U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865
Name: George W. Leathers
Side: Union
Regiment State/Origin: Minnesota
Regiment Name: 5 Minnesota Infantry
Regiment Name Expanded: 5th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry
Company: I
Rank In: Private
Rank In Expanded: Private
Rank Out: Private
Rank Out Expanded: Private
Mother applied for Civil war pension 15 May 1869.
Application 160920; certificate 115813U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865
Name: Valorious B. Leathers
Side: Union
Regiment State/Origin: Minnesota
Regiment Name: 9 Minnesota Infantry
Regiment Name Expanded: 9th Regiment, Minnesota Infantry
Company: C
Rank In: Private
Rank In Expanded: Private
Rank Out: Private
Rank Out Expanded: Private
Served in the Civil War as a Corporal in the 26 Illinois Infantry according to the Civil War Muster Rolls
_____
Find-a-GraveRobert was born November 8, 1832 at Garland, Maine. While yet a young man, he went to Missouri where he was engaged in farming at the outbreak of the Civil War. Because of his strong Union convictions, he was compelled by abuse to leave the state. He crossed over into Illinois, and on November 1, 1861, enlisted in the army. He served about four years in Company D and H of the 26th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry, marching to the sea with Sherman.
(CCH: When I was, this is Cecil speaking, was a child, I distinctly remember being told that he received a wound in the hand, but this apparently was not a disabling wound.)
He received his discharge July 20, 1865. After the war, he located in eastern Nebraska and married Isabel Pratt, March 13, 1867. They settled on a farm near Dunbar, Otto County, Nebraska, where they built a house on a farm. In the year 1886, they moved to Hamilton County, Nebraska, driving their cattle to their new farm. Here they built a large frame house. In 1900, after most of the children were grown and some of them were married, they moved to a farm in Garfield County, Oklahoma. By hard work and self denial, they managed to acquire a goodly amount of property.
[An asterisk here is directed to a note at the bottom of the page which says Robert Gray had a stroke in 1901 which left him a cripple, and he had to be helped about or walked with a cane until a second stroke in 1903 caused his death.]
In the summer of 1903, they returned to Nebraska to retire in Harvard. Soon after their arrival in Nebraska, while visiting their daughter Belle's, Isabel Campbell, home in Harvard, he was stricken with paralysis. he was found by one of the family in the outdoor toilet in an unconscious stupor from which he never recovered. He died September 26, 1903. Isabel, wife of Robert, died July 29, 1917 at the home of their daughter, Joanna Ward, near Enid, Garfield Co., Oklahoma.
[At this point, Elsie has a little comment to make about the morning that Grandpa Robert Gray died.]
We had been used to having Grandpa jump up in the air and crack his heels together three times. I can remember him doing that from the time I was a very small child, and this morning he had been staying with us, and Mother was going to take him to Harvard to Aunt Belle's. And so we asked Grandpa to jump up and crack his heels three times for us, which he did. And for that reason, I can't think that he was a cripple because I remember him walking with a cane, but he had use of both legs and arms very freely. Isabel and Robert Gray are both buried in Harvard, Nebraska cemetary. They had seven children: Abbie Helen, Evelyn Frederica, Joanna, Robert Lincoln, Isabel Ernestine, Joy Ralph, Florence Alice.
Narration by Cecil Claude Hunnicutt M.D follows.
...things that happen around the family that are forgotten and gone. Elsie has just not related something about Grandpa Gray. He apparently was a firey, feisty little rascal who had a good-sized temper. I've heard that before from my own Dad, but Elsie has an incident which should be related.
Elsie: This is from my father-in-law who lived catercorner across the section from Grandpa Gray, and they were on the school board together. Grandpa Gray was small.
James Sidders: Well, these small neighborhoods had divisions of divided opinions, and people united, backing one or the other, and they were on the school board. These prominent people, more prominent than some of the others, were elected on the school board. Now, the Gray farm and the farm that Ves Sidders rented adjoined with a road between them. Ves was my uncle and he never fenced much, from the original primitive mode of the settlers. He let his stock run without fencing and, too much fencing, and they got out, and they got on Mr. Gray's property, and he didn't care too much about it if they did. So they had particular reasons for not liking each other, and they had different candidates for teacher, the school board did. They were both on the school board. It seems that Uncle Ves was chairman of this meeting, and Mr Gray, in a fit of anger, smacked him on the head, and he had been interrupting and arguing, and they were having a general wrangle, of course, and cracked Uncle Ves on the head. Ves just turned around, picked him up, and st him down good and hard. He was a little fellow, small frame. (ES: Grandpa was) Yes, and he said, "Now, sit there, damn you." Now that kind of brought the argument to a head, see, and that alerted all of them to the fact that it was getting out of hand. They all settled down and wound up their business, more or less tolerating each other, instead of being so abusive, and it didn't come to blows. I've heard my dad say, going to these school board meetings, that he would have to do some thinking before he went. He was President of the Board one year, maybe more, and he would sharpen his knife good before he left home. As soon as he took his seat at the table to open the meeting, the first thing he would do would be to take out this knife and sharpen his pencil, and lay the knife conveniently aside on the table, with the blade open, of course. Then he was in a position to defy anybody who got too abusive with whatever might happen, because they did have fights in there. The enmity was strong.
