Regiment Name:3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry
Side:Union:
Company:I,D
Soldier's Rank In:Private
Soldier's Rank Out:Private
Andrew Jackson Bess (March 28, 1843-1926), son of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, was born in Lexington, McLean County, IL. He served in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Consolidated Company D, during the Civil War as a recruit, along with his brother, Allen. Their names can be seen inscribed on the Civil War Monument in Miller Park in Bloomington. Andrew initially enlisted on June 9, 1862 to serve three months duty. He was honorably discharged on October 23, 1862 ‘by reason of Special order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War (No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.)" At the time of his enlistment on December 28, 1863 in Company I,, Andrew was 5'9" with a light complexion, hazel eyes, and brown hair. He signed up for three years of service, was sent to a Memphis Tennessee hospital ‘sick' with rheumatism on February 5, 1864, served in Germantown, Tennessee, and was listed absent from service at Nert, Kentucky "since July 19, 1864 as of Company D, similarly in November 1864, then served in Little Rock, Arkansas and was mustered out of Company D and on Christmas Day of 1864 was absent in Convalescent Camp Edgefield, Tennessee. He is listed as having deserted on June 29, 1865 until July 1, 1865. He was then discharged on November 10, 1865. In a June 18, 1887 Department of the Interior form for the Bureau of Pensions, petition for removal of charge of desertion was made and the charges of desertion of June 20 and July 10, 1865 were removed ‘under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 5, 1884.' He was then considered ‘absent without proper authority from Jun 29, 1865 to October 10, 1865.'
According to a statement made by Andrew later in his life, he was at Overton Hospital in Memphis from January 1864 for two months. He was treated at the Post Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky from the middle of October 1864 for about three weeks. Both hospitalizations were for rheumatism. This was later verified by the Surgeon General's Office but neither report seems to cover the dates listed as desertions.
According to the Adjutant General's Report from that time, the Third Cavalry saw action in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, VA, and was active for fifty months. The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp Butler and ‘mustered in' on August 27, 1861. It operated in Missouri until the next summer, on guard duty, then went ‘over into Arkansas and returned in December, and six of the companies went down to Vicksburg. It had lost, in an all-day engagement on March 7, ten men killed and forty wounded. One Captain and five men were drowned in crossing the White River on the 25th of May. On the 7th of June, Capt. Sparks, with sixty-six men, cut his way through a greatly superior number of the enemy, losing four wounded and four prisoners. The regiment did good service in Tennessee, around and below Vicksburg, participating in several engagements." The regiment was mustered out of service on October 18, 1865. According to another section of the Adjunct General's report, Andrew was "under arrest at M.O. [Mustering Out] of Regiment."
The Report concludes, "As will be seen, the Third Illinois Cavalry, during the fifty months of its service, did some quarrelling (sic), some fighting, some raiding and scouting, some ornamental work around headquarters – possibly too much of that – and it marched more thousands of miles than any one can tell. Some of the boys may have plucked ripe chickens from rebel roosts, and they may have been in at the untimely death of some of the rebel pigs, -- and they may have done other things not necessary to be mentioned in history, -- but in the aggregate of all that was done and accomplished by this military organization, by both officers and men, it may be said in all candor that as a body of patriotic men, as soldiers and citizens, they are deserving well of the State and the Nation." Andrew was honorably discharged on [October]November 10, 1865 with a 3 month, 11 day deduction in service ‘on account of desertion,' having a ‘length of pensionable service of 1 year, 10 months, and 22 days.' Throughout much of the rest of his life, he applied for pension and pension increases due to rheumatism and hernia.
Note: Not all Illinois troops were in favor of freeing the slaves of the South. In the 138th Illinois Cavalry unit, all but 35 soldiers deserted, reportedly saying they would "lie in the woods until moss grew on their backs rather than help free the slaves."
Jane Ann Lane (1846-1924) and Andrew were married on September 10, 1866 by Judge McClunn in McLean County. Jane Ann ("Jennie Ann" on their marriage license and Andrew uses the surname "Best" once again) was born in Gloucester, England, to John Stephen (1808-1904) and Jane Sophia Matthews Lane (March 21, 1807-March 29, 1880). (See Lane Family History)
By the 1870 Danvers Township Federal Census, Andrew and Jane Ann had two children, John, perhaps 3, and Jemima, one year. Their real estate value is listed as $200, as was their personal estate value. Andrew is listed as a Farmer, while Jane Ann ‘keeps house.'
Family farms, actually extended-family farms, dotted the McLean County landscape in the 1870's. Two, sometimes three, generations worked the land, shared the chores and lived on the same acreage. More often than not, they were helped by a hired man. Fences were put up everywhere to keep the grazing livestock out of the fields and the chickens out of the garden. Picket and rail fences had come first, then barbed wire in the 70's. Osage hedges often served the same purpose, but the hedges took up too much valuable land and most of them were eventually pulled out.
In the 1880 Federal Census, Andrew and Jane have two sons, John and Edward, and two daughters, Amelia and Mary Jane. There is no information from the 1890 Census as nearly all of this Census was destroyed or badly damaged in a fire in Washington in 1921. Less than one percent of the 1890 Census lists survived, none for McLean County. However a pension increase form states that Andrew and Jane were living in Woodruff in 1890.
