The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
In Response To: Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson ()

Leslie

I can't promise or prove but I believe in all liklihood your Simpson is the one in the report, simply by a matter of elimination from census records. I suspect the tombstone date is wrong and the marker was placed well after the fact, not an uncommon occurence. Birthdates and deathdates are frequently "squishy" prior to about 1920. I generally follow the date closest to the event, i.e a birthdate on a birth certificate or near census period is more likely correct than a birthdate on a death certificate. Same with marriage bonds and certificates. Many folks confuse probate and will dates with death dates. Remember also that many markers during the war were temporary and that family may not have been around when someone was buried. Lets take Ben Simpson here:

By record he lived in Bates County, picked up, wagoned some distance to near Dayton. Shot and killed on Jan 2 1862 then buried hastily by locals who were trying to put the ravages of having their whole town burned to the ground behind them. A board with a pencil scrawl gets stuck on the grave site. Several days later word gets back to home in Bates Co. that Milla is a widow now, she has a brood of kids, her homestead was likely ransacked if not torched as well. Its a days travel at least over hostile territory with the Kansas Cavalry still in the neighborhood. "OK, nothin' I can do about Ben now. sigh tear, What am I gonna do to feed these kids...." Perhaps several months later the local undertaker removes the bodies of Grosshart, Simpson, and Fulkerson to the Dayton Cemetery. Another wooden marker gets put up and years later a daughter or son gets enough money together to buy a headstone but gee can't quite make out the marks on the board is that a Jan or a June? Let's see Jan 2 1862 could that be June 22 '62, just don't remember but both are 8 characters....

Or he gets shot with a mortal wound and is taken by townspeople to Dayton, Milla comes to nurse him to health as they have lost everything at home, sadly the spring rains don't seem to help much and Ben succombs to a fever and a cough that he just can't shake and dies in June.

Remember to remember these folks in the times they lived and don't transfer our current sense of correctness or ethics upon them. In fact its little exercises like this that make history and geneology live. Put yourself in the place of Benajmin that day, the sorrow, the anger, the fear, the resignation... did he offer himself for one of his boys? Did his wife get raped, did he see his world burn before his eyes? Or try being Milla watching as her husband was beat trying to get information or a confession from him or seeing her children threatened or all her worldly goods taken from her and then her husband driven away never to be seen again leaving her with nothing but the clothes on their back in the snow. Life was hard, death was easy, and the war brutal, particularly in Missouri.

And though we wish otherwise, there will be many a mystery that goes unsolved.

John R.

Messages In This Thread

Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Harrison Fulkerson of Kentucky
Re: Harrison Fulkerson of Kentucky
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Samuel Jarrett Grosshart
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson
Re: Benjamin Franklin Simpson