My Trails into the Past

In the 1880 Lamine, Cooper County, Missouri, household of Amos and Catherine Gorrell is stepson, May M. Sayre, age 19. [1] He is one of three children Catherine Shotts bore with Lemuel Sayre in the late 1850s. Mary Adela, born about 1857, died in 1858 George, born about 1859, died in the same year. [2] Only May Mansfield Sayre, born on 19 November 1860, lived to adulthood, dying on 22 February 1927 in Marion County, Ohio. [3] Catherine married Lemuel on 14 January 1857 in Ross County, Ohio. [4] Private Lemuel J Sayre died on 9 May 1862 in Hamburg, Hardin County, Tennessee, while in Company B of Ohio 63 rd Infantry Regiment. He died from inflammation of the lungs. [5] May’s mother married Amos Gorrell on 6 February 1866 in Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio. [6] It was not a marriage approved by his parents and he decided to leave for Missouri. However, before doing so, Amos took care of business with the probate court to become the guardian of May’s estate. On 28 February, he too...

Last two posts have been about finding first Andreas Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR), and then finding the Record of Service for the Regiment and Company where he served. Both records were found on Fold3. You can read about the CMSR here and the Record of Service here . Some of the widow’s pensions for those soldiers who died during the war can be found at Fold3 . Again, using Browse will get you to the record in the most efficient way. Start by selection Civil War (Union). Then select Civil War “Widows’ Pensions.” You will now have a choice of states. We will select Missouri because Andreas served with the 4th Missouri Infantry. Now select Infantry. Now you select with regiment and we’ll select Regiment 4, Company F. We now see three soldiers and the first one is Pfotenhauer, Andrew. This is likely an Americanized version of Andreas’ first name. A widows’ pension begins with the widow making an application. The Act of Congress, approved 14 July 1862, allowed for pension...

Memorial Day is about soldiers who died while serving their country. My children have no direct ancestors who died while serving in the military. However, their second great-grandfather, Amos Gorrell’s wife, Catherine’s first husband lost his life while serving in the Civil War. Lemuel J. Sayre was born perhaps 21 December 1835 in Middle Island, Tyler County, Virginia (later West Virginia) and died 9 May 1862 in a hospital of typhoid fever in Hamburg, Hardin County, Tennessee. [1] United States War Dept.,1866 -  Battle map of Island  No.  Ten in the Mississippi River  during the American Civil War He enlisted at age 26 in Company B of the Ohio 63 rd Infantry Regiment on 9 October 1861 and served the four months as a private. [2] The unit was mustered in at Marietta, Ohio by Frank T. Gilmore, 1 st Lieutenant, 63d Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Battles he may have participated in were at New Madrid, Missouri between March 3-13, 1862, and Island No. 10, Tennessee on April ...

John E. Lundquist* enlisted as a private in Company C of the 4th Iowa Cavalry Regiment on 5 October 1861. He was thirty-six years old and was living at Lockridge township in Jefferson County, Iowa. [1] The companies of the regiment rendezvoused at Mount Pleasant, Iowa where they practiced until their assignment. [2] In February 1862, the regiment was transported by rail to St. Louis and then in March they traveled to Rolla, Missouri. Other movements occurred and they ended up on Arkansas. Company C had their first skirmish with the enemy on June 3. [3] Sometime near August 1862, John was sent to the hospital for sore eyes and later discharged from the army at Memphis, Tennessee in November. [4] He returned home and was unable to work for many months. The discharge papers also stated he had upper right arm paralysis. That would certainly make it difficult to do farming work. However, he did not apply for a pension until 1871. In his application letter, he stated he w...