An 1894 McLean County History book reports that Danvers has "a bank with a capital of $25,000, a water-works that cost $11,000, an electric light plant, a town hall, a public library, three dry-goods and grocery stores, three physicians, three hardware stores, two implement houses, three blacksmith shops, three grain elevators, three restaurants, and two saloons. The town also has a weekly newspaper, ‘The Danvers Dispatch'. The Willow Bark Sanitarium, for the cure of drunkenness, the tobacco, cigarette and morphine habit, established in 1892, has an average attendance of some twenty patients and is doing much good." The "Willow Bark' treatment was based on a conditioned reflex, whereby a person was given a bitter liquid before he could have a shot of whiskey. Supposedly, after a while, the person was not anxious to have a drink of whiskey if he had to drink the bitter liquid first. However, once the patient left the sanitarium, there was little incentive to continue the bitters and a relapse soon occurred. This sanitarium remained open until finally closing down around June 1950.
As early as 1887, Andrew was filing pension claims that he was unable to earn a support by reason of rheumatism of the left leg joint and ‘bursted veins with constant pain…can't rest with it cannot do any work of any kind hardly.' This was usually contested by the military physicians who were assigned to examine him until some years in the future, although his personal physicians verified his claims of being unable to do heavy work, even being excused from labor on roads about five years ago being unable to perform heavy work.' Later applications contained a complaint of a ‘left inguinal hernia' suffered when he was ‘thrown into pummel of my saddle in May or June 1864 resulting in rupture of left side' of testicles. A refrain questioned and answered often about the hernia was that it was not due to ‘the result of any vicious habits' and that Andrew was ‘not a drinking or quarrelsome man.' He then had to provide affidavits from friends and acquaintances that he was sober and peaceable…without bad or vicious habits. Many other affidavits were filed by friends, neighbors, and family concerning the length of time he complained of rheumatism and how often he had to quit work because of it. Even his mother, Mary Barbara, now living in Wyoming, Illinois, in Stark County, offered an affidavit in 1883, signing with ‘her mark.' It was difficult for him to prove when the hernia had occurred because ‘the hurt was of a private nature and I felt delicate about telling my comrades of it.' In one letter, he tells Stoddart & Company attorney, Mr. Stoddart [who apparently asked him for proof of service-related cause of the hernia, "Concerning my rupture this I cannot do of any of my comrads (sic) as none of them knew any thing of it as I have told you time and again that the surrounding circumstances caused me to keep it to myself as a secret and suffer it all to myself and do duty all the time
In a Bureau of Pensions form dated January 15, 1898, Andrew wrote that he and Jane Ann had eight children, J.T. Bess (9/22/1867), Amilia A. Bess (1/1/1869), Mary J. Bess (2/27/1872), Edward F. Bess (7/15/1878), Martha E. Bess (11/7/1880), Jessie C. Bess (5/21/1883), Hugh Bess (9/17/1887), and Myrtle Bess (1/1/1888).
In the 1900 Census, Andrew and Jane Ann live in Danvers Township and have five children still living at home; Edward, Ella, Jesse, Hugh, and Myrtle. Four of the children are listed as being ‘in school." This seems to have been quite unusual, especially for a female of 18 as our grandmother was, to still be allowed to remain in school. Edward was working on the farm as a laborer. Our Aunt Myrtle is 11 years old. In 1903, our grandmother Ella married Charles Owen. The population of this village in 1904 was 607.
By the 1920 Census, again in Danvers, all of the children have moved out, and Andrew and Jane have two grandsons living with them; Forest, age 15, a son of Edward's from his marriage to Myrtle Odom, and Phivens, age 17, both working as laborers on the farm. Andrew is apparently retired, age 76, Jane Ann is 73. In 1924, Jane Ann passed away at age 78. In a Soldier's Affidavit for Pension, Andrew declared that he owned 17 ¾ acres of real estate valued at $2,500, with a house and lot valued at $800.00. He also declared a rental income of $200. His physician reported that his physical disability and age required the attendance of another person but that he was able to walk alone, at times bedfast. H. H. Argo was one of Andrew's character witnesses at this time. Andrew died on January 9, 1926 at age 83. According to the family history, Jane Ann nursed ‘for years with doctors' until her death. She was midwife for at least one grandchild, our mother Fay, and may have learned her nursing skills from her mother-in-law, Mary Barbara.
Records from the National Archives and Records show Andrew's Civil War pension ranging from what seems to be semi-annual payments of $2.00 in 1880, $6.00 in 1895, $8.00 in 1900, $12 in 1903, was raised from$16.50 in 1912 to $21.50 per month, to $27 in 1918. In 1918 he was receiving "the maximum rates to which he is entitled…for attained age and pensionable service." In 1924, his pension was raised from $50.00 per month to $72.00 per month, at which it remained until the time of his death in 1926. Andrew occasionally displayed a frustration with the rate of increase, saying in a July 16, 1916 letter to the 17th Illinois District Congressman, Frank H. Funk, "…in return will try as best I can to answer it rite a way. I am much surprised to know that a man near 82 years old and so awfully afflected as I am that I would have to be almost dead before I could get a scant increase on my pension which I am lawfully entitled to. Of course I can git to bed and out of bed myself but am a punishing all the time. My doctor says he don't see what kind of men you have there to [do] business for the poor men that served their country over a half century a go…now mr. funk I know that I am not long for this world and in a bad fix can't do eny work - have six ailments working on me and still move a round but slow now mr funk do as best you can for me."
Both Andrew and Jane Ann are buried at Stout's Grove Cemetery, outside of Danvers, along with 7 children, aged 1 day through several years of age and their adult son, Hugh. Jane Ann's mother and father are also buried at this cemetery.
A grandson of Mary Jane (Daisy) Bess recalls the Lanes, the Bess's, and others having 4th of July reunions on the banks of the Mackinaw River. "Some went swimming, others fishing, playing ball, the older kids shooting off fire crackers and the older folks visiting together. And, of course, at noon there were tables laden with delicious food of all kinds."
