Civil War Veteran
To Receive Memorial Service
130 Years After His Death
Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, 3 May 2012
The clue was right there all along, in a Lincoln Sentinel-Republican article from July 24, 1958. The paper had been reporting on the revived interest in an abandoned cemetery west of Lincoln, which led to the marking of the graves of two veterans, Joshua Simmons, who fought in the Civil War, and his wife’s grandfather, Charles Minnick, who fought in the War of 1812.
I read this paragraph about a decade ago, added the article to an online collection about the cemetery’s history – and I missed the clue, too, for a long time:
“Arthur [Rose] is also in receipt of a letter from H.D. McCall of Toledo, Ohio, who says that as a small boy he attended the last burial at the site in 1890. …He advised that Joshua Simmons and two children, his mother and father and Mr. Minnick were all buried there …”
The Simmons Cemetery has long held a fascination for me. My grandmother, Haddie Brockett King, used to take me there on Sunday afternoons. The cemetery was seldom mowed in those days and we’d thrash through the weeds to find the stones for Minnick, Simmons, his two children, Allen and Charles, and his mother, Rebecca Simmons.
The story of the Simmons family was a tragic one. Joshua Simmons drowned in the Saline River in July 1878 while returning from Ellsworth. He was riding one horse and leading another. His horse lost his footing, Joshua became entangled and he was drowned. His body was not found for two days. He left a wife and five children.
The summer of 1878 was also a time of a terrible diphtheria outbreak in Lincoln County. Many families lost children, 16 in one month, according to one newspaper account. Deaths were not recorded in Lincoln at that time so exact numbers aren’t known. Among the deaths in September were Joshua’s mother, Rebecca, possibly from nursing his family, followed quickly by two of his children, Allen and Charles.
In less than two months Livonia Simmons had lost her husband, two of her children and the mother-in-law who might have helped her care for them.
The graves of Joshua, the children and their grandmother were marked at the time of their deaths, although Joshua’s inscription makes no mention of his Civil War service. Minnick and Joshua had to wait nearly 80 years until a former Lincoln resident, Arthur Rose, researched their service to this country and arranged for government stones.
But what is missing? Look again at that paragraph from 1958: “two children, his mother and father and Mr. Minnick…”
Who and where was Joshua Simmons’ father? At the least, I wanted a name to add to the index of all the cemeteries in Lincoln County. An unmarked grave is a thorn in the side of local cemetery expert Lee Modrow, and he’s taught me to feel the same.
I’ve been going through every edition of every paper in Lincoln County, slowly gathering obituaries – I have more than 13,000 now – so I hoped I might eventually find Edward Simmons. I did know that he appeared in the 1880 U.S. Census, living in Lincoln County with his widowed daughter-in-law and remaining grandchildren, but that he was not in the 1885 Kansas Census. Chances were, he passed away between 1880 and 1885.
Sure enough, I finally found an obituary for Edward Simmons, who died on Jan. 21, 1883, at the home of Livonia, who was now married to Thomas Damker. Then came the big surprise: Edward Simmons was also a veteran of the Civil War, like his son. According to the Lincoln Beacon: “During the war of the Rebellion he was a soldier in the famous regiment of old men which was raised in Iowa. While in the service he lost a leg and during the latter years of his life was both blind and deaf.”
Now this was really intriguing. What was “the famous regiment of old men which was raised in Iowa”? This is where living near Washington, D.C., comes in handy. I was able to research Edward at the National Archives. On Sept. 20, 1862, while living in Ottumwa, Iowa, Edward tried to enlist in the Union Army at the age of 58. He was rejected a few weeks later, probably because of his age.
But on Nov. 6, 1862, he was mustered into the 37th Volunteer Infantry, known as the Greybeard Regiment. The 37th, formed that year, included more than 900 men, aged 45 and older. The oldest enlistee was 80. The Greybeards were in part a public relations creation, proving that men of all ages wanted to serve their country. They marched and trained as other soldiers but did not see combat; rather, they were used mainly to guard prisons, railroads and arsenals. Still, they fought in several skirmishes and suffered the same injuries, accidents and illnesses as other soldiers. Three were killed, 145 died of disease and 364 were discharged because of physical disabilities. They were mustered out in 1865.
According to Edward’s pension file, his company had been assigned to guard prisoners of war in Cincinnati, Ohio, and during his service there he developed gangrene in his left foot and his leg was amputated below the knee around the first of March 1865. He was granted his discharge on 11 July 1865 at Cincinnati. He had been given an artificial leg on August 31, 1865, but in 1872 requested commutation because he was unable to wear it. In July 1865 Edward Simmons was granted a pension of $8, payable to the agency at Fairfield, Iowa. That pension was increased to $18 in December 1872. In 1876 his pension payment was transferred to the agency at Topeka, which probably helps us pinpoint the family’s arrival in Kansas.
There were many Civil War veterans among the early settlers of Lincoln County. The vast majority of those veterans, not surprisingly in a county called Lincoln, fought for the north, but there were a few Confederate veterans as well. According to the 1885 Kansas Census, which enumerated these men, there were 354 Civil War vets living in the county that year.
Certainly a man who enlisted in the war at the age of 58 years and who lost a leg in service of his country was deserving of a military stone. However, I hit a roadblock when I tried to apply for a government headstone for Edward. Because I was not a direct descendant or the landowner of the cemetery, I was not qualified. Thankfully, Richard Ancell, who now owns the land, agreed to make the application and Jim Gabelmann and Pam Morgan at Hall Funeral Home cut through all the red tape and set the stone as well.
So on Saturday, May 26, at 4 p.m., we will finally dedicate a veteran’s marker for Edward Simmons, 150 years after he enlisted in a regiment of “old men” who were willing to right for their country and 130 years after he died and was buried on the prairies of Lincoln County with his family. In this small cemetery that includes just six graves, three are of veterans of wars fought on American soil. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will perform their moving ceremony at Edward’s grave, including a color guard and taps. What a fitting way to celebrate Memorial Day. Please join us in honoring this too-long-forgotten hero and Kansas pioneer.
Editor’s note: Lincoln native Tracee Hamilton, a sports columnist for the Washington Post, has long been an authority on Lincoln County history and genealogy. Now living in Washington, D.C., Tracee has agreed to share the Simmons story with Sentinel readers through a short series of articles.
