Purporting? Really?

Yeah, I knew I could use "purporting" in a sentence, but doing so in my last post should have been a hint. I argued with mother all last night about the problems with that picture of Arthur and "the Book Ends". She didn't concede the argument, but she didn't answer my questions about the Conlin brothers either. If I interpreted the tradition correctly - that Arthur never returned after the war - then that picture would have to have been taken in early 1864 at the latest, just before he left to join the 170th. I'm no expert at estimating ages, but I'm not buying that the gentleman in the middle was 22 when the picture was taken. And the others, 27 and 28? No way. As my Hawkins cousin in Amarillo said, the old guys look more like the Smith Brothers.

The guy in the middle fairly screams "1880s". I immediately thought he may have posed for the artwork for the opening credits of the sitcom Cheers (I love the mustache). But Cuz did a whole fashion analysis comparing the mid-1860s and the 1880s. She even included a picture of Bat Masterson, Luke Short, Wyatt Earp, and others. The picture had to have been done in the 1880s. Calvin and Hobbes agree.

Of course, we're talking about 1864. My grandfather wasn't even born for another 15 years. So the family tradition that Arthur "never came back from the war" may be just that - and botched, at that. Maybe the picture is of the Conlin brothers but the tradition as we heard it was misstated. Maybe Arthur didn't come directly back from the war. Maybe he went to Idaho and came back to visit his brothers in the 1880s. The Conlins (and the Hagans) were Irish, but the rest of the family was pretty much German or, more correctly, Alsatian. That side of the family by all accounts was pretty close-mouthed. Stories of family members who had moved away might consist of a few terse statements mixed with grunts, coughs, and shaking heads. Overheard by the children there is no telling what the "stories" might morph into.

So the picture either is or is not the Conlin brothers. Shifting the relative weights of a family "tradition" and an analysis of the photograph in question leaves a big question mark - I think I'll make it red.

By the time my mother and her brother, Arthur, became interested in the Conlin Story another generation or two had slipped by. Mom labelled the print fairly recently, but who's to say she wasn't just leaving me a clue - thinking, "I'm sure someone told me these were the Conlin brothers." Nobody else was around to check with - that made her the expert. I guess, now, I'm the expert. That, as ever, is a scary thought.

Finding Arthur Conlin

I've been on the trail of Arthur Conlin for years now. He was one of my mother's great uncles, and I became interested in his story when my mother came back from the National Archives with copies of his company muster sheets from the Civil War. He had served in two different Ohio infantry regiments, but never returned home from the war. His second regiment, the 170th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, returned from West Virginia to Columbus on August 27 and was mustered out on 10 September 1864. My uncle Arthur always assumed that he was waylaid and probably murdered on his way home.

A schoolteacher in Minerva, Ohio, Arthur Conlin enlisted in Co I, 86th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private on June 1, 1862 in response to President Lincoln's request for "100-day-men" to supplement Army troops by guarding railroads, Army stores, and serving as garrison troops in various camps. The 86th Ohio was attached to Gen. Kelley's Railroad Command  in Clarksburg, WV on their arrival in mid-June. (Kelley had worked for the B&O Railroad before the war. Reading Union war correspondence, Kelley seemed to be the only one involved who always knew what was going on and had a plan worked out to solve whatever problems arose. I was very impressed.) Co I (w/ 3 of the other companies) moved to Parkersburg on July 27 till August 21. The regiment returned a few days later to Camp Delaware, north of Columbus, where they mustered out on September 25, 1862. Arthur apparently returned to his teaching job in Minerva.

Among mother's family photographs is this one, undated, purporting to be brothers Arthur, James, and Thomas Conlin. Though mother labeled the men differently, their relative ages suggest James and Thomas (a year apart) are the bookends, with Arthur (five years younger) in the middle. Am I sure? No, but I'm satisfied it's the best answer I can come up with.