-------------------------
Side:Union:
Company:I,D
Soldier's Rank In:Private
Soldier's Rank Out:Private
Andrew Jackson Bess (March 28, 1843-1926), son of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, was born in Lexington, McLean County, IL. He served in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Consolidated Company D, during the Civil War as a recruit, along with his brother, Allen. Their names can be seen inscribed on the Civil War Monument in Miller Park in Bloomington. Andrew initially enlisted on June 9, 1862 to serve three months duty. He was honorably discharged on October 23, 1862 ‘by reason of Special order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War (No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.)" At the time of his enlistment on December 28, 1863 in Company I,, Andrew was 5'9" with a light complexion, hazel eyes, and brown hair. He signed up for three years of service, was sent to a Memphis Tennessee hospital ‘sick' with rheumatism on February 5, 1864, served in Germantown, Tennessee, and was listed absent from service at Nert, Kentucky "since July 19, 1864 as of Company D, similarly in November 1864, then served in Little Rock, Arkansas and was mustered out of Company D and on Christmas Day of 1864 was absent in Convalescent Camp Edgefield, Tennessee. He is listed as having deserted on June 29, 1865 until July 1, 1865. He was then discharged on November 10, 1865. In a June 18, 1887 Department of the Interior form for the Bureau of Pensions, petition for removal of charge of desertion was made and the charges of desertion of June 20 and July 10, 1865 were removed ‘under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 5, 1884.' He was then considered ‘absent without proper authority from Jun 29, 1865 to October 10, 1865.'
According to a statement made by Andrew later in his life, he was at Overton Hospital in Memphis from January 1864 for two months. He was treated at the Post Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky from the middle of October 1864 for about three weeks. Both hospitalizations were for rheumatism. This was later verified by the Surgeon General's Office but neither report seems to cover the dates listed as desertions.
According to the Adjutant General's Report from that time, the Third Cavalry saw action in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, VA, and was active for fifty months. The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp Butler and ‘mustered in' on August 27, 1861. It operated in Missouri until the next summer, on guard duty, then went ‘over into Arkansas and returned in December, and six of the companies went down to Vicksburg. It had lost, in an all-day engagement on March 7, ten men killed and forty wounded. One Captain and five men were drowned in crossing the White River on the 25th of May. On the 7th of June, Capt. Sparks, with sixty-six men, cut his way through a greatly superior number of the enemy, losing four wounded and four prisoners. The regiment did good service in Tennessee, around and below Vicksburg, participating in several engagements." The regiment was mustered out of service on October 18, 1865. According to another section of the Adjunct General's report, Andrew was "under arrest at M.O. [Mustering Out] of Regiment."
The Report concludes, "As will be seen, the Third Illinois Cavalry, during the fifty months of its service, did some quarrelling (sic), some fighting, some raiding and scouting, some ornamental work around headquarters – possibly too much of that – and it marched more thousands of miles than any one can tell. Some of the boys may have plucked ripe chickens from rebel roosts, and they may have been in at the untimely death of some of the rebel pigs, -- and they may have done other things not necessary to be mentioned in history, -- but in the aggregate of all that was done and accomplished by this military organization, by both officers and men, it may be said in all candor that as a body of patriotic men, as soldiers and citizens, they are deserving well of the State and the Nation." Andrew was honorably discharged on [October]November 10, 1865 with a 3 month, 11 day deduction in service ‘on account of desertion,' having a ‘length of pensionable service of 1 year, 10 months, and 22 days.' Throughout much of the rest of his life, he applied for pension and pension increases due to rheumatism and hernia.
Note: Not all Illinois troops were in favor of freeing the slaves of the South. In the 138th Illinois Cavalry unit, all but 35 soldiers deserted, reportedly saying they would "lie in the woods until moss grew on their backs rather than help free the slaves."
Jane Ann Lane (1846-1924) and Andrew were married on September 10, 1866 by Judge McClunn in McLean County. Jane Ann ("Jennie Ann" on their marriage license and Andrew uses the surname "Best" once again) was born in Gloucester, England, to John Stephen (1808-1904) and Jane Sophia Matthews Lane (March 21, 1807-March 29, 1880). (See Lane Family History)
By the 1870 Danvers Township Federal Census, Andrew and Jane Ann had two children, John, perhaps 3, and Jemima, one year. Their real estate value is listed as $200, as was their personal estate value. Andrew is listed as a Farmer, while Jane Ann ‘keeps house.'
Family farms, actually extended-family farms, dotted the McLean County landscape in the 1870's. Two, sometimes three, generations worked the land, shared the chores and lived on the same acreage. More often than not, they were helped by a hired man. Fences were put up everywhere to keep the grazing livestock out of the fields and the chickens out of the garden. Picket and rail fences had come first, then barbed wire in the 70's. Osage hedges often served the same purpose, but the hedges took up too much valuable land and most of them were eventually pulled out.
In the 1880 Federal Census, Andrew and Jane have two sons, John and Edward, and two daughters, Amelia and Mary Jane. There is no information from the 1890 Census as nearly all of this Census was destroyed or badly damaged in a fire in Washington in 1921. Less than one percent of the 1890 Census lists survived, none for McLean County. However a pension increase form states that Andrew and Jane were living in Woodruff in 1890.
