Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: October 2000 Volume 38 Number 4, Pages 117–130


Civil War Veterans Buried at St. David's (Radnor) Church

Bill Stroud

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It has been said, and I agree, that the Second World War generation is arguably the greatest generation this country has had. It survived a depression, fought a world war, created a post war boom economy, and redefined the geography of the globe.

But, there was another generation 135+ years ago which, though long forgotten, can lay claim to a similar legacy. I will share with you some stories about men of this generation who now repose in the churchyard at St. David's (Radnor) Church. Like the World War II generation, most of them were born in the first half of their century, roughly between 1820 and 1840. They survived a depression and fought a war that would claim over 600,000 dead and wounded. They fought to hold a country together and preserve the very essence of the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. They defined a country, whose legacy the World War II generation would uphold against Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan.

The American Revolution of 1775 - 1783 was fought to secure the freedom to form a nation. The Civil War was fought to establish what kind of a nation it was going to be. The generation that fought the Civil War then presided over the greatest period of post-war economic expansion that Americans had yet experienced. By the close of the 19th century, America was flexing its economic and political muscle on the world stage.

None of the men we will identify were famous politicians, capitalist giants of industry, inventors, or sages, but they all shared one thing in common. They all served in the bloodiest, most divisive conflict Americans have ever known. One hundred thirty-five years later we still talk about it, write about it, remember it, reenact it, and react to it.

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Stephen Leamy: 1831 - 1901

Stephen Leamy was born October 1, 1831 in Chester county, the son of John and Susannah Leamy. John Leamy bought a farm of 92 acres in Easttown Township in 1851. It adjoined the Old Lancaster Road about one mile from the Eagle and Reeseville stations of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad. Stephen received a very basic education, and he early began working on his father's farm. His mother and two brothers died when he was only thirteen years old. This left Stephen as his father's principal helping hand.

In the spring of 1861, as the country was torn apart by secession - the bombarding of Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to "put down the rebellion" - Stephen was busy trying to make a living on the farm. Farming, even in the rich soil of Chester County, was a hard life, and Stephen was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Volunteer fever swept Chester County and many young men trooped off to fight what was going to be a "short war." Stephen chose to remain on the land and bring in his crop of wheat, feed and milk his cows, and harvest the apples from his small orchard. Besides working his father's farm, Stephen had also met and begun to court fifteen-year-old Annie Harrison. Leamy was twice her age at 30, but in mid-19th century, the age difference was not the issue it would be today.

Annie became pregnant and, on November 5, 1862, gave birth to Ida Emaline. Stephen did the right thing and married Annie in front of a justice of the peace near Howellville on January 17, 1863. It was then that the fortunes of war caught up with Stephen Leamy. The Lincoln Administration instituted the first ever "draft" call to fill the dwindling ranks of the volunteer regiments, many of whose terms of service would be up within the year. With the war far from being won, more soldiers would be needed.

The draft was not warmly received by a great number of people. To make matters worse, those men who could afford to do so could hire and pay a substitute to fill their place. This made it seem like "the poor man's fight" to many. Stephen Leamy, a poor Chester County farmer, could not pay for a substitute. Having little choice other than jail, he was drafted. Stephen was assigned to fill the quota for the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry. By the time Stephen had joined the 83rd, it had already secured a reputation as a "fighting" regiment. It was part of the Army of the Potomac's Fifth Corps, and had fought valiantly on the Peninsula, Fredericksburg,

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Burnside's "mud march", Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville. The 83rd had in July fought on "Little Roundtop" at Gettysburg, where it helped to hold the extreme left of the Union's line.

Amos Judson's book on the history of the 83rd describes the scene that Leamy was a part of in 1863, "About evening of the 18th of August, Captain Stowe and Lieutenant Gifford arrived with the first instalment of drafted men or substitutes from Philadelphia. They were all, with a few exceptions substitutes for men drafted in the districts of Philadelphia, West Chester, Lancaster, Reading and Norristown. They were shipped at Philadelphia by way of the Delaware and Chesapeake canal and the Chesapeake Bay to Alexandria, and thence by rail to the regiment. Of these, there were quite a number of good men, men who had some respect for their oaths, who have since done faithful service, who have sealed their devotion with their blood, and to the last, were still to be found fighting side by side with the veterans of the 83rd." On August 25, 1863 Stephen Leamy was mustered into Company "A" and began his life as a Union soldier.

