Jacob Erion had Red Hair! Who Knew? Part V

Mary  Leonard Erion

Jacob B. Erion

 My grandfather once told me he would like to know more about his grandfather.  However, it was during a time when I was having my own children and the days were filled with raising the next generation.  There was no time to look back.  But now there is.  My Granddad passed away in 1983 but I have always remembered his words to me and this blog is a result of that remembering.   I have sourced my information.  These are my own words except where indicated. 

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 Nevertheless, Jacob continued as the Deputy Labor Commissioner into 1895, producing mortgage receipt reports and livestock reports which were published in the local Omaha newspapers.  Jacob was still in office when Governor Holcomb, elected under a fusion ticket between Populists and Democrats, succeeded Governor Crounse in the State House.  Holcomb’s term as Governor of Nebraska was 1895-1899.  Jacob also kept track of supplies available for disasters and reported to Governor Holcomb that 95 train cars of relief supplies were ready at the train depot in Lincoln, Nebraska.  (Source: [Omaha] World-Herald, 9 Feb 1895)  

“IT’S A LIBEL.”   This headline greeted readers of the March 3, 1895 edition of the (Omaha) Sunday World-Herald.  “Erion’s Industrial Map Said to Be a Discredit.”  Deputy Labor Commissioner Jacob Erion had, under the direction of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics, issued an industrial map of Nebraska, broken down county by county, with the amount of surplus products that had been marketed during 1893.  Commissioner Utt, after looking at the map, said that “if the map was as incorrect regarding the state at large as it was in the figures given for Douglas county, it was not only worthless but a libel on the state and should be suppressed.”  

Commissioner Utt estimated that the output for 1893 was 29,575 cars of surplus, not the 8,456 that was stated in Erion’s report.  Also Utt believed packing house  products from South Omaha had increased to 30,240, which made South Omaha a stronger market than Kansas City.  (Whether any of this was true has not been determined.  When reading these articles, keep in mind that the commissioners were political appointees and South Omaha was in competition with Kansas City regarding livestock shipped, bought and sold, and slaughtered.  Whether Jacob would have deliberately published something that showed Omaha, particularly South Omaha in a poor light is questionable.  He was a citizen of South Omaha and it served him no purpose to print something that was not true.)

  Wherever politics were,  so was Jacob B. Erion.  The August 19, 1897 edition of the [Omaha] Morning World-Herald reported that the republican primary to elect delegates to the county convention would be held at Sage’s store, 28th and O Street.

  “The republican camp will be enlivened by the preliminary skirmishing of J. B. Erion, who has the old soldiers’ support.”

It was during the 1890s when Jacob Erion began seeking his pension from the US Army in earnest.  In his pension file from the National Archives are copies of several affidavits from persons who knew Jacob and his family while they were living in South Omaha, among them being D. F. Bayless, J. E Hart, and J. M. Glasgow, M.D. (who was also postmaster of South Omaha).  These affidavits, sworn under oath, attested to Jacob’s character and contributions to South Omaha.  They also swore, under oath, that Jacob suffered from chronic diarrhea and that he was frequently incapacitated.  

D. F. Bayless and J. E. Hart stated in a Neighbors’ Affidavit dated 26 May 1891:

  “We have lived in the same city with him [Jacob] for the respective lengths of time named above and have seen him frequently almost daily and know him intimately, know that he is suffering from chronic diarrhea and heart disease and is frequently laid up and under treatment from physicians.  Neither witness hereunto subscribed has ever worked for him neither has he worked for them, but J. E. Hart has worked with him [Jacob] in the publishing business.  Mr. Erion has managed as far as able for some years a newspaper business in South Omaha but as stated above is often unable to be at his office and certainly could not perform common labor.  We are acquainted with his disabilities from our intimate acquaintance with him and from conversation with him.  His disability is in no way due to his habits which are good.”

A Physician’s Affidavit attested to on that same date by J. M. Glasgow, M.D., stated:

  “I hereby certify that I have known Jacob B. Erion for the past five years and have treated him at various times during said period.  He sufferred [sic] from chronic diarrhea at times so as to render him unfit from performing manual labor of any kind [unreadable].  Also from heart lesion of a very severe character all of which I have no doubt were contracted in the volunteer service of the United States.  Do not consider that he is capable of performing manual labor of an exhaustive nature of any kind whatever.”