An 1894 McLean County History book reports that Danvers has "a bank with a capital of $25,000, a water-works that cost $11,000, an electric light plant, a town hall, a public library, three dry-goods and grocery stores, three physicians, three hardware stores, two implement houses, three blacksmith shops, three grain elevators, three restaurants, and two saloons. The town also has a weekly newspaper, ‘The Danvers Dispatch'. The Willow Bark Sanitarium, for the cure of drunkenness, the tobacco, cigarette and morphine habit, established in 1892, has an average attendance of some twenty patients and is doing much good." The "Willow Bark' treatment was based on a conditioned reflex, whereby a person was given a bitter liquid before he could have a shot of whiskey. Supposedly, after a while, the person was not anxious to have a drink of whiskey if he had to drink the bitter liquid first. However, once the patient left the sanitarium, there was little incentive to continue the bitters and a relapse soon occurred. This sanitarium remained open until finally closing down around June 1950.
As early as 1887, Andrew was filing pension claims that he was unable to earn a support by reason of rheumatism of the left leg joint and ‘bursted veins with constant pain…can't rest with it cannot do any work of any kind hardly.' This was usually contested by the military physicians who were assigned to examine him until some years in the future, although his personal physicians verified his claims of being unable to do heavy work, even being excused from labor on roads about five years ago being unable to perform heavy work.' Later applications contained a complaint of a ‘left inguinal hernia' suffered when he was ‘thrown into pummel of my saddle in May or June 1864 resulting in rupture of left side' of testicles. A refrain questioned and answered often about the hernia was that it was not due to ‘the result of any vicious habits' and that Andrew was ‘not a drinking or quarrelsome man.' He then had to provide affidavits from friends and acquaintances that he was sober and peaceable…without bad or vicious habits. Many other affidavits were filed by friends, neighbors, and family concerning the length of time he complained of rheumatism and how often he had to quit work because of it. Even his mother, Mary Barbara, now living in Wyoming, Illinois, in Stark County, offered an affidavit in 1883, signing with ‘her mark.' It was difficult for him to prove when the hernia had occurred because ‘the hurt was of a private nature and I felt delicate about telling my comrades of it.' In one letter, he tells Stoddart & Company attorney, Mr. Stoddart [who apparently asked him for proof of service-related cause of the hernia, "Concerning my rupture this I cannot do of any of my comrads (sic) as none of them knew any thing of it as I have told you time and again that the surrounding circumstances caused me to keep it to myself as a secret and suffer it all to myself and do duty all the time
In a Bureau of Pensions form dated January 15, 1898, Andrew wrote that he and Jane Ann had eight children, J.T. Bess (9/22/1867), Amilia A. Bess (1/1/1869), Mary J. Bess (2/27/1872), Edward F. Bess (7/15/1878), Martha E. Bess (11/7/1880), Jessie C. Bess (5/21/1883), Hugh Bess (9/17/1887), and Myrtle Bess (1/1/1888).
In the 1900 Census, Andrew and Jane Ann live in Danvers Township and have five children still living at home; Edward, Ella, Jesse, Hugh, and Myrtle. Four of the children are listed as being ‘in school." This seems to have been quite unusual, especially for a female of 18 as our grandmother was, to still be allowed to remain in school. Edward was working on the farm as a laborer. Our Aunt Myrtle is 11 years old. In 1903, our grandmother Ella married Charles Owen. The population of this village in 1904 was 607.
By the 1920 Census, again in Danvers, all of the children have moved out, and Andrew and Jane have two grandsons living with them; Forest, age 15, a son of Edward's from his marriage to Myrtle Odom, and Phivens, age 17, both working as laborers on the farm. Andrew is apparently retired, age 76, Jane Ann is 73. In 1924, Jane Ann passed away at age 78. In a Soldier's Affidavit for Pension, Andrew declared that he owned 17 ¾ acres of real estate valued at $2,500, with a house and lot valued at $800.00. He also declared a rental income of $200. His physician reported that his physical disability and age required the attendance of another person but that he was able to walk alone, at times bedfast. H. H. Argo was one of Andrew's character witnesses at this time. Andrew died on January 9, 1926 at age 83. According to the family history, Jane Ann nursed ‘for years with doctors' until her death. She was midwife for at least one grandchild, our mother Fay, and may have learned her nursing skills from her mother-in-law, Mary Barbara.
Records from the National Archives and Records show Andrew's Civil War pension ranging from what seems to be semi-annual payments of $2.00 in 1880, $6.00 in 1895, $8.00 in 1900, $12 in 1903, was raised from$16.50 in 1912 to $21.50 per month, to $27 in 1918. In 1918 he was receiving "the maximum rates to which he is entitled…for attained age and pensionable service." In 1924, his pension was raised from $50.00 per month to $72.00 per month, at which it remained until the time of his death in 1926. Andrew occasionally displayed a frustration with the rate of increase, saying in a July 16, 1916 letter to the 17th Illinois District Congressman, Frank H. Funk, "…in return will try as best I can to answer it rite a way. I am much surprised to know that a man near 82 years old and so awfully afflected as I am that I would have to be almost dead before I could get a scant increase on my pension which I am lawfully entitled to. Of course I can git to bed and out of bed myself but am a punishing all the time. My doctor says he don't see what kind of men you have there to [do] business for the poor men that served their country over a half century a go…now mr. funk I know that I am not long for this world and in a bad fix can't do eny work - have six ailments working on me and still move a round but slow now mr funk do as best you can for me."
Both Andrew and Jane Ann are buried at Stout's Grove Cemetery, outside of Danvers, along with 7 children, aged 1 day through several years of age and their adult son, Hugh. Jane Ann's mother and father are also buried at this cemetery.
A grandson of Mary Jane (Daisy) Bess recalls the Lanes, the Bess's, and others having 4th of July reunions on the banks of the Mackinaw River. "Some went swimming, others fishing, playing ball, the older kids shooting off fire crackers and the older folks visiting together. And, of course, at noon there were tables laden with delicious food of all kinds."