Drill, march, drill and more drill was Stephen Leamy's lot. The fall and early winter of 1863-64 saw the 83rd engaging in a series of marches and counter-marches, retreats and advances, back and forth over the Rapidan River, trying to gain some advantage over the enemy. While this was all new to Leamy, the ground was the same killing field that the 83rd had been fighting over for years. The winter encampment, and the new year, would bring many changes to the Army of the Potomac. The largest and most significant change, one that would affect everyone right down to Private Leamy, was the arrival of General Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln appointed Grant to overall command of all Union armies. He would make his headquarters in Virginia with the Army of the Potomac, and make the defeat of Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia his top priority. The year 1864 would be the beginning of the end for Lee and the Confederacy. Grant would use his army in a way it had not been used before. This time they would not see another retreat, only constant advancing, engaging the enemy, and using him up in a war of attrition. The numbers mathematically were with Grant. He had greater resources, replacements and supplies. He would win, but it would cost a lot. In just the first six months of his command, Grant lost more men killed and wounded than any other commander in the previous three years.

With the regiment well rested, and its ranks full from new recruits, the 83rd broke winter camp on May 1, 1864. The spring campaign was about

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to get under way, and Stephen Leamy would see the elephant for the first time. "Seeing the elephant" was a term used by soldiers to describe the experience of being under fire in battle. The Union Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed the Rapidan River and moved into the front line. By the morning of the 5th of May, they had thrown up breastworks and defenses stretching along five to ten miles of the Orange and Fredericksburg Road, a short distance from the Old Wilderness Tavern. This area was known as the "Wilderness" ~ a dense forest of young growth trees with a thickly matted carpet of brushy undergrowth and dried leaves - a loathsome place to have a battle. The Confederates were within half a mile of the Union troops, looking to engage them there, near Chancellorsville, as they had done the previous year with much success.

Through the dense forest, the 83rd could see the enemy forming in line of battle not 100 yards from them, close enough to hear the commands given to form for attack. The 83rd was given orders to charge the enemy and drive him from his position. They rose from their breastworks, and advanced through the woods towards the Confederates. At some point the order to charge was given. The men of the 83rd ran, screaming like wild men, at the enemy. Massed volleys of gunfire erupted and many of the men from Stephen Leamy's company went down. Their advance began to break up as the woods filled with smoke, and cohesive lines of soldiers began to loose their way in the dense forest. The men pressed on, with the order to "fix bayonets." They poured a volley into the en­emy, who broke and ran from their position. They pushed the enemy farther, so far that their attack became disorganized. Small groups of men found themselves isolated from the rest of the regiment. The smoke obscured the battle line, and keeping order in the woods was almost impossible. Confusion reigned up and down the Union's lines. Stephen Leamy and others knew they could be in trouble, yet on they pressed.

Suddenly, the woods erupted with another devastating volley of gunfire from the enemy. The Confederates had reformed and began a counter attack. Unsupported by more troops, too confused and terrified, Leamy and the rest withdrew, stumbling over the dead and wounded lying in the tangled weeds and underbrush on the forest floor. The 83rd took a lot of casualties in the attack. Amos Judson reflected on the uselessness of the repeated attacks, and the waste of life for no gain. Lee had not been dislodged, and Grant would come at him again. Two more days of fighting in the Wilderness would force Lee to find a way to outflank Grant, so he moved to nearby Spotsylvania Court House and hoped Grant would withdraw. He did not. Instead he advanced again to attack.

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Rebel troops had taken up a strong position on Laurel Hill, and a portion of the Fifth Corps, including the 83rd, was ordered to dislodge them. Faulty reports led commanders to believe that only a small Rebel force held this point and that "they only need to be pushed" to evacuate the position. Instead, a larger force of Confederates had thrown up breast­works and created a strong defense near an opening at the edge of the woods. The 83rd formed in line of battle at the end of the field in front of the woods. They advanced under cover of artillery fire without bayonets at first, and were met by a huge volley from the enemy. They rapidly discovered that they were attacking more than a brigade of the enemy. Massed volleys of gunfire began to take a toll on the 83rd. The order to "fix bayonets" was given. As the 83rd prepared to charge, another volley of gunfire erupted from the Rebels. Stephen twisted the bayonet onto the end of his rifle, lowered it and charged the enemy.