Apparently part of the problem was that in Jacob’s original application for a Civil War Pension, Jacob had stated that he suffered his sunstroke in 1864.  In an affidavit dated 28 May 1890, and filed by Jacob’s attorney, George E. Lemon, testified to the following:

“If in his original application it is alleged that he received sunstroke in 1864, it is an error as said disability was incurred in 1862, he respectfully asks that his application be amended accordingly.”

Additional documents found in the Pension File of Jacob B. Erion, obtained from the National Archives, showed that his pension was refused at least twice because a “Jacob B. Erion” could not be found.  A “Jacob Erion” was found, but no “Jacob B. Erion” could be located.  On 23 May 1892, Jacob B. Erion swore to the following affidavit in Douglas County, Nebraska:

  “In the matter of claim for Inv. Pension 761279, Jacob B. Erion, Company A 4 Ohio personally came before me, a notary public, in and for aforesaid County and State, Jacob B. Erion, South Omaha, Nebraska, a person of lawful age, who, being duly sworn, declared in relation to the aforesaid case as follows:  ‘In 1879 I began writing my name J. B. Erion for the reason that I had a brother, Joseph Erion, and most of our mail was addressed “J. Erion” which caused confusion.  I enlisted under the name Jacob Erion and adopted the “B” for business reasons.”

Amazingly, seven years later, in a document dated 2 Jun 1899, the Department of Interior-Bureau of Pensions was still using the same excuse for not granting Jacob a pension, to-wit:

  “Respectfully returned to the Commissioner of Pensions, with the information that in the case of Jacob Erion, Co. A, 4 Ohio Inf. Military records furnish the following additional to enclosed report:  Ate at enlistment 18 years; height 5 ft. 7 in.; complexion, light; eyes, blue; hair, red; born in Tuscarawas Co., Ohio; a farmer.  Name Jacob B. Erion not found.”

Jacob would spend the rest of his life filing documents to prove that he deserved this pension.  Another problem was that Congress would continually change the rules under which a Civil War veteran could obtain a pension.  When finally granted, Jacob then would have to file documents asking for increases in his pension.  His case was handled by a Medical Referee who invariably requested more medical documentation.  Jacob was a persistent man.

 On August 20, 1897, an article entitled “Erion’s Plum in Sight” appeared in the [Omaha] Morning World-Herald.  If Jacob could pass an examination, he would be appointed superintendent of a national cemetery.  Jacob was ordered to report to an examining board of army officers at Fort Crook.  (Source: [Omaha] Sunday World-Herald, 29 Aug 1897)   

Jacob passed the exam.   Barring his time spent as a child in Mt. Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, Jacob had lived the longest in South Omaha, moving there with Mary and their children in 1885.  The Erions were considered to be long time residents, and, to quote the [Omaha] Morning World-Herald (which now appeared to like him . . . possibly because he might be leaving? Bleu), “Colonel Erion has always been a prominent factor in the growth and development of south Omaha, being one of the pioneers.” 

 The following article appeared in the Omaha World Herald:

 Colonel Erion Soon Goes East, published 22 Feb 1898

“Colonel Jacob B. Erion soon leaves for Mound City, Ill., where he takes the superintendency of the national cemetery, having been appointed some time ago.  Colonel Erion has always been a prominent factor in the growth and development of South Omaha, being one of the pioneers.  He came here in 1885 and started the South Omaha Globe and as the stock market began to develop he, with Charles H. Rich of Omaha, established the Stockman, which was and is still devoted to livestock matters.  Mr. Erion continued with the Stockman until a few years ago, when the plant was sold to the present publishing company.  During Governor Crounse’s administration the colonel was state labor commissioner.  He has a very pleasant home in the northern part of this city and an interesting family.  It is probable that they will continue to reside here.”

Mound City, Illinois was founded at the abandoned settlement of Trinity in 1854 at the confluence of the Ohio and Cache Rivers.  The river front became extremely important to the Union navy during the Civil War and it had the only repair facility for the Mississippi Squadron, a fleet of 80 ships.  