-------------------------
Regiment Name:3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry
Side:Union:
Company:I,D
Soldier's Rank In:Private
Soldier's Rank Out:Private
Andrew Jackson Bess (March 28, 1843-1926), son of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, was born in Lexington, McLean County, IL. He served in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Consolidated Company D, during the Civil War as a recruit, along with his brother, Allen. Their names can be seen inscribed on the Civil War Monument in Miller Park in Bloomington. Andrew initially enlisted on June 9, 1862 to serve three months duty. He was honorably discharged on October 23, 1862 ‘by reason of Special order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War (No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.)" At the time of his enlistment on December 28, 1863 in Company I,, Andrew was 5'9" with a light complexion, hazel eyes, and brown hair. He signed up for three years of service, was sent to a Memphis Tennessee hospital ‘sick' with rheumatism on February 5, 1864, served in Germantown, Tennessee, and was listed absent from service at Nert, Kentucky "since July 19, 1864 as of Company D, similarly in November 1864, then served in Little Rock, Arkansas and was mustered out of Company D and on Christmas Day of 1864 was absent in Convalescent Camp Edgefield, Tennessee. He is listed as having deserted on June 29, 1865 until July 1, 1865. He was then discharged on November 10, 1865. In a June 18, 1887 Department of the Interior form for the Bureau of Pensions, petition for removal of charge of desertion was made and the charges of desertion of June 20 and July 10, 1865 were removed ‘under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 5, 1884.' He was then considered ‘absent without proper authority from Jun 29, 1865 to October 10, 1865.'
According to a statement made by Andrew later in his life, he was at Overton Hospital in Memphis from January 1864 for two months. He was treated at the Post Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky from the middle of October 1864 for about three weeks. Both hospitalizations were for rheumatism. This was later verified by the Surgeon General's Office but neither report seems to cover the dates listed as desertions.
According to the Adjutant General's Report from that time, the Third Cavalry saw action in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, VA, and was active for fifty months. The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp Butler and ‘mustered in' on August 27, 1861. It operated in Missouri until the next summer, on guard duty, then went ‘over into Arkansas and returned in December, and six of the companies went down to Vicksburg. It had lost, in an all-day engagement on March 7, ten men killed and forty wounded. One Captain and five men were drowned in crossing the White River on the 25th of May. On the 7th of June, Capt. Sparks, with sixty-six men, cut his way through a greatly superior number of the enemy, losing four wounded and four prisoners. The regiment did good service in Tennessee, around and below Vicksburg, participating in several engagements." The regiment was mustered out of service on October 18, 1865. According to another section of the Adjunct General's report, Andrew was "under arrest at M.O. [Mustering Out] of Regiment."
The Report concludes, "As will be seen, the Third Illinois Cavalry, during the fifty months of its service, did some quarrelling (sic), some fighting, some raiding and scouting, some ornamental work around headquarters – possibly too much of that – and it marched more thousands of miles than any one can tell. Some of the boys may have plucked ripe chickens from rebel roosts, and they may have been in at the untimely death of some of the rebel pigs, -- and they may have done other things not necessary to be mentioned in history, -- but in the aggregate of all that was done and accomplished by this military organization, by both officers and men, it may be said in all candor that as a body of patriotic men, as soldiers and citizens, they are deserving well of the State and the Nation." Andrew was honorably discharged on [October]November 10, 1865 with a 3 month, 11 day deduction in service ‘on account of desertion,' having a ‘length of pensionable service of 1 year, 10 months, and 22 days.' Throughout much of the rest of his life, he applied for pension and pension increases due to rheumatism and hernia.
Note: Not all Illinois troops were in favor of freeing the slaves of the South. In the 138th Illinois Cavalry unit, all but 35 soldiers deserted, reportedly saying they would "lie in the woods until moss grew on their backs rather than help free the slaves."
Jane Ann Lane (1846-1924) and Andrew were married on September 10, 1866 by Judge McClunn in McLean County. Jane Ann ("Jennie Ann" on their marriage license and Andrew uses the surname "Best" once again) was born in Gloucester, England, to John Stephen (1808-1904) and Jane Sophia Matthews Lane (March 21, 1807-March 29, 1880). (See Lane Family History)
By the 1870 Danvers Township Federal Census, Andrew and Jane Ann had two children, John, perhaps 3, and Jemima, one year. Their real estate value is listed as $200, as was their personal estate value. Andrew is listed as a Farmer, while Jane Ann ‘keeps house.'
Family farms, actually extended-family farms, dotted the McLean County landscape in the 1870's. Two, sometimes three, generations worked the land, shared the chores and lived on the same acreage. More often than not, they were helped by a hired man. Fences were put up everywhere to keep the grazing livestock out of the fields and the chickens out of the garden. Picket and rail fences had come first, then barbed wire in the 70's. Osage hedges often served the same purpose, but the hedges took up too much valuable land and most of them were eventually pulled out.
In the 1880 Federal Census, Andrew and Jane have two sons, John and Edward, and two daughters, Amelia and Mary Jane. There is no information from the 1890 Census as nearly all of this Census was destroyed or badly damaged in a fire in Washington in 1921. Less than one percent of the 1890 Census lists survived, none for McLean County. However a pension increase form states that Andrew and Jane were living in Woodruff in 1890.