The second time around, Arthur enlisted in Co B, 170th OVI in Belaire on May 2, 1864 for 100 days service. The regiment mustered at Belaire on May 13 and left for Washington DC on May 17. These hundred-day-men were, for all practical purposes, untrained. If they were healthy and followed orders, their service could free up veterans for Grant's campaign then raging against the Army of Northern Virginia. The regiment was split up to garrison several camps in the Washington defenses and I've been unable to determine which camp hosted Co B. But on July 4, the regiment was re-consolidated and proceeded to Sandy Hook, MD to man the Maryland Heights defenses protecting Harpers Ferry.

Jubal Early and his Confederate troops were once again threatening Washington at Lee's behest in an effort to force Grant to release troops around Richmond to defend the capital. Everything I've read suggests that Lee's plan was working beautifully. Washington was in chaos with companies and regiments being shifted sometimes daily to plug holes in its defenses. Many veterans recently released from Richmond found themselves anchored in the various camps around Washington, while National Guard troops , which should have been protecting Washington or Harpers Ferry, were soon attached to the veteran brigades, trying to chase down General Early and blunt his latest invasion of the North.

The picture above is from Google Earth, looking north across the Shenandoah River towards the Virginia/West Virginia state line. I've marked the position of Gordon's Division, guarding the ford. The Union troops that managed to cross, did so downstream from the bridge at Island Ford.

Without enough strength to capture the city, Early took his leave of Washington, crossing the Potomac near Leesburg, VA then crossed back into the Shenandoah Valley through Snickers Gap. He left his rearguard, Gordon's Division, at nearby Snickers Ferry (also called Snickers Ford, Castleman's Ferry, and several other names) while his invaders continued westward towards Winchester.

Underestimating the strength of the rearguard, a portion of the Union Second Brigade under Col. Thoburn, 1st WV Inf, including the 170th OVI forced a crossing of the Shenandoah in the early afternoon. Near dark, when their promised support had failed to materialize, they withdrew back across the river  - a perfect example of SNAFU, 85 years or so before WWII when the term was coined. Estimated casualties for both sides were 819 total (US 422; CS 397). Among the notations in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 - 1866 were these references to the price paid by the 170th for its part of the encounter at Snickers Ferry: Henry F. Clark (32), wounded July 18 at Snickers Ferry, VA; Arthur Conlin (22), wounded; Stephenson Creal (21), wounded; George Harper (19), killed; and Daniel Warner (19), wounded July 18 at Snickers Ferry - died of wounds August 24 at Sandy Hook, MD.

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One of my favorite characters in the Civil War was C A Dana, loosely attached to Grant's staff. Ostensibly a spy for Edwin Stanton, who was concerned about rumors of Grant's drinking, Dana quickly found Grant to be ideally cast as the Union commander. He was wide-ranging, as one tends to be with carte blanche; he was effectively Grant's spy as well as Stanton's. Dana's comments about the fiasco related above pretty much cover the whole affair:
"The pursuit of Early, on the whole, has proved an egregious blunder, relieved only by Averell's success at Winchester, in which he captured 4 guns and some prisoners. Wright and Crook accomplished nothing, and Wright started back as soon as he got where he might have done something worth while. As it is, Early has got off with the whole of his plunder, and Hunter will hardly be able to break up the railroad beyond what can be repaired in a short time. Had Wright remained in the Valley the combined forces might have made a sure campaign, at least against the railroad and the crops."

*****

So, after Snickers Gap, Arthur Conlin and his fellow wounded were evacuated to Frederick, MD and on August 2, 1864 he was admitted to the Army General Hospital at Patterson Park, Baltimore (above). Among the few hospital records unearthed were a description of our soldier: Age 22 years, Occupation  Teacher. Eyes - dark, Hair - dark, Complexion - dark. Height  5' 10 3/4". On August 17, Arthur was released back to his unit which had returned to guarding trains in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry. A week later they started back to Columbus and mustered out on September 10, 1864 at Camp Chase.

So I studied some Civil War history and know now more than I ever thought I would about a sharp but relatively small action in Northern Virginia. I found a few new documents from the hospital, filled some holes in the record, and even came up with a few pictures from the 'net to help satisfy some of my curiosity about this missing relative. But essentially, I was back where I started - was Arthur waylaid on his way home from Columbus?