The Rebels let loose another volley. A .54 caliber minie ball crashed into Stephen Leamy's left hand at the base of the thumb. The bullet tore away flesh down to his wrist and left him grasping his hand in agony as his regiment advanced on the enemy. Stephen stumbled back to the edge of the field and made his way to a hospital aide station. An aide station in the Civil War was little more than a clearing near a battle where men gathered to have their wounds bandaged, and some form of assistance rendered, before going to a regimental hospital to await the horrors of possible amputation or some other surgery.

In any event, the war ended for Stephen Leamy on May 8, 1864, in a field at the Battle of Laurel Hill, during the early part of Grant's bloody 1864 campaign to end the war. Miraculously, the bones of Leamy's hand had not been broken by the soft lead of the bullet. Nerve, muscle and tendon damage, however, were extensive, and Stephen's hand was virtually use­less. He was sent to Lincoln Hospital in Washington on May 12th, then to the U. S. hospital in Chester on May 27th. After nearly a year of recovery, and being bounced around various barracks, Stephen was assigned to Company "B" of the 10th Veterans Reserve Corps on March 11, 1865. The reserve corps was made up of wounded men who could perform duties such as hospital steward, clerk, or even prisoner guard duty. Stephen was lucky enough to have avoided infection and gangrene which often killed men months after their wounding.

On March 31,1865, Stephen Leamy was honorably discharged, by a surgeon's certificate of disability, in Washington, DC and returned home to Chester County. He found the life of a farmer difficult with one good

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hand, but nevertheless struggled with it for the rest of his life. His father's farm was sold at auction in January of 1864 while Stephen was in the army. In 1868 Stephen and Annie moved to a dairy farm in King of Prussia, Montgomery County, on the site of what is now the Route 202 and Mall Boulevard area. Nothing remains of the open space of the farm except the old farmhouse on Route 202 next to the Burger King. It is now King of Prussia Veterinary Hospital. He and Annie had three more children together: John Brooke, born April 19, 1866; Enos Nathan, born May 1, 1869; and Harry Dewitt, born February 25, 1876. With three boys in the family, Stephen had the help he would need on the farm.

Like a great many veterans, Stephen attempted to take full advantage of the government's veteran's pension. In 1866 he applied for and was granted an invalid pension. Under the pension he received $12.00 a month. Over the course of his life he applied for a number of increases. An application dated August 7, 1891 requested an increase due to gun­shot wound of the left hand, disease of the rectum, chronic rheumatism, lumbago, weakness of sight, deafness, vertigo, urinary troubles and general weakness. He was 60 years old. His complaints, legitimate as they probably were, would not get him an increase. Except for the gunshot wound, none of the other conditions could be documented as "having occurred due to service in the military."

Stephen Leamy, a soldier conscripted for service under the nation's first draft, and wounded veteran proud of serving his country, died at his farm on February 8, 1901. He was sixty-nine. Upon Stephen's death, Annie sold the farm to settle his debts and moved to Ardmore to live with her first born Ida and her husband Stuart Peck. As the widow of a veteran, Annie received $20.00 a month until she died on September 23, 1917.

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Benjamin Franklin Taylor: 1842 - 1862

Benjamin Taylor was born in Philadelphia on August 25, 1842, the fifth of six children of Jeremiah and Margaret Taylor. Ben's father was a freight manager for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The only girl, Margaret, died in infancy. All the boys were educated at Bolmar's School in West Chester. Anthony Bolmar, a Frenchman, had served six years in the French army before coming to America. He was known as a strict disciplinarian. After completing his education, Ben took a job as a clerk in West Chester. In 1861, his family moved to a home on about twelve acres of land in Tredyffrin Township at Paoli, very near the site of the old Paoli railroad station.

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Swept up in the excitement of volunteering to "put down the rebellion," eighteen-year-old Ben Taylor enlisted in Company "L" of the 72nd Penn­sylvania Infantry. The 72nd was a regiment formed by Colonel Dewitt Clinton Baxter, and was known as Baxter's "Fire Zouaves." A great many of the men of the regiment came from volunteer fire companies in the city, and the uniform of the regiment was modeled after the nattily dressed French Zouave soldiers - light blue pantaloons and a dark blue chasseur's jacket trimmed with red piping, a light blue vest also trimmed in red, and with shiny brass buttons, made the 72nd a very striking regiment on the parade grounds or camp. The 72nd was grouped together with the 69th, 71st and 106th Pennsylvania regiments to form what would be known as the "Philadelphia Brigade," the only brigade in the army with the name of a city attached to it.