An 1894 McLean County History book reports that Danvers has "a bank with a capital of $25,000, a water-works that cost $11,000, an electric light plant, a town hall, a public library, three dry-goods and grocery stores, three physicians, three hardware stores, two implement houses, three blacksmith shops, three grain elevators, three restaurants, and two saloons. The town also has a weekly newspaper, ‘The Danvers Dispatch'. The Willow Bark Sanitarium, for the cure of drunkenness, the tobacco, cigarette and morphine habit, established in 1892, has an average attendance of some twenty patients and is doing much good." The "Willow Bark' treatment was based on a conditioned reflex, whereby a person was given a bitter liquid before he could have a shot of whiskey. Supposedly, after a while, the person was not anxious to have a drink of whiskey if he had to drink the bitter liquid first. However, once the patient left the sanitarium, there was little incentive to continue the bitters and a relapse soon occurred. This sanitarium remained open until finally closing down around June 1950.
As early as 1887, Andrew was filing pension claims that he was unable to earn a support by reason of rheumatism of the left leg joint and ‘bursted veins with constant pain…can't rest with it cannot do any work of any kind hardly.' This was usually contested by the military physicians who were assigned to examine him until some years in the future, although his personal physicians verified his claims of being unable to do heavy work, even being excused from labor on roads about five years ago being unable to perform heavy work.' Later applications contained a complaint of a ‘left inguinal hernia' suffered when he was ‘thrown into pummel of my saddle in May or June 1864 resulting in rupture of left side' of testicles. A refrain questioned and answered often about the hernia was that it was not due to ‘the result of any vicious habits' and that Andrew was ‘not a drinking or quarrelsome man.' He then had to provide affidavits from friends and acquaintances that he was sober and peaceable…without bad or vicious habits. Many other affidavits were filed by friends, neighbors, and family concerning the length of time he complained of rheumatism and how often he had to quit work because of it. Even his mother, Mary Barbara, now living in Wyoming, Illinois, in Stark County, offered an affidavit in 1883, signing with ‘her mark.' It was difficult for him to prove when the hernia had occurred because ‘the hurt was of a private nature and I felt delicate about telling my comrades of it.' In one letter, he tells Stoddart & Company attorney, Mr. Stoddart [who apparently asked him for proof of service-related cause of the hernia, "Concerning my rupture this I cannot do of any of my comrads (sic) as none of them knew any thing of it as I have told you time and again that the surrounding circumstances caused me to keep it to myself as a secret and suffer it all to myself and do duty all the time
In a Bureau of Pensions form dated January 15, 1898, Andrew wrote that he and Jane Ann had eight children, J.T. Bess (9/22/1867), Amilia A. Bess (1/1/1869), Mary J. Bess (2/27/1872), Edward F. Bess (7/15/1878), Martha E. Bess (11/7/1880), Jessie C. Bess (5/21/1883), Hugh Bess (9/17/1887), and Myrtle Bess (1/1/1888).
In the 1900 Census, Andrew and Jane Ann live in Danvers Township and have five children still living at home; Edward, Ella, Jesse, Hugh, and Myrtle. Four of the children are listed as being ‘in school." This seems to have been quite unusual, especially for a female of 18 as our grandmother was, to still be allowed to remain in school. Edward was working on the farm as a laborer. Our Aunt Myrtle is 11 years old. In 1903, our grandmother Ella married Charles Owen. The population of this village in 1904 was 607.
By the 1920 Census, again in Danvers, all of the children have moved out, and Andrew and Jane have two grandsons living with them; Forest, age 15, a son of Edward's from his marriage to Myrtle Odom, and Phivens, age 17, both working as laborers on the farm. Andrew is apparently retired, age 76, Jane Ann is 73. In 1924, Jane Ann passed away at age 78. In a Soldier's Affidavit for Pension, Andrew declared that he owned 17 ¾ acres of real estate valued at $2,500, with a house and lot valued at $800.00. He also declared a rental income of $200. His physician reported that his physical disability and age required the attendance of another person but that he was able to walk alone, at times bedfast. H. H. Argo was one of Andrew's character witnesses at this time. Andrew died on January 9, 1926 at age 83. According to the family history, Jane Ann nursed ‘for years with doctors' until her death. She was midwife for at least one grandchild, our mother Fay, and may have learned her nursing skills from her mother-in-law, Mary Barbara.
Records from the National Archives and Records show Andrew's Civil War pension ranging from what seems to be semi-annual payments of $2.00 in 1880, $6.00 in 1895, $8.00 in 1900, $12 in 1903, was raised from$16.50 in 1912 to $21.50 per month, to $27 in 1918. In 1918 he was receiving "the maximum rates to which he is entitled…for attained age and pensionable service." In 1924, his pension was raised from $50.00 per month to $72.00 per month, at which it remained until the time of his death in 1926. Andrew occasionally displayed a frustration with the rate of increase, saying in a July 16, 1916 letter to the 17th Illinois District Congressman, Frank H. Funk, "…in return will try as best I can to answer it rite a way. I am much surprised to know that a man near 82 years old and so awfully afflected as I am that I would have to be almost dead before I could get a scant increase on my pension which I am lawfully entitled to. Of course I can git to bed and out of bed myself but am a punishing all the time. My doctor says he don't see what kind of men you have there to [do] business for the poor men that served their country over a half century a go…now mr. funk I know that I am not long for this world and in a bad fix can't do eny work - have six ailments working on me and still move a round but slow now mr funk do as best you can for me."
Both Andrew and Jane Ann are buried at Stout's Grove Cemetery, outside of Danvers, along with 7 children, aged 1 day through several years of age and their adult son, Hugh. Jane Ann's mother and father are also buried at this cemetery.
A grandson of Mary Jane (Daisy) Bess recalls the Lanes, the Bess's, and others having 4th of July reunions on the banks of the Mackinaw River. "Some went swimming, others fishing, playing ball, the older kids shooting off fire crackers and the older folks visiting together. And, of course, at noon there were tables laden with delicious food of all kinds."