I found a new lead last December with a fairly unconstrained Google search that yielded a photograph of a grave marker for one Arthur Conlin. Within 24 hours, I was fairly certain that the grave - on a dry windswept hillside in Idaho of all places - was "my" Arthur. (He had been "our" Arthur; now he was "my" Arthur.) I knew or suspected most of the remainder of this tale, but I needed to find some official confirmation and some good images to include in the post. Here's the rest of what I know about Arthur.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) had chapters or "camps" all over the country from the end of the war in 1865 till the last few Union veterans gave up the ghost. This is a photo of the Phil Sheridan Camp in Boise from the early 1890's. I wonder if Arthur's in the picture.

While searching for veterans in Idaho GAR Encampment Journals and the Idaho State Historical Society's Civil War Index, I found Arthur Conlin listed in their records as a veteran of both the 86th and the 170th OVI regiments. That confirmed that the one Arthur was in both regiments since neither of the regimental records referenced service in the other. This research also identified Arthur as a GAR member of the Phil Sheridan Camp in Boise.

The Old Soldiers' Home in Boise. The statue is of Abraham Lincoln, a gift presented in 1915 to the State of Idaho by the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic of Boise. It was later moved to the VA Hospital grounds and, more recently, to those of the State Capital.

When I came across references to an Old Soldier's Home in Boise and, finding nothing in Idaho records to suggest that he might have had a family, I speculated that perhaps he had remained single and lived at the Old Soldier's Home. I got confirmation yesterday from the Idaho State Archives that Arthur entered the Home March 8, 1904 and died there less than a month later on April 6 at age 63. I still don't know when he arrived in Idaho or how he earned his living. Did he continue to teach? There are clearly still some holes in this story.

Arthur is buried at the Fort Boise Military Cemetery just over the hill from Fort Boise proper, the Boise Veterans Home, the Boise VA hospital and within a couple miles of the Idaho State Capital.

I found these lovely pictures of the cemetery on Flickr, in susankinidaho's photo stream. I couldn't find any way to contact her but, since she mentioned that she was honored by people's interest in her pictures and had no objection to their use, I was pleased to include them.

There's a government website - probably associated with the Veterans Administration - where I was able to interactively locate Arthur's plot in the cemetery. Of course, I can't find the website now but I'll renew my efforts and update this when I rediscover it.

This last picture is, I believe, one of the two I found online last December that led to all this recent research. Again, I tried to contact the lady who posted it, but received no reply. I trust she has no objection to my using it in this context but, if I hear otherwise, I'll go ahead and remove it.

I don't have a clue why this stone has Arthur Conlin in Co F, 85th Ohio Infantry. I checked the NARA Civil War database and found no Arthur Conlins in regiments other than the 86th and 170th OVI. I checked Ohio's Official Roster cited above and found no Arthur Conlin in the 85th. I went through the entire list of veterans in the 85th and found no names that might have been misread as Arthur Conlin. I don't see any reason to speculate. I'm convinced that I've found the man I was looking for. . . I just wish I knew why he never went home.

***** UPDATES *****

If anyone's read this far, they probably want to know whether I ever learned any more about Arthur's story. In fact, I needed to offer a few more comments in a second post concerning the photo of the three brothers. And now there's a third post with some information concerning events in the 20 years between 1864 and 1884. And finally, in 2015 I made a road trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Boise seemed so close. How could I not visit Arthur's grave site in a fourth post after all this?

Relics from the Past - the Wernet Farm

In that last batch of photographs I scanned I came across one that I wanted to "fix" and publish. Inasmuch as I recently decluttered (more or less) my desk, I better go ahead and present the last of those pictures before I start scanning again.

You may remember this picture from a previous post. Last summer's reunion in Ohio was interesting as well as fun. The post included a couple shots of this wagon, redeemed from the barn before the Wernet family farm was sold, then refurbished and cared for since by the Fureys. I was gratified to find the picture below on my last pass through the boxes of photographs. When I had perused them previously, it hadn't registered - I didn't know then that the Fureys had done their magic on the wagon. So, when I found the shot below, I was glad to scan it and clean it up because it shows just how much work went into refurbishing the wagon.