In the spring of 1862, Private Ben Taylor and the 72nd would find them­selves, and the rest of the army, on a strip of land between the James and York Rivers in Virginia known as the Peninsula. That is where everyone in the Army of the Potomac was in 1862. General George McClellan wanted to land his army there and move up the Peninsula to the Confed­erate capital of Richmond, capture it, and bring the south back into the Union. The Peninsula campaign was hard going for the army. Heavy spring rains had turned the roads into quagmires. It was difficult to move an army of 150,000 men and supplies. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston had fought a strategic withdrawal from the Peninsula to better defensive positions closer to Richmond. Johnston was wounded in the early part of the campaign, and was replaced by Robert E. Lee who would out-maneuver and out-general McClellan during what would be known as the "Seven Days' Battles." Even though the Union army won most of the battles, McClellan remained convinced he faced a larger army than his and he eventually withdrew his forces off the Peninsula. The reality was that he had an army twice the size of Lee's, and had fought them virtually to the gates of Richmond before he lost his nerve. The 72nd fought for the first time at the Battles of Glendale and Malvern Hill, performing well and proving themselves good fighters. Ben Taylor had "seen the elephant." Ben and the 72nd were now veterans.

After retreating off the Peninsula, McClellan sailed his forces back up the Potomac to Washington. He was relieved of his command and General John Pope now commanded the army. In late August Pope would find himself out-generaled by Lee, as McClellan had been. The army suffered another defeat at "Second Manassas." Lincoln relieved Pope and placed McClellan in charge once again.

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Robert E. Lee had convinced Confederate President Jefferson Davis that the time was right to mount an invasion of the North. Lee felt that he could march into Maryland and bring her into the war on the side of the Confederacy. Maryland was a border state with a large population having southern sympathies. He also wanted the Yankees out of Virginia so southern farmers in the Shenandoah Valley could bring in their fall harvests without fear of the marauding Yankee invaders. Lee also felt he could perhaps capture a major Northern city like Philadelphia or New York, or swing south and attack Washington, negotiating peace terms favorable to the South. An ambitious plan to be sure, but he felt it should be risked if the Confederacy were to survive.

Lee's reception in Maryland was a cool one. Maryland would not be turned and, more to the point, offered little support to the invading Army of Northern Virginia. Worse yet, a copy of Lee's plans fell into McClellan's hands. He now knew where Lee was going and what he was up to. Union forces caught up with Lee in the South Mountain passes along the Mary­land-Pennsylvania border. A pitched battle was fought in the mountain passes on September 15, 1862. Lee failed to gain control of the ground. His movements discovered, and losing control of his ability to move for­ward, Lee had to fall back. The Potomac was running high from days of rain. Lee could not get across before McClellan, with his whole army, would be upon him. He set up a defensive position on the low sloping hills outside the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, along the Antietam creek.

The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, would be the bloodiest single day in the history of the war. In one day of fighting, both the North and South combined would suffer 23,000 killed, wounded and captured. Opening the battle at around 6 a.m. were forces under the command of Union General Joseph Hooker. Fierce cannonade and frontal assaults by Hooker's troops, and counterattacks by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, turned a field tall with corn into a scene of unimaginable slaughter. Hundreds of men lay on the ground dead and dying, the once tall stalks of corn cut close to the ground as if by a scythe. Rebel troops withdrew into the woods just west of a small white church owned by a German Lutheran sect known as "Dunkers." Fighting raged all around this church in the early morning.

Around 7:30 a.m. the "Philadelphia Brigade," part of the Second Division commanded by General John Sedgwick of General "Bull" Sumner's Second Corps, crossed the Antietam Creek into the woods on the northern edge of the battlefield. They formed into companies, and by regiment

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marched out into the open across the fields to support Hooker's right flank. The 72nd was on the left flank of the advance. Company "L", with newly promoted Corporal Ben Taylor, was at the extreme end of the line.

