elders came to our village... . They visited us My mother being in she seemed greatly taken with their talk. 

Brief biographies concerning the Mormons of Beaver Island can be found on the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University website here (the "H" page).

The (Early) Life Of Pauline Cushman

Life of Pauline Cushman: The celebrated Union spy and scout. 

Pauline's father....abandoned his enterprises in the Queen City of the South [New Orleans] and removed to Grand Rapids in the State of Michigan when Pauline was about ten years of age. He there opened an establishment for purposes of trade with the Indians, as Grand Rapids was still little more than a frontier settlement... . 

Pauline's memorial at FindAGrave.

The Author Of Legends

Legends Of Detroit was written by Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin.

The third daughter of Robishe [Robert Navarre], Archange Louise, born in 1770, married Dominique Gode Marantette. She was the grandmother [great-grandmother?] of Mrs. Caroline Watson Hamlin, the author of the " Legends of Detroit." [Source]

Source

Mrs. Hamlin also wrote a piece for the Michigan Historical Collection periodical.  Here are her words:

The following incidents, like little waifs, have drifted down the current of the past into our family history. I have gathered them, for time with its bird-like rapidity will soon sweep along with its wings these souvenirs of the courteous, generous Canadians who came to colonize our beautiful city. 

More from the Grosse Pointe Historical Society:

[Theodore Parsons Hall's] wife was the former Alexandrine Louise Godfroy, who was descended from one Detroit's oldest French families. A frequent guest of the Halls was Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin, who wrote Legends of Le Detroit. The grotto on the Hall's beach commemorated an old French legend of Grosse Pointe recorded in her book.

Background information about Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin, the author of the Legends of le Détroit, can be found in the Red Cedar blog.  She was born in Detroit in 1850 and was married there to William Yates Hamlin in 1878.  Marie C. Hamlin died 20 June 1885 of consumption.

Census 1850

Springwells, Wayne, Michigan

Age: 0

Birth Year (Estimated): 1850

Birthplace: Michigan

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

John Watson M 39 Michigan

Eliza V Watson F 25 Michigan

Caroline Watson F 0 Michigan

William D Watson M 13 Michigan

Name: William Hamlin

Census 1880

Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

Age: 35

Marital Status: Married

Occupation: Capitalist

Birthplace: Tennessee

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

Carrie Godfroy Self F 40 Michigan, United States

Liza Watson Other F 30 Michigan, United States

William Hamlin Other M 35 Tennessee, United States

Carrie Hamlin Other F 32 Tennessee, United States

Mary Kelly Other F 15 Ireland

Jennie Brown Other F 23 Ireland

William Hamlin married 2nd Louise Helm [descendant of Major John Whistler], who was born in Cuba, the daughter of a Confederate sympathizer.  The Helm family moved to Newport, Kentucky, after the death of the father, Charles.

William Yates Hamlin erected a monument in honor of his father, his mother and his brother (who died in a duel).

William Hamlin, who was listed as "single," died in Detroit in 1902.