Harmon Anderson & Margaret Horney: Civil War soldier

(My family in history/1620 Mayflower lineage & Settlers and Migrants/Anderson branch)

* Harmon “Hiram” ANDERSON was born on 27 Jun 1824 in Spring Valley, Greene, OH; died on 3 Jul 1885 in Scranton, Greene, IA; buried on 5 Jul 1885 in Jefferson Cemetery, Jefferson, Greene, IA.

He married Margaret HORNEY on 9 Oct 1851 in Jeffersonville, Fayette, OH. They had the following children: Melvin Leewood ANDERSON (b. 29 Nov 1852), Catherine Alice ANDERSON, Lillian May ANDERSON (b. 5 Oct 1856), James Francis “Frank” ANDERSON (b. 16 Nov 1860),
♥ Anna Flora “Annie” ANDERSON (b. 6 Jun 1862), Elizabeth Jane “Lib” ANDERSON (b. 14 Apr 1866), William Horney “Willie” ANDERSON (b. 30 Nov 1867), Haramont Nathaniel “Dr. Harry”, “Uncle Hal” ANDERSON (b. 1 Jun 1876).
[Portrait at left: Harmon Anderson ca 1851, about 27 yo]
BIRTH: Harmon’s birth date was obtained from the James Anderson family birth records which were photocopied from a Bible owned by an Anderson descendant, William Glenn Hagler.

MARRIAGE: In Sep 1850, Harmon  and his younger brother Abijah Coffin, were  working on and residing at the Horney Robinson farm, one half mile south of Jefferey Horney’s farm. At the time, Harmon Anderson was 25 years old and his  future wife, Margaret Horney was 15 .{D5 & D6} Note: The Anderson, Robinson, Betebenner and Horney families were all intermarried amongst one another. (See Individual Source, “Betebenner – Horney and Allied Families”, listed below.)
On 9 Oct 1851, Harmon Anderson, age 27, and his cousin Margaret Horney, age 17, were married in Fayette County, OH.{D4}{D7}

PERSONAL APPEARANCE: 1862 US Army records describe Harmon as “Age 38, 5 feet 10-1/2 inches in height, dark complexion, hazel colored eyes and black hair.” {D9} Our family line has an 1869 photograph of Harmon and Margaret, taken when he was about 45 years old. Harmon is appropriately dressed for the period, wearing a white shirt and bow tie, vest and long dark suit coat. He is seen proudly wearing his Union military trousers, with their tell-tale stripe down the pant leg. His feet are clothed in a pair of black, supple, quality boots. A watch chain is seen hanging from a button-hole on his vest. Harmon had a rather rectangular shaped face, pronounced by wide jaws. His dark brown hair is combed flat across the top of his head from a part on his left, to the right. The top half of his face, from the nose up, have very similar characteristics to those seen in paintings of George Washington. His face is serene and patient as he waits for the films emulsion to develop.{D13}

EVENT: In Sep 1858 Harmon bought a shotgun and flask for $5.30 from his deceased fathers estate. (See James Anderson, Document 8)

LIVELIHOOD:
OHIO: In 1860, Harmon is listed as “Wagon Maker” at South Charleston, OH. The family said they owned $1200.00 worth of real-estate and had personal property valued at $250.00. Harmon is 35 years old; Margaret, 24.{D8}
IOWA: In 1870, Harmon is listed as a carpenter in Greene County, IA, with $4000 worth of real-estate and $800 in Personal Property, family members are listed by name and age.{D10}
In June 1880, Harmon is listed as a “Hardware Merchant” at Scranton, IA.{D14} His Granddaughter, Mary Holmes Anderson, remembers her father, Haramont, saying “Harmon had a small hardware type store in Scranton and that he used to help him there as a child.”
[Photo at left: Harmon and Margaret (Horney) Anderson, ca 1872]

MILITARY:
1. On 15 Aug 1862, at 38 years of age, Harmon enlisted for 3 years as a Private in Company C, 110th Regiment Ohio Infantry, at South Charleston, OH .{D9}
2. Military records show that from Nov 1862 to Jan 1864 Harmon was “On duty – Ward Master in Regimental Hospital.” The 110th Regiment of Ohio Infantry, a unit of about 750 men, was in General Truman Seymour’s 2nd Brigade of Sedgwick’s VI Corps.{D9}

