Elbridge Green was born in Brunswick on June 28, 1840, the son of Merrill and Hannah L.A. Green. Merrill, was listed a merchant in the 1850 US Census there, along with wife Hannah and children Elbridge, 10, and Cloe, 8. Elbridge enlisted in September, 1862 in Company C of the 169th New York Infantry in Brunswick. He gave his occupation as blacksmith, his height as 5’10”, and had dark hair and blue eyes. He received an enlistment bounty of $150.
NYS Muster Card of Elbridge Green
The 169th, the third Rensselaer County Regiment, was formed as the 125th , the second county regiment was leaving town on September 1, 1862. Company C was recruited in Troy, Brunswick, and Pittstown. It first went to the Washington, D.C. area, and didn’t get into combat until the siege of Suffolk, Virginia in April of 1863. It also participated in the battles at Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter in the summer and fall, then was deeply involved in the campaign around Petersburg and Cold Harbor, Virginia in 1864. From there the regiment went to North Carolina and participated in the attack on Fort Fisher in January 1865.
It is unclear from Elbridge’s record card just how much he served with the Regiment, as he was listed as sick in the hospital on several occasions. He finally transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps in June of 1865 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. This Corps was made up of men who could serve, but had compromised health in some way. He was honorably discharged in October, 1865.
Elbridge returned home, and was recorded by the Town Clerk of Brunswick as married and living in Cropseyville in 1865. He and his family had moved to Cambridge by the 1870 US Census. Elbridge and wife Elizabeth, age 30, had a son Merrill, age 4, and daughter Chrissy, age 4 months. He was a blacksmith. Elbridge applied for an invalid pension in 1878, indicating long -term health issues. In the 1880 US Census, the family lived on 8th Street in Troy. They had added a son William, then age 7.
The only times I find Elbridge in Schaghticoke are in 1883, when he was recorded as receiving a pension of $4 per month and suffering from rheumatism, and in 1884, when he was a charter member of the G.A.R. post. I don’t find him on the Veterans Census of 1890, nor in a Schaghticoke directory in 1886, so he was only in town for a short time. I can’t imagine why he isn’t in the Veterans Schedule at all, however, as his membership in the GAR certainly and status as a pensioner indicate the strong effect of his service on his life.
By the 1900 US Census, he and Elizabeth were living in Lansingburgh. He was listed as a horse shoer then, and as a blacksmith in the city directories, so one wonders about the extent of his disability. Son William and his family lived next door. I do not find him in the 1910 US census, but I did find his obituary in the Troy “Times” on October 6, 1919. He was buried from his home on 4th Avenue in Lansingburgh, by the minister of the Mills Memorial Baptist Church. The G.A.R. Post John McConihe “conducted the Grand Army’s ritual” before the service. He was buried in the Soldiers’ Plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.
Tombstone of Elbridge D. Green at Oakwood Cemetery, thanks to Find-a-grave
Henry Gray was born in Palatine, Montgomery County, New York in 1849. An odd 1850 US Census listing includes him as a 2-year old in a very large family of Vandenburghs in Palatine. Next to him in the list was a 5-year old named Dolly Radley and four children with different last names. It seems as though the Vandenberghs operated an orphanage of some sort. Henry remained in Palatine until the Civil War. In the 1860 US Census, he and Dolly Radley were living in the family of laborer John Chambers and his wife Catherine.
I’ll bet Henry was eager to enlist, not having many prospects. He gave his age as 18 when he enlisted in the last regiment to be formed in New York for the war, the 192nd, on March 29, 1865. He was actually 16, a farmer with hazel eyes and black hair, just 5’1” tall. This was certainly a case of a child soldier, and he probably got a hefty enlistment bounty as well.
NYS Muster Card for Henry Gray
The 192nd barely made it South before the war ended, but wasn’t mustered out until the end of August. Henry records on his pension card that he also served in the regular U.S. Army, in the 15th Infantry Regiment. This is certainly possible. The 15th did occupation duty in Alabama until 1869. As Henry got married in 1870, he certainly had left the Army by then.
