Touching History

One of the wonderful aspects of my job is that I get to touch history. Like last fall when a donation was brought to my attention. Someone was getting rid of a bunch of theological materials. Among the items donated was a tiny handmade New Testament that was written in an Ethiopian language that is mostly used just for ecclesiastical purposes.

Wooden end pieces and hand stitched binding of this
very unique donation.

Vellum pages and ornate illustrations and text.

We are still waiting to see if the item has any monetary value or if it is just incredibly interesting.
























And it happened again just a couple of months ago...       
     

Medina County Texas is due east of San Antonio, Texas

In the spring, a gentleman from Texas contacted us about a Civil War diary that he thought belonged at the Medina Library. Knowing that there is a Medina, Texas, we first verified that he had the right Medina library.






Thomas Kreneck, is an archivist, and knew what he was doing. The family who was donating the item, Dick and Mary Heldt,  just wanted to make sure it had a good home. Thomas wanted to know that it had the right  home.

He said the diary never gives the author's name, but mentions that the author's father was the sheriff of Medina and also mentions several locations, such as, Brunswick, Seville, etc. Yep, he had the right Medina Library.

The gentleman promised to send the diary to us. Months went by and no diary ever appeared. As often happens, life took over and sending us the library went to the bottom of the list. I contacted Tom in September and on October 4th a package was sitting on my desk when I came into work.

It was the diary! 




The cover is a very delicate leather with a little slot and flap to keep it closed. The days and dates are pre-printed and leaves 10 lines for each entry.   

This type of diary was meant to be carried in the inside pocket of a man's coat.  And they were very popular with Civil War soldiers. 

The first pages have an annual calendar for 1862 and then it jumps right into the daily entries.

Indeed, the author never identifies himself but starts recording his daily routine.

His punctuation, capitalization and spelling are erratic and when doing transcriptions, these must be recorded accurately. This is particularly challenging when all of our software wants to auto-correct everything.

The first 3 days read:

January 1 Wednesday Happy new year to myself and the rest of mankind=. Dull new year’s in this Town of Medina= nothing going on. at home all day. Father went to Brunswick in morning: Firm got home from Chicago Friday. Gilmore & Firm came down going to Seville

January 2 Thursday At home. Done nothing particular, Cold day= Firm & Gilmore were at our house to day. went up to court house in evening Severance & Bill Hayslip were there

January 3 Friday About home. done some work at the office and at house. snowed most all afternoon. Went up to Clerks office in evening Bill. Hayslip was there found what we wanted to do impractible. the roads are in good condition

Reading further into the diary still did not reveal who the author was. This was purported to be a Civil War Diary but for months, all the author does it recount his daily schedule which involves helping his father with clerical work and delivering summons and subpoenas. Not until mid-April does he talk much about the war.

April 10 Thursday About  home all day worked most of the time 
News Recd today of the Death of H. Canfield he was killed in the battle of Pittsburg Landing at the Head of the Regt. The combined forces of Grand & Buell have Defeated Beauregard with 100,000 men with terrible slaughter on both sides

(The Battle of Pittsburg Landing is more commonly known as the Battle of Shiloh.)

April 11 Friday Father went to special Meeting in A.M. to take measures in regard to Receiving Remains of Col. Canfield. as the meeting adjourned Mr. Mat & Mrs Canfield arrived from Grafton with the information of the arrival of the remains at the station. The citizens went in carriages men the corpse & escorted it into town.

April 12 Saturday Went up in morning and seen Canfields Corpse. looked natural. started bout 9 & went to Lodi Homer Spencer Chatham & home bout Dark Served Summons & got Jurymen. goog many of the 72d Regt are Killed & wounded & taken prisoners.


(More information on Colonel Herman Canfield can be seen at his memorial on FindaGrave.)

Consulting the 1881 History of Medina County and Ohio, disclosed that in 1862, Morgan Andrews Sr. was the Sheriff of Medina County.