The plan was to have Sedgwick's division link up with Hooker's attack and turn the right flank of the enemy. Sumner did not know that Hooker had been wounded and his attack was basically finished. His force had fought itself out. Sedgwick's division marched into the West Wood beyond the Dunker Church where confused lines attempted to straighten themselves out. Suddenly Rebel troops came up a small rise as if from nowhere and slammed into the left flank of the "Philadelphia Brigade." The attack upon the Union flank was described as "doing simple murder." Unable to form and meet the attack, and with no time to fire back, the 72nd was raked by gunfire cutting men down by the dozens. In just 15 minutes some 250 men of the 72nd were killed.

Ben Taylor was killed instantly in the firestorm of the attack. The 72nd regiment folded up and retreated in panic.Soon the 69th followed, and the whole line collapsed. The brigade was torn apart. The 72nd had suffered 35% casualties. The entire "Philadelphia Brigade" suffered 48% of its effective force killed, wounded or missing. For the rest of the day they remained in the rear of the lines, unable to continue fighting. It was barely 10 o'clock in the morning. The battle was not even half over.

As a battle, Antietam was a tactical draw. Lee did abandon the field the next day, on the morning of the 18th, when McClellan failed to follow up with another attack. McClellan had far superior forces once again but failed to press the advantage and finish off Lee's army, which was very badly hurt and could not have withstood another battle the magnitude of the day before. Antietam however did give President Lincoln the "moral victory" he wanted. He issued a proclamation on the 22nd declaring his intention to publish, in 100 days, an Emancipation Proclamation. This document took a step toward redefining the tenor of the entire war. It allowed the Union to capture the "moral high ground" that would enable the North to continue the fight to unite the country.

Lee escaped across the Potomac back into Virginia. Lincoln was furious with McClellan and sacked him once more. The war would go on for three more bloody years. The 72nd would redeem itself and go on to great glory at Gettysburg, but on September 17, 1862, Corporal Ben Taylor and thousands of others made the soldier's ultimate sacrifice. "Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for another."

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In the days following the battle, Ben's body was most likely buried on the battlefield where he fell or in a mass grave with others from his his regiment. Regimental reports simply note that he was killed at Sharpsburg. Volunteer firemen from Philadelphia took ambulances from the city and went to retrieve the bodies of the men of the 72nd. Jeremiah Taylor may have even gone out to identify his son's body. Two weeks later, on October 4, 1862, Ben Taylor was buried in his family's plot at St. David's Church. His headstone reads:

Ben. F. Taylor
August 25, 1842
September 17, 1862
Killed at Antietam

He was barely twenty years old.

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John Eyre Webster: 1823 - 1864

At the beginning of the war there was plenty of raw material, men anx­ious to enlist for service. The second floors of the Leopard (Easttown) and Howellville (Tredyffrin) schoolhouses were requisitioned for armories to accommodate the "Home Guards." A resident of Howellville, John Eyre Webster had the honor to be, in April of 1861, one of the "First Defend­ers of the City of Washington and guardians of the Capitol building and archives." Leaving a wife and six young children in the care of his father ­in-law at Reeseville, he was the first to sign the muster roll of the Allen Rifles, mustered in the U. S. service April 18, 1861 at Allentown, four days after the surrender of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces and three days after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 militia to serve for ninety days.

John Webster, the son of Robert and Hannah Eyre Webster, was born in Yorkshire, England, on March 10, 1823. His father brought his family to America from the city of Leeds in Yorkshire about 1835. Robert Webster was an expert in the manufacture of woolen cloth, blankets, etc., using water power. He leased a small mill at Howellville located south of Bear Hill Road powered by Crabby Creek, a branch of Valley Creek, flowing northeast into the valley. This was the only mill of its kind in Tredyffrin Township.

In January of 1850, articles of agreement were drawn up between Robert Webster and his son John who, as partners, would operate as Robert Webster and Son, with the machinery to be valued and John to pay his

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equal share on the wear and tear. The net proceeds of all goods on hand, the wool warp, dye-wares, etc., would be valued and credited to Robert.

Each of the partners was to give his personal attention and time wholly to the interests of the firm, as well as best skill and judgment, and should not engage in any other speculation. This firm operated at Howellville until the spring of 1852, when it removed to Frederick, Maryland. Another mill, believed to have been managed by John, was located at Loudoun County, Virginia.