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Side:Union:
Company:I,D
Soldier's Rank In:Private
Soldier's Rank Out:Private
Andrew Jackson Bess (March 28, 1843-1926), son of Cornelius and Mary Barbara, was born in Lexington, McLean County, IL. He served in the Third Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Consolidated Company D, during the Civil War as a recruit, along with his brother, Allen. Their names can be seen inscribed on the Civil War Monument in Miller Park in Bloomington. Andrew initially enlisted on June 9, 1862 to serve three months duty. He was honorably discharged on October 23, 1862 ‘by reason of Special order of E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War (No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.)" At the time of his enlistment on December 28, 1863 in Company I,, Andrew was 5'9" with a light complexion, hazel eyes, and brown hair. He signed up for three years of service, was sent to a Memphis Tennessee hospital ‘sick' with rheumatism on February 5, 1864, served in Germantown, Tennessee, and was listed absent from service at Nert, Kentucky "since July 19, 1864 as of Company D, similarly in November 1864, then served in Little Rock, Arkansas and was mustered out of Company D and on Christmas Day of 1864 was absent in Convalescent Camp Edgefield, Tennessee. He is listed as having deserted on June 29, 1865 until July 1, 1865. He was then discharged on November 10, 1865. In a June 18, 1887 Department of the Interior form for the Bureau of Pensions, petition for removal of charge of desertion was made and the charges of desertion of June 20 and July 10, 1865 were removed ‘under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 5, 1884.' He was then considered ‘absent without proper authority from Jun 29, 1865 to October 10, 1865.'
According to a statement made by Andrew later in his life, he was at Overton Hospital in Memphis from January 1864 for two months. He was treated at the Post Hospital at Paducah, Kentucky from the middle of October 1864 for about three weeks. Both hospitalizations were for rheumatism. This was later verified by the Surgeon General's Office but neither report seems to cover the dates listed as desertions.
According to the Adjutant General's Report from that time, the Third Cavalry saw action in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, VA, and was active for fifty months. The Third Cavalry was organized at Camp Butler and ‘mustered in' on August 27, 1861. It operated in Missouri until the next summer, on guard duty, then went ‘over into Arkansas and returned in December, and six of the companies went down to Vicksburg. It had lost, in an all-day engagement on March 7, ten men killed and forty wounded. One Captain and five men were drowned in crossing the White River on the 25th of May. On the 7th of June, Capt. Sparks, with sixty-six men, cut his way through a greatly superior number of the enemy, losing four wounded and four prisoners. The regiment did good service in Tennessee, around and below Vicksburg, participating in several engagements." The regiment was mustered out of service on October 18, 1865. According to another section of the Adjunct General's report, Andrew was "under arrest at M.O. [Mustering Out] of Regiment."
The Report concludes, "As will be seen, the Third Illinois Cavalry, during the fifty months of its service, did some quarrelling (sic), some fighting, some raiding and scouting, some ornamental work around headquarters – possibly too much of that – and it marched more thousands of miles than any one can tell. Some of the boys may have plucked ripe chickens from rebel roosts, and they may have been in at the untimely death of some of the rebel pigs, -- and they may have done other things not necessary to be mentioned in history, -- but in the aggregate of all that was done and accomplished by this military organization, by both officers and men, it may be said in all candor that as a body of patriotic men, as soldiers and citizens, they are deserving well of the State and the Nation." Andrew was honorably discharged on [October]November 10, 1865 with a 3 month, 11 day deduction in service ‘on account of desertion,' having a ‘length of pensionable service of 1 year, 10 months, and 22 days.' Throughout much of the rest of his life, he applied for pension and pension increases due to rheumatism and hernia.
Note: Not all Illinois troops were in favor of freeing the slaves of the South. In the 138th Illinois Cavalry unit, all but 35 soldiers deserted, reportedly saying they would "lie in the woods until moss grew on their backs rather than help free the slaves."
Jane Ann Lane (1846-1924) and Andrew were married on September 10, 1866 by Judge McClunn in McLean County. Jane Ann ("Jennie Ann" on their marriage license and Andrew uses the surname "Best" once again) was born in Gloucester, England, to John Stephen (1808-1904) and Jane Sophia Matthews Lane (March 21, 1807-March 29, 1880). (See Lane Family History)
By the 1870 Danvers Township Federal Census, Andrew and Jane Ann had two children, John, perhaps 3, and Jemima, one year. Their real estate value is listed as $200, as was their personal estate value. Andrew is listed as a Farmer, while Jane Ann ‘keeps house.'
Family farms, actually extended-family farms, dotted the McLean County landscape in the 1870's. Two, sometimes three, generations worked the land, shared the chores and lived on the same acreage. More often than not, they were helped by a hired man. Fences were put up everywhere to keep the grazing livestock out of the fields and the chickens out of the garden. Picket and rail fences had come first, then barbed wire in the 70's. Osage hedges often served the same purpose, but the hedges took up too much valuable land and most of them were eventually pulled out.
In the 1880 Federal Census, Andrew and Jane have two sons, John and Edward, and two daughters, Amelia and Mary Jane. There is no information from the 1890 Census as nearly all of this Census was destroyed or badly damaged in a fire in Washington in 1921. Less than one percent of the 1890 Census lists survived, none for McLean County. However a pension increase form states that Andrew and Jane were living in Woodruff in 1890.