The 1880 US Census found Henry, age 30, a carpenter in Cambridge, Washington County, with his wife Merilla M., age 36, and their daughter Lula, age 6. That same year Henry applied for an invalid pension, listing service in both the 192nd and the U.S. 15th Regiments. The family remained in Cambridge through the 1890 Veterans Schedule, when Henry reported he had been in the 192nd for almost three years, untrue. He gave his enlistment day correctly, March 29, but said it was in 1863. He didn’t mention service in the 15th U.S. He stated he had had varicose veins and rheumatism since the time of his service. Certainly his pension papers would tell the correct and complete story.
The 1900 US Census listed the family in Pittstown, where Henry was still a carpenter. Merilla, reported as “Matilda,” stated she had had three children, just one living. By the 1910 US Census they had moved to Malta, Saratoga County. Now Henry, 61, said he was a “traveling man,” which I take to mean a traveling salesman. They had moved to 15th Street in the City of Troy by the 1920 US Census, where they owned their home. Henry was retired. Merilla died in 1926 and Henry in 1927. Both are buried in Elmwood Cemetery, with their daughter Lula. There are no dates on her stone, but she is recorded as the wife of Smith Herrington. Perhaps that is why Henry and Merilla ended up buried here, as Smith and Lula lived in Pittstown. His burial here is his only connection to the town.
William was born in 1836 in Schaghticoke, his sole connection to the town. His parents were Darius or Derias Gorham, and Aurilla or Orilla Moore. The 1850 US Census listed the family in Stillwater: Derias, a carpenter aged 44, and Aurilla, aged 41, with children Ann, 15; future soldier William, 14, and Lewis, 12. The 1855 NY Census listed Derias, William, and Lewis as boatmen. By the 1860 US Census, William was still in Stillwater, but living in a hotel and working as a farm laborer. His parents still lived nearby.
William enlisted in Company H of the 115th NY Infantry Regiment in 1862, receiving at least the town bounty of $53. Company H was principally recruited in Halfmoon and Stillwater. At the time he was living in Mechanicville and working as a wagon maker. He was 25-years-old, 5’8” tall, with blue eyes and brown hair.
NYS Muster Card of William H. Gorham
The 115th Regiment shared a bitter start to its war with the 125th, the Rensselaer County Regiment. They were part of 11,000 men surrendered to General Stonewall Jackson’s Army at Harper’s Ferry on September 15, 1862. The men spent a couple of months in an internment camp in Chicago, then returned to the front. The 115th was based in Virginia, then South Carolina and lost 300 men killed and wounded in the battle of Olustee, Florida at the end of January 1864. It participated in the siege of Richmond and Petersburg that summer, then the attack on Fort Fisher, North Carolina that December. The regiment finished the war fighting in the Carolinas. William was promoted to Sergeant sometime along the way and was mustered out with the rest in June 1865 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
William returned to Stillwater after discharge, where the 1865 NY Census listed him with his parents and siblings, no occupation given. I have not found him for sure in the 1870 US Census, but in the 1875 NY Census, he lived in Moreau, Saratoga County. William 39, worked as a filer in a saw mill, and had a wife Elisabeth (I think Mary Elizabeth), 28; and a son, Charles 3, and daughter Anna M., 1 3/12. The family was back in Stillwater by the 1880 US Census, with William working as a carpenter, but by 1888, lived in Glens Falls, where they stayed. The 1888 City directory listed William as a carpenter, living on Summit Avenue.
William and wife Mary Ambrose were very involved in the social life of Glens Falls. He was a Republican who ran for tax collector at least once, an officer in the Royal Arch Masons, and served in many capacities, including Commander, in the local GAR Post Wing. He attended state GAR conventions, and was instrumental in organizing the annual Memorial Day parade for many years. He applied for a pension in 1891, shortly after they were available based on old age. Sadly, wife Mary died of “paralysis”- probably a stroke- in 1894 at age 46, while preparing to attend a local temperance convention.