John Webster had married Hannah Ann Burns on October 2, 1845 at Reeseville. She was a daughter of Peter Burns,Sr. and his wife Elizabeth Jones Burns. About the time Robert Webster was locating his family in Howellville in the Valley, Peter Burns had purchased a 70-acre farm on top of the South Valley Hill above Howellville, along the north side of Old Lancaster Road at Reeseville.

After his ninety days service, Webster reenlisted as a veteran to become a three year soldier, and was assigned to Company "G" of the 47th Penn­sylvania Infantry. It saw service in Virginia, and in late 1862, was attached to the troops of the Department of the Gulf at New Orleans.

As Grant's army pushed relentlessly into Virginia in the spring of 1864, Federal forces beyond the Mississippi were engaged in the largest and most disastrous western campaign of the war. A 30,000 man land-and­water force under General Nathaniel Banks and Admiral David Porter set out in mid-March to advance from Alexandria, Louisiana up the twisting Red River, a maze of bayous, backwaters and side channels, with orders to take Shreveport and then occupy east Texas to shut off a route of supply for the South. They never got there. After advancing almost 100 miles, a defeat administered by the Confederates at Sabine Crossroads on April 8 sent them scrambling back down the river in April and early May. It was not until May 19 that the armies disengaged.

John Webster served as quartermaster sergeant in his unit, and died at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 21,1864, from fever contracted on the Red River expedition. While he lay in the hospital, he was a great comfort to the sick soldiers around him, talking and singing until the end.

[Some say he was buried at Baton Rouge National Cemetery, but there is a marker for him at St. David's (Radnor) Church on which the designation of his unit is inscribed incorrectly as the 74th Pennsylvania Volunteers instead of the 47th.]

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William Wayne: 1828 - 1901

Doubtless more local volunteers appear on the muster rolls of the 97th Pennsylvania Infantry than any other regiment. Company "K" (the Wayne Guards) was commanded by Captain William Wayne of Easttown Township, who later became Major of the 82nd Volunteers but soon left the service on account of his health.

William Wayne was born December 6, 1828 in Easttown. He was the son of Issachar and Mary Wayne (Atlee) Evans, his mother being the daughter of Margaretta Wayne and William Atlee and thus a granddaughter of General Anthony Wayne. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1846. General Wayne's son Isaac had no surviving children when he died in 1852. Under his will, he left the Waynesborough estate to William Wayne Evans, his grand-nephew, and by proceedings in court in 1854 it was decreed that the name William Wayne Evans should be changed to William Wayne. He married about that time Hannah Jane Zook, thought to be from nearby Upper Merion. Two children were born to the union, William Jr. and Mary, who married John M. Wirgman.

Company "K" was the last of the 97th's ten companies to form. William Wayne recruited in Easttown and Tredyffrin Townships. He was a gentleman farmer with a comfortable family life, but he offered to leave it be­hind and raise a troop for the 97th. Despite the glory of the Wayne name, William encountered difficulty recruiting men in the eastern end of the county, which had already been canvassed heavily for volunteers. As a result, the company also included men from other localities of Chester County. The Wayne Guards remained the smallest company in the 97th.

The volunteers gathered in West Chester in August of 1861, mustered into the Union army, and began drilling. After learning the ropes of army life, the 97th left Chester County on November 12th. The day of departure for Washington, Governor Curtin presented the state colors to the regiment. It was shortly ordered to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and subsequently to the Department of the South. It arrived off the harbor of Port Royal, South Carolina, on the 11th of December -in heavy weather which caused a three-day delay in disembarkation.

Captain Wayne commanded his company through the operations of 1862. In January it took part in the expedition to Warsaw Sound, Georgia, which resulted in the capture of Fort Pulaski, and on March 5th, the 97th was landed from the transport in the Florida expedition to capture Fort Church

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and the town of Fernandina. Florida was later abandoned and the troops redeployed to Edisto, John and James Islands, South Carolina. The regiment suffered severely with intermittent fever, and there were many cases of yellow fever, some fatal.

At Hilton Head, South Carolina, September 10, 1862, Wayne was detailed on recruiting service and returned home. His health having suffered materially from exposure and climatic influences, and being unable to return to duty, he tendered his resignation and received an honorable discharge for disability by order of the Secretary of War (Special Order No. 24) on January 19, 1863, effective later that year.