An 1894 McLean County History book reports that Danvers has "a bank with a capital of $25,000, a water-works that cost $11,000, an electric light plant, a town hall, a public library, three dry-goods and grocery stores, three physicians, three hardware stores, two implement houses, three blacksmith shops, three grain elevators, three restaurants, and two saloons. The town also has a weekly newspaper, ‘The Danvers Dispatch'. The Willow Bark Sanitarium, for the cure of drunkenness, the tobacco, cigarette and morphine habit, established in 1892, has an average attendance of some twenty patients and is doing much good." The "Willow Bark' treatment was based on a conditioned reflex, whereby a person was given a bitter liquid before he could have a shot of whiskey. Supposedly, after a while, the person was not anxious to have a drink of whiskey if he had to drink the bitter liquid first. However, once the patient left the sanitarium, there was little incentive to continue the bitters and a relapse soon occurred. This sanitarium remained open until finally closing down around June 1950.
As early as 1887, Andrew was filing pension claims that he was unable to earn a support by reason of rheumatism of the left leg joint and ‘bursted veins with constant pain…can't rest with it cannot do any work of any kind hardly.' This was usually contested by the military physicians who were assigned to examine him until some years in the future, although his personal physicians verified his claims of being unable to do heavy work, even being excused from labor on roads about five years ago being unable to perform heavy work.' Later applications contained a complaint of a ‘left inguinal hernia' suffered when he was ‘thrown into pummel of my saddle in May or June 1864 resulting in rupture of left side' of testicles. A refrain questioned and answered often about the hernia was that it was not due to ‘the result of any vicious habits' and that Andrew was ‘not a drinking or quarrelsome man.' He then had to provide affidavits from friends and acquaintances that he was sober and peaceable…without bad or vicious habits. Many other affidavits were filed by friends, neighbors, and family concerning the length of time he complained of rheumatism and how often he had to quit work because of it. Even his mother, Mary Barbara, now living in Wyoming, Illinois, in Stark County, offered an affidavit in 1883, signing with ‘her mark.' It was difficult for him to prove when the hernia had occurred because ‘the hurt was of a private nature and I felt delicate about telling my comrades of it.' In one letter, he tells Stoddart & Company attorney, Mr. Stoddart [who apparently asked him for proof of service-related cause of the hernia, "Concerning my rupture this I cannot do of any of my comrads (sic) as none of them knew any thing of it as I have told you time and again that the surrounding circumstances caused me to keep it to myself as a secret and suffer it all to myself and do duty all the time
In a Bureau of Pensions form dated January 15, 1898, Andrew wrote that he and Jane Ann had eight children, J.T. Bess (9/22/1867), Amilia A. Bess (1/1/1869), Mary J. Bess (2/27/1872), Edward F. Bess (7/15/1878), Martha E. Bess (11/7/1880), Jessie C. Bess (5/21/1883), Hugh Bess (9/17/1887), and Myrtle Bess (1/1/1888).
In the 1900 Census, Andrew and Jane Ann live in Danvers Township and have five children still living at home; Edward, Ella, Jesse, Hugh, and Myrtle. Four of the children are listed as being ‘in school." This seems to have been quite unusual, especially for a female of 18 as our grandmother was, to still be allowed to remain in school. Edward was working on the farm as a laborer. Our Aunt Myrtle is 11 years old. In 1903, our grandmother Ella married Charles Owen. The population of this village in 1904 was 607.
By the 1920 Census, again in Danvers, all of the children have moved out, and Andrew and Jane have two grandsons living with them; Forest, age 15, a son of Edward's from his marriage to Myrtle Odom, and Phivens, age 17, both working as laborers on the farm. Andrew is apparently retired, age 76, Jane Ann is 73. In 1924, Jane Ann passed away at age 78. In a Soldier's Affidavit for Pension, Andrew declared that he owned 17 ¾ acres of real estate valued at $2,500, with a house and lot valued at $800.00. He also declared a rental income of $200. His physician reported that his physical disability and age required the attendance of another person but that he was able to walk alone, at times bedfast. H. H. Argo was one of Andrew's character witnesses at this time. Andrew died on January 9, 1926 at age 83. According to the family history, Jane Ann nursed ‘for years with doctors' until her death. She was midwife for at least one grandchild, our mother Fay, and may have learned her nursing skills from her mother-in-law, Mary Barbara.
Records from the National Archives and Records show Andrew's Civil War pension ranging from what seems to be semi-annual payments of $2.00 in 1880, $6.00 in 1895, $8.00 in 1900, $12 in 1903, was raised from$16.50 in 1912 to $21.50 per month, to $27 in 1918. In 1918 he was receiving "the maximum rates to which he is entitled…for attained age and pensionable service." In 1924, his pension was raised from $50.00 per month to $72.00 per month, at which it remained until the time of his death in 1926. Andrew occasionally displayed a frustration with the rate of increase, saying in a July 16, 1916 letter to the 17th Illinois District Congressman, Frank H. Funk, "…in return will try as best I can to answer it rite a way. I am much surprised to know that a man near 82 years old and so awfully afflected as I am that I would have to be almost dead before I could get a scant increase on my pension which I am lawfully entitled to. Of course I can git to bed and out of bed myself but am a punishing all the time. My doctor says he don't see what kind of men you have there to [do] business for the poor men that served their country over a half century a go…now mr. funk I know that I am not long for this world and in a bad fix can't do eny work - have six ailments working on me and still move a round but slow now mr funk do as best you can for me."
Both Andrew and Jane Ann are buried at Stout's Grove Cemetery, outside of Danvers, along with 7 children, aged 1 day through several years of age and their adult son, Hugh. Jane Ann's mother and father are also buried at this cemetery.
A grandson of Mary Jane (Daisy) Bess recalls the Lanes, the Bess's, and others having 4th of July reunions on the banks of the Mackinaw River. "Some went swimming, others fishing, playing ball, the older kids shooting off fire crackers and the older folks visiting together. And, of course, at noon there were tables laden with delicious food of all kinds."
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