Listing of Medina County Sheriff's from the 1881
History of Medina County and Ohio, page 240

The History had other revelations in store:

List of Civil War Soldiers from Medina county on page 348 of
History of Medina County and Ohio.

This would be Morgan Andrews, Junior. A quick jump to the end of the diary...

The last entry is on July 8 of 1862:

July 6 Sunday  Inspection in the morning very warm day no drilling took out a lot of boys in the P.M. They went off and milked their canteens full of Milk. Jo Welch Beul & myself laid under the Shade in the woods

July 7 Monday  Not very well today did not drill in the forenoon went out on dress Parade and felt so sick came pretty near dropping my Gun got better and drilled with the Cos. the Captain was either drunk or very cross on our drill

July 8 Tuesday Unwell all day did not drill any. laid on Lieut Manning's bed most all the time. took some medicine of my own. did not report to the surgeon at all as he is not fit to be surgeon of a Regt. slept in our mess tent in the night.




The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, lists Civil War Soldiers and Casualties and has this to say about Morgan Andrews:

According to the Roster, Morgan died on July 30 1862, page 632.

Page 784 of the Roster tells us that Morgan died of disease and was buried in Antietam, Maryland.

The diarist was "quite unwell" in his last entries on July 7th & 8th and Morgan died on July 30th. I believe we have identified the author of the diary - Morgan Andrews Jr. But Morgan Andrews Sr. had other sons.

This excerpt from the 1860 Census for Medina County shows Morgan Andrews with his (2nd) wife Cordelia, daughter
Maria (sic), son Morgan, son Finley and two inmates from the jail, Christian Breemer, a farmer who is
listed as insane and John Reed a "convict".

This excerpt from the 1850 Census for Hinckley Township, Medina County shows Morgan Andrews' original
profession was "tailor" Also shown are two additional sons, Addison, age 19 and Fairman, age 15. Neither of
these young men are listed among the soldiers who served in the Civil War from Medina.

The diary mentions "Firm" several times and most likely this refers to "Fairman", Morgan Jr's brother. So Fairman is not the author. NO other concrete information has been found on Addison.

Additional research using the census records on Ancestry Library Edition, Findagrave and Medina Library's Obituary Index confirmed that the author of the diary was Morgan Andrews Jr. 

Although the Roster says that Morgan was buried at Antietam, he also has tombstones at Old Town Cemetery and Spring Grove Cemetery in Medina.

Morgan Andrews tombstone in Old Town Cemetery
Photo courtesy of itsallrelative2me 

Morgan's tombstone at Spring Grove.

Following up with more research on the family, I found out that Fairman, Sarah and sister Meroa (listed as "Maria" in the census records) all died in 1910, within several months of each other.

Meroa never married and worked for A.I. Root when he had a jewelry store. Then she started a small jewelry shop of her own. When the a small circulating library was formed in 1877, Meroa donated space in her shop to house the books and served as the "librarian" of the collection.

Both her and Fairman's obituaries mention that they came from a family of five children, but neither obituary mentions what happened to Addison...

Fairman died in Girard Pennsylvania, outside of Erie. The people who donated the diary had cleaned out their father's attic in Lake City, Pennsylvania, less than a mile from Girard.

After Morgan's death, Fairman undoubtedly kept the diary and it was passed on through his family, eventually ending up in the attic of Wilson F. Andrews, father of Mary Andrews Heldt. Mary now lives in Texas with her husband Dick.

Wilson appears in the 1880 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois census as the 14 year old son of ... "Firnon" Andrews.

1880 Census for Chicago, Cook County, Illinois from Ancestry Library Edition.

We thank Thomas Kreneck and Dick & Mary (ANDREWS) Heldt for their diligence in finding a new home for Mary's great uncle's journal. So now Morgan Andrews' diary, that details his daily life in Medina and recounting his short time in the Civil War, has returned home.