 

I've loved this picture of the Wernet farmhouse since the first time I came across it. I don't know who took it, perhaps Michael or Paul, or when - Uncle Arthur was still living there. In any case, whoever took it did an excellent job. Someone's first impression might be that the house could use a new coat of paint, if nothing else, but I like it this way. You might imagine touching the wall as you go in the kitchen door and finding powdered paint on your fingertips and, in truth, it might have been that way. But the look of the house in this portrait (you might say landscape, I say portrait) is considerably softened, very much in line with the slowly fading memories generated here. I know mother saw it the same way. She used an earlier scan of this picture as her desktop wallpaper for some time.

St Philip Neri, Dungannon

I've been trying to do too much, though you'd not know it from either my progress or my output. The pictures in today's post - and tomorrow's - were reclaimed nearly 2 weeks ago. I had intended to post them then, but got sidetracked by one thing and another. I did finish the book I was reading, and got caught up on the TV series "Suits". And I made contact with the Idaho State Archives, which I hope will bear genealogical fruit in the near term. But let's now take care of business closer to home.

In my post, The Brinkeys of Dungannon, I stated that Lewis Brinkey and Walburga Pfeffer were married in St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic church in Ohio. Now I have to correct that. The marriage was in St. Philip Neri, but what I should have said was "the oldest Catholic parish in northeastern Ohio". The mistake was entirely mine; I wasn't trying to mislead anyone, I just misremembered the facts and neglected to check them. This post presents a few pictures of St. Philip's and a little of the parish's history, derived from a 1992 brochure of its 175th anniversary.

Notice the height of the fir tree at the left front of the church in both these first two pictures. In my last few passes past the church, the trees effectively obscured any really good views. I'll check again on my next visit and perhaps find a good one still.

The parish was established in 1817, consisting of approximately 15 families. The first Mass was said in a log cabin, about a mile southeast of the present church, belonging to Daniel McAllister. It was used for the next three years as the parish grew, then outgrew the accommodations. In 1820, a small brick church was built next to the cabin and dedicated to St. Paul, and the adjacent cemetery still bears that name. With the population and the parish continuing to grow, an acre of land for a new church was donated by Philip Erhardt and, in 1849, the new church was named St. Philip Neri in Mr. Ehrhardt's honor.

In 1966, the church bought the land adjoining St. Paul's Cemetery on which stood Daniel McAlester's cabin, in which the first Mass was said. The pastor and other men of the parish dismantled the cabin and rebuilt it on the grounds of St. Philip Neri. The original Hipplewhite bureau, which had served as an altar in the cabin was donated by one of Daniel McAllister's cousins and returned to the cabin in 1947, where it is on display.

I'll check the maps and see if on my next visit I can duplicate the view above, which is excellent. I suspect, however, that the trees will have taken care of that view too. . . but you can never tell. . .

Curiosity Running Wild. . .

I always liked this picture (below). Growing up, whenever I'd come across it, perusing the shoe boxes of family snapshots, old school pictures, the old sepia-tone portraits from Lisbon and Salem, Ohio, and others from Pennsylvania or West Virginia, I'd forget everything else and think about what it must've been like that day to have some pioneer aviator set down in your field. How exciting that must have been! I was concentrating on the children then, and I probably didn't even notice that the engine was missing until much later. My years as a Navy air traffic controller made me somewhat more observant, I suppose, and if that wasn't sufficient, my engineering training made the missing engine a real curiosity. Now, with the internet and my genealogical experiences to guide me, let's see what we can find out to satisfy that curiosity.

Forced Landing, Somewhere in Ohio

So, engine trouble seems to have brought the airplane down and it was a rare enough occurrence that it warranted field trips from the locals. Mother (third from left, in profile) didn't have many details other than that John Oliver and aunt Mary took them to see the plane. The kids, from left to right, are Helen, mother, and Alta; Mr Oliver is making sure that Jean doesn't fall from her perch on the wing strut, and the Beau Brummel sitting on the tire in necktie and overalls is likely Paul. I never asked mom who the dog was or to whom it belonged. And she never said where exactly the plane was, on my grandfather's property or not, but it could have been anywhere in the county (or the next county for that matter). Then, an afterthought: I hadn't accounted for the photographer. It could have been grandmother (or aunt Mary if that's grandmother in the picture), or one of the older boys, Jim or Arthur.