Panoramic photograph by Timothy O’Sullivan during the late afternoon of May 4, 1864. The troops crossing the bridge are the last infantry of the 110th Ohio Volunteers, of Seymour’s 2^nd Brigade, Rickett’s 3d Division of Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps, which was the last division to cross the Rapidan River at Germanna Ford. What makes these photographs particularly interesting is that my 2-Great- grandfather, Harmon Anderson, was Hospital Ward Master (a non-commissioned officer) for this regiment. Historical accounts said the regimental infantry crossed the ford first, while the ambulance and quartermaster wagons followed behind.
It is entirely likely that Harmon, is one of the men driving or riding on one of the medical supply wagons seen in background and extending up to the left. (my 2 overlapping photographs combined, are about 9″ high by about 22 ” wide and show much greater resolution that the renditions in this blog).
Talk about looking through a portal in time! As Harmon’s wagon came down the slope in the background, approaching the pontoon bridge, without question he looked up and briefly watched the photographer setting up and adjusting his big and wooden portrait camera on the grassy bank across the river. And to think, as Harmon innocently glanced across the river at the working photographer, the eyes that looked back, did so from 147 years in the future (2011).
Note: The average Federal Divisional hospital consisted of fourteen Army wagons and four medical wagons, carrying 22 hospital tents, medical and surgical supplies and equipment sufficient to care for 7000-8000 men.

3. Harmon was captured by Confederate forces during the Battle Of The Wilderness in Virginia. Shortly after 7:00 PM on 6 May 1864 Confederate units staged a surprise attack on the flank of General Sedgwick’s VI Corps and overran the 110th and 26th Ohio Regiments. Harmon was probably captured in the hospital area behind Union lines, between Flat Run Creek and the old Culpepper Mine Road.{D13} (Three days after the photo above was taken.)
4. May-Dec 1864 Harmon was a prisoner of war at the infamous Andersonville Military Stockade, Andersonville, GA.{D9} He kept a diary while in the POW stockade, see “Event” below. He was not capable of walking by Sep 1864, after four months of captivity, because prisoners who could walk were removed to other Confederate Prisons when General Sherman’s Army marched through GA.
5. 6 Dec 1864 Harmon was paroled from Andersonville Military Stockade, taken as an invalid out to the Savannah River, GA and sent north to a hospital in Annapolis, MD. {D9}
6. 15 Dec 1864 Reported to Camp Parole, Annapolis, MD, was treated and sent home.{D9}

[Photo above right: Andersonville stockade interior; perimeter wall in background.]

EVENT: Harmon kept a diary while held at Andersonville. After his death the diary was kept by his youngest son Haramont Nathanial Anderson (Uncle Hal). As a child, Elsie Grubb borrowed the diary once to write a school report. Her and other family recollections of the diary have led to a lot of present day speculation and searching for this special old book. Hal’s daughter, Mary Anderson-McKinney, age 85 in the summer of 1991, was located at a “rest home” in Seattle, WA. She recalled reading the book years earlier, saying of it, “Harmon wrote one to several sentences a day during the period of his captivity in Andersonville”, “He was a spiritual leader. There was singing. He talked about good things, about future life.” In reference to the diary itself, Mary said, “The book measured about 3 1/2″ by 5″, was approximately 50 pages long and written in pencil.” Unfortunately, Mary would not disclose the present where abouts of the diary. All that she would say is that she no longer has it..that at one time she was thinking of giving it to a museum in her old hometown in IA.{D3}
Note: “The Anderson Story” shows Mary’s brother’s family (John Harmon Anderson) living in Seattle, WA in 1968 when the genealogy was published. This line had a son, Jonel and daughter, Janis, born in 1946 and 1949, respectively.

EVENT:
1. Upon his release from Andersonville Military Stockade Harmon was furloughed to his home in South Charleston, OH to recover. Medical reports showed that he had difficulty walking through at least March 1865 and that he was slowly recovering from scurvy encountered during his confinement.
2. On 26 June 1865, Harmon filed a Declaration-Invalid Pension claiming inability to walk effectively and loss of hearing in his right ear, both conditions brought on by lack of food/quality of food and exposure to the elements while captive of the Rebels. The horrible conditions at Andersonville can be read about in the sources listed below, see Document #15.
3. In 1869-70 the family moved to Greene County, IA where several of Harmon’s brothers (William, Abijah and Preston) and their families had previously settled. Harmon bought 160 acres SSE of Jefferson and started a farm (Located in the NW Quarter of Section 12, Greenbrier Township, Greene Co.) In 1880 Harmon sold this property to Clark Graven. In a biography of Greene county it is stated that, “..he (Clark Graven) purchase 160 acres of land from Harmon Anderson. The sod had been broken and the place was partially improved. However, the work of advancement had been carried forward only a slight degree…”{D11}
4. About 15 Jan 1875, son “Willie” died of diphtheria at the family’s farm house. A photograph [ at left] taken of the somber occasion shows Willie laid out on a bunk or covered board inside the house. His siblings, Elizabeth, Anna Flora [my paternal great-grandmother], and James stand beside looking sadly at his body.{D13}