After the war, William Wayne returned to the life of a gentleman farmer. He served as vestryman at St. David's Church from 1861 to 1901. In the pattern of his Wayne predecessors, he was elected to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1880, representing the Eastern District of Chester County, and three times he was re-elected, serving from 1881 to 1886. He was known for his wit and charming conversation. He died November 20, 1901, his wife having predeceased him. Under his will, the Waynesborough property passed to his son and daughter.

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Clayton Asher Lobb: 1837 -1917

Clayton Asher Lobb, the second born of eleven children of William C. and Elizabeth (Levis) Lobb, was born in 1837 in Upper Darby Township. His father, a school teacher, in 1842 purchased a 100-acre farm in Easttown Township located on both sides of the Eagle (Sugartown) Road, just west of the intersection with Newtown Road, south of the emerging village of Reeseville (Berwyn). Clayton and his siblings were raised on the farm and were well known in the neighborhood. He was a friend of Henry Fritz, who married his sister Mary in 1863.Like Fritz, Clayton was a carpenter.

In the summer of 1864, when Confederate General Jubal Early invaded Maryland and threatened an incursion into the southern counties of Pennsylvania from the Shenandoah Valley, Governor Curtin called for 12,000 volunteers to serve 100 days "in the vicinity of Washington." Clayton Lobb joined Company "N" of the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, raised by Benjamin N. Brooke of Radnor. The regiment was mustered at Camp Cadwalader (Philadelphia) on July 19, 1864 and sent at once to camp near Baltimore, and then to duty in Ohio. It guarded supplies and prisoners but saw no action. After the Rebels burned Chambersburg on

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July 30, Union troops forced Early and his raiders back across the Potomac and the emergency abated. The 192nd returned to Philadelphia and was mustered out on November 11, three days after Abraham Lincoln was elected president for a second term. Clayton Lobb returned to Berwyn to join Henry Fritz in his lumber, feed and coal business. In October of 1870, Fritz was killed in an accident at the Eagle railroad station. Clayton Lobb leased the lumber yard from Mrs. Fritz and, with his brother Preston, took over operation using the name C. A. Lobb & Brother.

Clayton Lobb married Eliza A. Heath, of Canadian birth, in 1875, and built a house on the north side of Conestoga Road across the railroad tracks from the lumber yard. He took his brother Preston into partnership with him that year, but one year later a disagreement caused a split between the two. On December 29, 1876, Clayton bought a lumber, feed and coal yard of his own from Edmund M. Evans, located on the Lancaster Turnpike in the neighboring village of Spread Eagle, leaving his brother Preston to operate the Fritz establishment for their sister in Berwyn.

Three sons and two daughters were born to Clayton and Eliza Lobb. The sons, William C, Walter L. and Norman H., worked with their father in the business, and, when he died on April 15, 1917, they succeeded to its ownership and operation. Although his grandfather's generation were counted among the Quaker families of Delaware County, Clayton Lobb was laid to rest at St. David's (Radnor) Churchyard beside his wife, who had predeceased him.

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Sources

Ashmead, H. G., "History of Delaware County." (Phila.: Everts, 1884)

Catton, Bruce, "Army of Potomac." 3 vols. (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951, 52, 53)

Foote, Shelby, "The Civil War." 3 vols. (N.Y.: Random House, 1958, 63, 72)

Futhey, J. S. and G. Cope, "History of Chester County." (Phila.: Everts, 1881)

Harper, Douglas R., "If Thee Must Fight." (West Chester: CCHS, 1990)

Josephy, Alvin M. Jr, "War on the Frontier, The Trans-Mississippi West." (Alexandria, Va.: Time Life Books, 1986)

Judson, Amos, "History of 83rd Pa. Infantry Regiment." (Pub. not known)

Taylor, F. H., "Philadelphia in the Civil War." (Pub. by the City, 1913)

Tredyffrin Easttown History Club Quarterly. (Vol. XII, No. 3; Vol. XXVII, No. 4)

Tyson, Carl Newton, "The Red River in Southwestern History." (Norman, Ok.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981)

Ward, G. C, with Ken Burns, et. al., "The Civil War." (Knopf, 1990)

 
 

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