When I started re-scanning some of these favorite pictures at a higher resolution, there was no question this would be one of the ones I'd do. When I started restoring it I paid more attention to the airplane's details than I had before. I didn't know immediately what plane it was; the tail looked to me like a Stearman or a Cessna, I'd have to look it up on the 'net. I couldn't read the large logo on the underside of the wing or the smaller one on the vertical stabilizer and, until I'd finished working on it, I couldn't make out the registration number on the tail; when I went to the Internet, it looked kinda like NC677K. Continue below, but be sure to click on the links; there are more pictures (including interiors) that I like, but I didn't want to nab.

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I was planning to look at pictures of Stearmans and Cessnas to begin with, but decided to see whether that registration number brought up anything first. Imagine my surprise when my search yielded 55 results in .21 seconds (thanks, Google). The very first article in the list told me everything I expected to find (aircraft type) in its title, and more. I'll paint the picture in broad strokes and I've included links for those who are interested in the whole story. The plane is a Travel Air S6000B, produced by a manufacturer of the same name established in Wichita, Kansas by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman (I told ya, Cessna or Stearman, apologies to Mr. Beech). Cessna left the company in 1927 and incorporated Cessna Aircraft Corporation on September 7. Lloyd Stearman left about the same time and formed the Stearman Aircraft Corporation 20 days after Cessna. Travel Air was bought by Curtiss-Wright in 1929 after the advent of the Great Depression. Walter Beech, who had stayed on as vice president, left and founded Beechcraft in 1932.

Anyway, back to "our" Travel Air, NC677K. Travel Air 77K (as air traffic control would call her) was identified by the manufacturer's serial number 6B-2012 prior to its registration and it became the "flying office" of Harry L. Ogg, a washing machine manufacturer from Newton, Iowa. It seems he was also the prime mover of his company's sales force. After naming the airplane "Smiling Thru", a reference to his company's suggestion that with his washing machine you could easily do your laundry on Monday and "smile through the rest of the week", he traveled about the country in this precursor (some say the FIRST precursor) to today's "biz jets". With his office equipment and secretary aboard, he carried on business and demonstrated his washing machines (carried in the back) after drumming up his audiences. Think "The Great Waldo Pepper" here, with Robert Redford and Bo Svensson. Besides his dictaphone, folding desk, and typewriter, there was an onboard power supply for the washing machines, and his Travel Air was equipped with a siren. His pilot would buzz a town, siren blaring, to get everyone's attention then land somewhere close by and wait for the crowd to show up. Mr. Ogg would then unload a washing machine for demonstrations and give his sales pitch. He must've done pretty well. His Automatic Washer Company eventually became Maytag. His pilot did alright too; he later married Mr Ogg's airborne secretary.

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My www investigation had taken on a life of its own by this point. Googling "Smiling Thru" highlighted a few more details. Ogg's hanger, painted the same bright orange as the wings and horizontal stabilizers of the airplane, also carried the "Smiling Thru" logo above its door. Used as a warehouse north of town for years, it was dismantled piece by piece and rebuilt at the new airport south of town by volunteers led by the local Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter. It's in the process of becoming a small museum celebrating the beginning of business aviation. At another website I came across the local EAA chapter again. They are educating themselves on computer flight simulation and developing a Travel Air model for the museum's simulator depicting "Smiling Thru" and adding local landmarks to the database, including the hanger. I wish them all the luck in the world on their undertaking. On another website, there was video of Mr Ogg taking/sending  two different wedding parties into the wild blue yonder above Caribou, Maine in "Smiling Thru".

And finally, I was led to another website (that's what surfing's all about) with some great pictures of a Travel Air in a more or less typical three-tone paint scheme, similar to 77K's. The EAA website mentioned the fuselage colors of "Smiling Thru" were dark green on bottom and a lighter green above. The orange wings and tail surfaces were presumably the bright orange shown here. Maybe I'll get back into PS and "colorize" the snapshot that started all this. . .