ORGANIZATIONS:
1. Harmon was a member of the George H. Thomas Post No. 23, Grand Army of the Republic which mustered in 21 Jan 1880. “…The added fellowship of the ‘boys in blue’, made possible by these fortnightly gatherings, has been a source of incalculable pleasure…”. {D11}
2. Harmon is listed as a Charter Member of the Golden Gate Lodge, No 402, A.F. & A.M. Masons Lodge which organized on 18 June 1880 in Scranton, IA.{D11}

DEATH: Harmon died of “Cancer of the Stomach” between the hours of 12 and 2 o’clock PM, 3 July 1885, in Scranton, at age 61 yr. 10 days. His condition undoubtedly exacerbated by conditions endured at the Andersonville POW stockade, the long move to Iowa, starting a farm then moving into town, the death of his young son, “Willie”, and starting a hardware business.{D2}

WILL: Harmon’s Will divides a $6000 Life Insurance policy equally amongst his children, also vacant house lots in Scranton of which Anna Flora Grubb inherited 12.5 acres a few block out-of-town, land on which the family’s town house was thought to exist.{D12}

BURIAL: Jefferson Cemetery at Jefferson, Greene Co., OH. A tall marker which includes vital dates for Harmon, wife Margaret and a young son, Willie who died earlier, in 1875.{D13}
[Drawing left: Harmon Anderson family plot grave marker, by Larry Pierce, ca. 1989]

DOCUMENTS:
1. The Anderson Story by Mrs. C. J. Davis, printed in 1968.
2. Harmon Anderson Death Certificate; Clerk of District Court, Greene Co. Courthouse, Jefferson, IA.; Book 1, Page #34. Establishes identity of Harmon Anderson.
3. From a telephone conversation between Rev. Robert F. Pierce and Mrs. Mary Anderson-McKinney during the summer of 1991.
4. Marriage Records, #2880 Vol. B., page 250, Fayette Co., OH. Establish the relationship between Harmon Anderson and Margaret.
5. 1850 Federal Census of Jefferson Township, Fayette County, OH.
6. 1880 Plat Map of Jefferson Township, Fayette County, OH.
7. Probate Court, Fayette County, OH, Certificate of Marriage, Vol. C, Page 250
8. 1860 Federal Census of South Charleston, Clarke County, OH, dwelling entry #389.
9. Military Service Branch, National Archives and Records Service, 8th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC. Provided the military service records of this individual.
10. 1870 Federal Census of Jefferson, Greene County, IA. Lists Annie (Anna Flora) as a child of Harmon and Margaret.
11. Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa by E.B.Stillman, 1907, published by the S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, page 494. See also the 1896 Plat Map of Greenbrier Twp. for the property location.
12. The Will of Harmon Anderson, Greene County, Iowa, probated 6 Oct 1885 in Circuit Court at Jefferson.
13. Eyewitness account and studies by 2 great-grandson, Larry F. Pierce, 1994
14. 1880 Federal Census of Scranton, Greene County, IA.
15. Conditions at Andersonville Military Stockade were documented by former prisoners who were held during the same period as Harmon. See: a) John Ransom’s Andersonville Diary by John Ransom, copyright 1986 by Paul S. Eriksosson Publisher, a Berkley Ed. paperback, b) This Was Andersonville by John McElroy, copyright 1957, published by the Fairfax Press, 1979, hardbound.

Individual source: TITLE: Betebenner – Horney and Allied Families, 1981 by Evelyn Halkyard Vohland, Published by The Clipper Publishers, Shelton, NE, 297 pages, hardbound.

Individual source: The Anderson Story, by Mrs. C. J. Davis, Mrs. Cora May Boots and others, printed in 1968. A 67 page genealogical record of the Anderson family from John & Elizabeth Horney Anderson, ca 1800 to 1968.
Painting of Harmon Anderson copied from Internet: http://andholmhaahornfamilies.com/a-family-history-anderson-and-allied-families/the-anderson-lineage/james-anderson-descendants-fifth-generation-great-great-grandchildren/children-of-james-andersonpriscilla-coffin/

* Margaret HORNEY was born on 17 Dec 1834 in Jefferson Twp., Fayette, OH; died on 10 Dec 1908 in Scranton, Greene, IA; buried in Jefferson Cemetery, Jefferson, Greene, IA.