Whether Mary went with her husband to Mound City, Illinois, has not been determined.  Their youngest child, Lloyd Dewitt Erion, was twenty years old when his father was appointed superintendent of the National Cemetery at Mound City.  The next year, 1899, Lloyd married Martha M. Smith in South Omaha, Nebraska so the family probably did stay in South Omaha. 

Now, in reference to Mound City, in the copies of Jacob B. Erion’s pension file from the National Archives, there was no reference made to the National Cemetery in Mound City, Illinois. I included the above information on Mound City based on the information in the newspaper article quoted above. On one of Jacob’s pension forms, he was asked to list his residences and he replied, “. . . and at various National Cemeteries as Superintendent.”  On this same form he had left out his time in Appleton City, MO so it is possible that Jacob did spend time at Mound City, Illinois. 

By 24 Jun 1899, Jacob, Mary, and daughter Alice were living in Pineville, Louisiana.  He was the Superintendent of the National Cemetery at Alexandria, Louisiana. In Jacob’s Pension File from the National Archives is the following letter:

Pineville, La., June 13, 1899

Hon. H. Clay Evans, Com. of Pensions, Washington, D.C.

Sir:

Replying to your circular letter of instruction regarding my claim for pension under “Old Law” I have concluded that it would be very difficult, if not impossible for me to furnish the necessary evidence as required by your letter and accompanying blanks.  Too many years have elapsed and I have changed about too much.  My present pension of $6 per month, recently granted under law of June 27, 1890, is hardly justice, but I now hold a position under the Government, the salary of which is sufficient for a living.  Therefore I neither intend to push the old law claim nor ask for an increase under the new at present.  I return herewith blanks sent, including notice to appear for examination.  Should it be necessary for me to appear before an examiner board, for any reason, please direct me to nearest one here as I am located here until further orders, and cannot appear at Omaha.

I wrote your office about a year ago, calling attention to the fact that my certificate, 943321, was not dated back to date of first application, as I believe the law specifies.  I wish that point could be examined and if a mistake has been made, have it rectified.

                                                                Very Respectfully,                                

                                                                Your Obt. Servant

Jacob B. Erion, 

Rapides Parish, Pineville, La.

Jacob Erion had Red Hair! Who knew? Part I

Jacob B. Erion ca 1876

Mary Leonard Erion ca 1876

My grandfather once told me he would like to know more about his grandfather.  However, it was during a time when I was having my own children and the days were filled with raising the next generation.  There was no time to look back.  But now there is.  My Granddad passed away in 1983 but I have always remembered his words to me and this blog is a result of that remembering.  

I have sourced my information.  These are my own words except where indicated.  A wonderful book that I used as a reference to help me imagine the time in which my great great grandparents, Jacob B. Erion and Mary Leonard Erion, were young is "An Ohio Schoolmistress: The Memoirs of Irene Hardy" edited by Louis Filler (The Kent State University  Press, Kent, Ohio 44242)  I highly recommend it.  Irene Hardy was born in 1841, my great great grandfather was born in 1842 and my great great grandmother was born 1843.  All were born in Ohio.

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Jacob Benjamin Erion had RED HAIR. Who knew?  He was 5’8” tall and he had blue eyes. These facts are stated in his Certificate of Disability for Discharge from the Army of the United States, signed by Company Commander Samuel Breasley on 27 Oct 1862. Jacob Benjamin Erion walked this earth for eighty-seven years. 

 A contemporary of Jacob and Mary Leonard Erion’s, Irene Hardy, was born 22 Jul 1841 in Eaton, Preble County, Ohio. Preble County, Ohio borders the State of Indiana. In her memoir, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy, (written over a five year period from 1908 to 1913), edited by Louis Filler, (Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, 1980), Irene (pronounced as the Greeks did, eye-reen-a), wrote of growing up in rural Ohio in the 1840s through 1860s, exactly when Jacob and his siblings, and Mary Leonard Erion and her siblings grew up in Ohio.

