And a pension file to be ordered
The Legal Genealogist owes an apology to cousins Lydia and Jacob.
For years, I’ve been saying that my mother’s family was so deeply embedded in the American south that I had to go out to a second cousin, five times removed, to find a member of my family who’d served in the Union Army.
But a quick look at cousin Lydia and her husband Jacob today tells me I’m wrong about that.
Because cousin Jacob served in the 19th Regiment, Iowa Infantry.
Yep. A Union regiment, in the Civil War.
In fact, cousin Jacob had an invalid pension for his service in the 19th Iowa Infantry, and cousin Lydia had a widow’s pension based on Jacob’s service.
Lydia Dulcina Baker was born in North Carolina to William and Matilda (Gullet) Baker on the 19th of August 1849. She moved with her family to Louisa County, Iowa, as a child, and met and married Jacob Heindel there. The marriage was exactly 154 years ago tomorrow — 13 September 1866.1
Which, of course, explains why I was looking at these cousins today. Anniversaries of family events can serve as great prompts to take another look at a particular branch of the family that’s — well, to be honest — poorly researched.
Lydia’s paternal grandparents were Martin and Elizabeth (Buchanan) Baker — and those are my third great grandparents. William was their second son, the one who — the story goes — was one of the last to make the trip westward to Iowa:
“William made it to Iowa but died there shortly after his arrival. He and his family traveled in the fall of 1852, and they got as far as Burlington, Iowa and the weather got bad. They had to ford flooded streams and leading the oxen through the water got Great Great dad soaked. With that William caught a bad cold. He later developed pneumonia and died as a result of that.”2
An undated newspaper obituary for William’s widow, Matilda, says William died a year after they arrived in Iowa.3 Matilda remarried in October 1854,4 and she and her Baker children were living with her second husband (William Paschal) in Louisa County, Iowa, on the 1860 census.5
Lydia was the fourth of William and Matilda’s children and, my relationship calculator says, my first cousin three times removed. And Jacob would be my first cousin three times removed by marriage. In either case, a lot more closely related to me than a second cousin, five times removed.
Jacob served in the 19th Regiment, Iowa Infantry, in the Civil War.6 The Soldiers and Sailors says of the 19th Regiment:
“Organized at Keokuk and mustered in August 25, 1862. Ordered to St. Louis, Mo. Attached to District of Southwest Missouri, Dept. of Missouri, to October, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Army of the Frontier, Dept. of Missouri, to June, 1863. 2nd Brigade, Herron’s Division, 13th Army Corps, Army of Tennessee, to July, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 13th Army Corps, Dept. of the Tennessee, to August, 1863, and Dept. of the Gulf to June, 1864. 2nd Brigade, United States Forces, Texas, Dept. of the Gulf, to August, 1864. District of West Florida, Dept. of the Gulf, to December, 1864. District of Southern Alabama, Dept. of the Gulf, to February, 1865. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, Reserve Corps, Military Division West Mississippi, February, 1865. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 13th Army Corps, Military Division West Mississippi, to July, 1865.”7
Among the unit’s battles: the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863.8
All of which means I owe cousins Lydia and Jacob an apology.
And I have another Union Civil War pension file to order…
One that’s a lot closer that a second cousin, five times removed.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Apologies to the cousins,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 12 Sep 2020).
SOURCES
- See “Former Resident Dies: Mrs. Jacob Heindel Dies Saturday At Home Of Daugter,” Manhattan (Kansas) Republic, 12 Feb 1931, p. 1, col. 8; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 12 Sep 2020). ↩
- Email Bruce Baker (great grandson of William Baker) to JG Russell, 7 October 2003. ↩
- Undated clipping, “Obituary;” digital image provided by Bruce Baker. ↩
- “Louisa County, Iowa, Marriages Records,” entry for William W. Paschal and Matilda Baker, 8 Oct 1854; database, Louisa County, IAGenWeb Project (http://iagenweb.org/ : accessed 12 Sep 2020). ↩
- 1860 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, population schedule, Columbus, p. 70 (penned), dwelling/family 289, William W. Paschal household; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Sep 2020); imaged from NARA microfilm M653, roll 331. ↩
- See entry for Jacob Heindel, Pvt., Co. F, 19th Infantry, “Civil War Service Index – Union – Iowa,” Fold3.com ( : accessed 12 Sep 2020), imaged from NARA Microfilm M541. ↩
- “Battle Unit Details, 19th Regiment, Iowa,” National Park Service, Soldiers and Sailors Database (https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm : accessed 12 Sep 2020). ↩
- Ibid. ↩
I thought the same was true for my wife with deep roots in the South. However, using genetic genealogy, I have determined that the BF of her great-grandfather was one of seven brothers who was fighting for the Union, and somehow fathered a child with her great-great grandmother who was living in TN. I don’t think my wife liked finding out she was part Yankee!
And for as “North” as I am, only one direct line forebear in Union blue, a great-great-grandather, killed at Vicksburg, aged abt. 24.
North/South don’t really matter. My one southern line was full of abolitionists!
I wish I could say the same. Not in my southern family, I’m afraid.
I didn’t know much about my southern ancestry or how much I had until I started researching my genealogy. I have two different branches that trace back to east Tennessee. I was surprised to find that most of them supported the union and so far I haven’t found evidence of any of my direct ancestors supporting the confederacy. An old county history claimed that some ancestors on one of my southern branches were part of the underground railroad. I’m kind of skeptical of that story, I’ve read that it wasn’t too uncommon for people to exaggerate their involvement in the underground railroad. There is a credible story about those ancestors hosting a group of recruits on their way to join with the union army. They were attacked by a group of confederates, who killed some of the recruits and one of my nth-great uncles.
My only southern line where I don’t know if my ancestors were unionists is my Baker line. Charles Baker was the right age to be involved in the war, but I can’t find any records on his participation either way. His cousin David J. N. Ervin, who was also a descendant of David Baker, did fight for the union.