HOME: Margaret grew up in a rather large farm family, being the 5th of 9 children, in a family of 6 girls and 3 boys. She was raised on the 206 acre farm, located 4 miles NW of Jeffersonville, Fayette Co., OH, that her parents bought when they moved north from Guilford Co., NC.{D3}

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Comparing photographic heights of Margaret and her husband, Harmon, whom was known to be 5 ft 10- 1/2in. tall, she was found to stand approximately 4′ 11 1/2″. Margaret’s daughter, Anna Flora, was short also, standing only about 4′ 10″ tall as an adult. A 1869 photograph of Margaret, taken when she was about 35 years old, shows her standing beside Harmon. Her dark brown hair is parted in the center and combed tightly down and behind her head. Margaret is seen having an oval-shaped face and light eyebrows. Her lips seemed somewhat clenched while she waits for the photograph to develop. Her face appears older than her chronological age, as though she’s in her 40s; this undoubtedly the effect of bearing 7 children. She is a slender and small woman, with hands that appear only half the size of her husband’s. Margaret is dressed in a floor length dark-colored, long-sleeved dress with a white fringe at the neck and a bow tie. Just visible protruding from her right hand is a folded pair of eyeglasses.{D5}
[Portrait above, Margaret (Horney) Anderson, possible made around 1851, about 17 years old; about the time of her wedding to Harmon Anderson.

MARRIAGE: Margaret Horney and Harmon Anderson were married by Timothy Jayne J.P. In family lore, Timothy was said to be Margaret’s uncle. His name, however, is not found in family records, nor is it spelled the same as the Janes family spelled their name during that period of time.

EVENT:
1. During the afternoon following Harmon’s death, volunteers were called on to lay out his body and witness that he was indeed dead so Margaret could claim a Widows Pension (Pensioner Cert. Number 195,623).
2. On 12 Mar 1886, Margaret, age 51, filed a “Widow’s Declaration for Pension or Increase of Pension” form with the District Court of Greene Co., IA. In part the application states, “…that an application prior has been filed by Soldier granted Increased and again Increased to $50.00 per month, which Amount Soldier was Drawing at time of his Death July 3d 1885….”
3. Margaret lived for almost 30 years in Scranton.
4. “…And this calls to memory the fact that for twenty-three years this devoted wife had made the trip from Scranton to Jefferson annually to perform that loving and patriotic service of decorating the grave of her dead on every Memorial day…”{D4}

ORGANIZATIONS: “…She was an honored and useful member of the Eastern Star order, the W.C.T.U. and the W.R.C. and a true and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church…”{D4}

[Photo at left: Margaret (Horney) Anderson ca 1885.]

DEATH: “After a few short months of sickness”, Margaret died from Gall Stones complicated with Cirrhosis of the Liver.{D2} She died at age 73 years, 11 months, 23 days. Died on 10 Dec 1908 in Des Moines, Polk County, IA. When she died, her daughter, Anna Flora, of neighboring Grand Junction, IA, was chaperoning her own daughter, Elsie Grubb, at college in Iowa City, IA.

BURIAL: Margaret is buried next to her husband, Harmon, in the family plot at Jefferson Cemetery, Jefferson, Greene Co., IA. A 6+ foot tall monument marks their graves.{D5}

DOCUMENTS:
1. Marriage Records, Fayette Co., OH #2880 Vol. B, p. 250.
2. Margaret Horney- Anderson Death Certificate, Establishes identity of Margaret Horney.
3. History of Fayette County by R.S. Dills, 1881, Odell & Mayer Publishers, Dayton, OH; p. 687 mentions family farm and some other familial data.
4. Margaret (Horney) Anderson obituary from The Scranton Journal, Dec 17, 1908, Scranton, IA., page
5. Eyewitness account by 2 great grandson, Larry F. Pierce, 1994.

Individual source: The Anderson Story, by Mrs. C. J. Davis, Mrs. Cora May Boots and others, printed in 1968. A 67 page genealogical record of the Anderson family from John & Elizabeth Horney Anderson, ca 1800 to 1968.

Individual source: Painting of young Margaret (Horney) Anderson from Internet source:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~andersholmes1936/
AndersonRootsWebSite/OurAncestors/p1.htm