When young, Jacob Erion and Mary Leonard probably lived in structures such as the ones Irene described in her Memoir. She stated that large virgin forests were interrupted by cabins built of rough unhewn (unfinished) logs with roofs of handmade clapboards. The big chimneys at each end of the one roomed dwelling were initially of sticks and mud, later replaced by stone. Around the middle of the 19^th century, those rough dwellings were replaced by comfortable squared log houses. (pages 3 and 24, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

It was a prize to find a teacher and a schoolhouse during that time. Parents taught their children what they were able to teach them. If there was an organized schoolhouse with a schoolmaster, the school term usually lasted from September until the term ended in early spring. There were no holidays, not even a break for Christmas Day. Irene wrote that to establish even the giving of a treat on Christmas Day was a struggle for her parents’ generation and that her parents had told her of a teacher that had been ducked in a hole in a frozen pond because he did not recognize Christmas with a treat or a holiday. By Irene’s time, the students received a treat such as candy, gingerbread or apples around noon on Christmas Day, and the afternoon would be filled with an activity such as a spelling bee. (Source: page 39, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy). (Contrast Irene’s memory with the brouhaha that is made today (2010) of the Christmas season. Christmas school holidays, on average, are two weeks long, and the citizens of the United States began being pummeled with advertisements about holiday shopping fully three months before the actual day.)

Girls learned to spin, weave and sew cloth when they were young, although none of this could be done on the Sabbath. Any work done on the Sabbath was considered an absolute sin, and if one did not care what God thought about it, at least one should care what one’s neighbors thought! Irena wrote of wearing a beautiful moss-green, homespun flannel dress with slender stripes of red that her mother had made from cloth that she had woven herself. (pages 40 and 65, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

When Jacob and Mary were children, growing up in the 1840s and 1850s, it was customary that if company was present for the meal, children were to wait until after the adults had finished eating dinner before they could come in and eat. (page 49, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy) Everyone usually had plenty of food for each family raised their own food: meat, chickens for their meat and eggs, fruit, and vegetables. In Ohio maple sugar and syrup were made in February and March from sugar trees. The families made their own candles from either beeswax or tallow, and people were usually in bed by 8 p.m.  (pages 62- 63, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

If letters were sent in the 1840s, they were folded in squares. There were no postage stamps or envelopes, so the letter was sealed with a wafer. (page 63, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy) A wafer was a small slip of paper that had glue on one side. The glue side was moistened and affixed to edges of the folded letter to keep it shut. Paper wafers came into popularity just before 1840. (Source: http://homepage.eircom.net/~lawe/WAFERSEALS.htm) The sender of the letter could either prepay for the letter or have the recipient pay if they wanted to see the letter. (page 63, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

 More than likely Jacob’s and Mary’s fathers made all of their shoes from calfskin which came from their own cattle. Children went barefoot as soon as the spring had melted the snow and did not put shoes on again until the next winter’s snowfall. Shoe lasts, or the form around which the leather was formed to create the shoe, were carved and whittled from wood usually by the men of the farm. An awl and thread with a pig bristle twisted into the waxed end were used to stitch the shoes. While children were allowed to go barefoot for a good portion of the year, it was a sign of “shiftlessness” in adults to go without shoes. (page 66, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

A bird which Jacob and Mary saw when they were little, and people living now have never seen, was the passenger pigeon. In her memoir, Irene wrote,

“In the autumns of my sixth, seventh, and eighth years, (1847-1849), our part of the country (Ohio) was visited by enormous numbers of passenger pigeons, coming for the beechmast. In one of those years, which I cannot tell, the branches of the beech trees were weighed down with a quantity of nuts. Flocks of pigeons, like great clouds, flew over our house not far above the trees. We could hear the rush and see the silvery flicker of their innumerable wings above us. The people on the various farms made coop-like traps and caught them by hundreds.” (page 76, An Ohio SchoolMistress: The memoirs of Irene Hardy)

 At age 19, Jacob enlisted as a private in the Union Army, 4^th Ohio Infantry, Knox County, Ohio. (Source: Military Records of Individual Civil War Soldiers, Provo, UT: Ancestry.com) His term of enlistment was for three years.) According to The History of Knox County (Ohio) (Source: http://www.heritagepursuit.com/Knox/KnoxFile3.htm), the 4^th Ohio Infantry was organized at Camp Jackson, Columbus, Ohio, on 25 Apr 1861. On 2 May 1861, the regiment moved to Camp Dennison. On the 4^th of May, 1861, the 4^th Ohio Infantry was mustered into the United States Army for a three months’ enlistment by Captain Gordon Granger. A few days after that, President Abraham Lincoln called upon men to enlist for three years which Jacob Erion did. (Source: Declaration for Pension, dated 12 Jun 1912, from the Pension File of Jacob B. Erion located in the National Archives)