CCH: There is another incident that Elsie should relate to us now.
ES: Grandpa Gray's death. Grandpa died in September, and in July of that same year, their daughter Anna's husband and two children had died from sardine poisoning, or what do you call it? Botulism. And so Grandma was up there at Burwell, and Burwell was 25 miles from where they lived. The only way they had of getting to Burwell was with a horse and buggy. Wilbur, the oldest boy, got sick first. He had gone out.. They had had these sardines the night before, and in the morning he had gone out after the cows to milk, and when he came in, he couldn't talk right. They had a boy in the neighborhood who couldn't talk right, and Aunt Anna thought that Wilbur was imitating this boy, so she reprimanded him for it, but later found out that he was really sick and they needed some help. So Uncle Dave got on the horse and went to the neighbors to get some help because by that time he wasn't feeling right and Tessie was also sick. The neighbor rode horseback into Burwell to get the doctor, and by the time the doctor got there, of course, (Cecil tells me now that he couldn't have done anything anyway), Wilbur and Tessie died, and they buried them in their garden. But before Uncle Dave died, he couldn't talk, but he would write on a slate the messages that he wanted, and the only word that he could say was "Mama". Aunt Anna was worn out from taking care of them. The neighbors finally pursuaded her to lay down and rest for a while, and whe went to sleep. Then they couldn't get her awake, and they walked her around the room. They did everything they could think of to get her awake. Pretty soon, Uncle Dave said, "Mama" and she was awake right them. He died shortly after that. Uncle Dave was also buried in this garden. And this happened, this was at Aunt Anna's home 25 miles from Burwell. I don't remember the year that Aunt Anna left there. She remarried and left Burwell, but they still left these bodies buried in this garden until -- now this happened in 19.... End of tape.
...winters in California and the summers she spent visiting with her children until her health broke. She then spent winters with her children residing in Oklahoma, and the summers with those living in Nebraska.She had creeping paralysis, and was ill several years. She made her home mostly with her youngest daughter, Florence, while this family lived in Nebraska, and with her son "Bert" (Robert), when he was in Oklahoma.
A few months before her death, when her paralysis started affecting her mental alertness, she was taken to the home of her daughter, Johanna, who nursed her until her death. She had been bedfast for a number of weeks when she got out of bed while Johanna was out of the room. She fell and broke her hip. Pneumonia set in after a few days, and she died.
Isabell and Robert Gray are both buried in Harvard, Nebraska cemetery. They had seven children: Abbie Helen, Evelyn Frederica, Joanna, Robert Lincoln, Isabel Ernestine, Joy Ralph, Florence Alice.
U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938
Name: Walter H Brackett
Birth Year: abt 1897
State: Maine
County: Kennebec
City: Togus
Branch: Eastern Branch
Record shows the following
Enlisted Augusta Maine, Oct. 3, 1918
Discharched Deavens Mass., Dec. 23, 1918
Admitted July 31, 1931
Discharged May 18, 1933
Age, 34, 5' 4 3/4", light complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, residence Wat
erville, Maine, married, wife : Abra
Admitted for acute hepatatis
Pvt, 33rd C, A. Corps
Roster of Maine in the Military Service of the U. S. and Allies in World War 1917-1919, Volumes I & II
Name: Walter H. Brackett
Serial Number: 3193700
Birth Place: Clinton, Maine
Birth Date: 17 Mar 1897
Residence: Waterville
Comment: Ind: Augusta, Kennebec Co. No. 1, Sept. 3/18. Private. Org: 151 Dep Brig to Oct. 13/18; Hq Co 35th Arty CAC to disch. Overseas service: None. Hon disch on demob: Dec. 23, 1918.
Oberion O. Stetson served in the Civil War.
Navy Survivors pension files (disapproved)
Cert # 0279
Enlisted January 14, 1878
Discharged September 6, 1879
Served on USS ConstitutionClaim is for rheumatism of right ankle and knee contacted on duty on Board USS Constitution from extreme cold.
Claim rejected as injury was incurred while on liberty.
The claim was resubmiited many times, leaving 200+ pages of testimony and notes.