While on duty at Camp Pendleton, West Virginia, Jacob was a victim of sunstroke. (Source: Erion, Jacob B., Pension File located in the National Archives. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Pensions, dated 19 Apr 1890) He received a disability discharge in 1862 from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. (Source: Military Records of Individual Civil War Soldiers, Provo, UT: Ancestry.com) The sunstroke affected his heart and he was to suffer periodically from chronic diarrhea for the rest of his life. (Source: Erion, Jacob B. Pension File located in the National Archives) The last two months of Jacob’s service in the Union Army, he was unfit for duty for a total of 55 days because of the sunstroke. (Source: Certificate of Disability for Discharge, Army of the United States, dated 27 Oct 1862, copy of which is in the Pension File of Jacob B. Erion, National Archives)

On 31 Dec 1863, (Source: Linn County, Iowa, History to 1878, Ancestry.com) Jacob married Mary Frances Leonard when he was 21 and Mary was 18. Nothing has been discovered about how Jacob and Mary met. The 1860 US census shows Mary living with her birth family in Morris Township, Knox County, Ohio; Jacob is living with his birth family in Monroe, Knox County, Ohio. In later years, during pursuit of his disability pension, Jacob B. Erion, while living in Chunchula, Alabama, filled out a Bureau of Pensions Agency Inquiry which asked “when, where and by whom were you married?” Jacob answered, “31^st of Dec. 1863 near Mount Vernon, Ohio, by a Methodist minister from Fredericktown, name forgotten.” 

 The question after that on the form was “What record of marriage exists?” Jacob answered, “Marriage recorded at Mt. Vernon, Ohio.” This form was dated and signed by Jacob on the 4^th of March 1912, two years before his wife Mary’s death. On that same form, page two, when asked where he had lived since his discharge, the following locations were listed by Jacob: near Mt. Vernon, Ohio; Springville, Iowa; Lewis, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; and at various National Cemeteries as Superintendent. Now on farm near Chunchula, Alabama. (Jacob left out his and Mary’s time in Appleton City, MO, where their children, Francis Leonard Erion and Esther P. Erion were born. Bleu) (Source: Bureau of Pensions, Agency Inquiries, Department of the Interior, dated 27 Feb 1912, original form in the Pension File of Jacob B. Erion, National Archives)

Shortly after their marriage, Jacob and Mary left Ohio along with Jacob’s parents, Philip and Matilda Latham Erion and their remaining children. Jacob’s younger brother, Salathiel Wheeler Erion, (1855-1946), recounted the families’ trip south in an article about Salathiel’s and his wife’s 60^th wedding anniversary, published in Mt. Vernon, Iowa’s Hawkeye Record in March, 1939:

“Mr. Erion who will be 84 next month, was born at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and came with his parents, Phillip and Matilda Erion at the age of nine, to Iowa. He recalls their having been a caravan of five covered wagons accommodating three families making the trip to near Linn Grove in 21 days.”

They all settled close to one another in Linn County, Iowa. Jacob and his family are listed at Linn Township #288 and Jacob’s father Philip and his family are listed at Linn Township #285. (Source: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ia/county/linn/census/1870censusindexef.htm#E) A copy of the Linn County Plat Map for 1869, obtained from the Linn County (Iowa) Historical Society also indicates that several of the younger siblings of Jacob Erion married the families neighboring the Erions’ farms. 

Seeking new opportunities, in 1875, Jacob, Mary and their daughters moved to Missouri. First they lived in Bates County, Missouri, and then they moved to Appleton City, Missouri. (Source: Linn County, Iowa, History to 1878) Appleton City is located in St. Clair County and is located between Springfield and Kansas City on Highway 52. Jacob and Mary moved there about four years after it became a town. (Source: http://www.appletoncitymo.com/history.html)

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