William lived on in Glens Falls, working as a carpenter. The 1900 US Census listed William, 62, plus youngest child Elsie, 16, and daughter Anna and her husband Guy Lee living in one household. By the 1910 US Census, at age 74, he was living with Elsie and her husband Charles Beckwith, still in Glens Falls, William died in 1915 and is buried in the Gorham plot at Glens Falls Cemetery.
individual tombstone of William Gorham in Glens Falls, with note of his service on his tombstone
Isaac Frederick Gorham was born in Schaghticoke on June 11, 1843. His father, Isaac K. Gorham was a merchant. His grandfather, also Isaac, had lived here as early as 1830. He died in 1835 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Our future soldier Isaac Frederick was evidently known as Frederick in the family, and that is how he is listed in the census. The 1860 US Census for Schaghticoke shows the family at its largest: father Isaac, 37, was a merchant, with real estate worth $2500 and a personal estate of $4000. His wife, variously listed in the census as Lorana, Laura, and Susannah, was 35. Isaac had been born in Connecticut, his wife in Massachusetts. Frederick, 19, was an apprentice tinsmith, but still attending school. The other children were Harlem, 13; Herbert, 10; Moulton, 9; Annette, 3; and Wilmot, 3. They had an Irish serving girl.
Frederick enlisted as Isaac F. Gorham in Company M of the 1st NY Mounted Rifles on September 23, 1862, right in Schaghticoke, according to his muster card. In his pension application in 1896 he stated he had enlisted at 600 Broadway in New York City. He had blue eyes, auburn hair, was 5’4” tall, and 21- years- old. He gave his occupation as tinsmith.
An affidavit in Gorham’s pension file from a “bunkmate”, Frederick G. Hastings, reports that “I first remember meeting I.F. Gorham at Philadelphia on our way to the front in the Fall of 1862, went to see the old Liberty Bell together- told me his Father put him in charge of “Ned Buntline” (EZC Judson.)” Ned Buntline was the penname of Judson, a very famous journalist and author of sensational adventure stories.
Ned Buntline/EZC Judson, from his wikipedia bio
Judson, born in rural New York in 1821 had already had a wild life, including adventures in the Wild West, and a stint in the U.S. Navy, and was well-off financially by the time he enlisted as a Private in the 1st NY Mounted Rifles just a couple of days after Gorham. His enlistment must have been widely reported in the press for Hastings and Gorham’s father to have known it. Judson rose quickly to be a Sergeant, but was reduced in ranks in February 1863, and in fact confined to military jail in Suffolk, Virginia in April. At some point that summer he became ill, and transferred to the Veterans’ Reserve Corps in October. His Wikipedia biography states that he was demoted due to drunkenness and that may have been the case.
NYS Muster Card of Isaac F. Gorham
The 1st Mounted Rifles rode all over Virginia during the war, participating in many, many small actions. Frederick was promoted to Bugler in March 1863, transferred to Company G in September, and re-enlisted in September, 1864. He was captured in North Carolina- the only time the unit strayed that far south- on April 3, 1865. Even though Lee surrendered a few days later, he was not paroled until June of 1865. He was lucky to survive what must have been a tumultuous few weeks. I don’t imagine feeding the captives was a high priority as the Confederacy collapsed.
In the same affidavit from Gorham’s pension file cited above, his friend Hastings goes on to report that Frederick was “very expert with tools of every kind and made over my uniform to fit me better than any tailor could have done.”
Frederick switched to the 4th NY Cavalry in September 1865, and was mustered out of the Army on November 29, 1865, as Chief Trumpeter, which sounds very exalted. Of course bugles echoed the verbal commands of the men in charge of the cavalry units, so the buglers were important.
2nd NYS Muster Card for Isaac Frederick Gorham
Frederick’s family listed him in the 1865 NY Census for Schaghticoke. His father Isaac died in 1867. The Presbyterian Church records state that Mrs Gorham moved to Troy after that, but I found her in Brooklyn in the 1870 US Census, with children Herbert, 20, a bookkeeper; Moulton, 28, Nettie, 14, and Millie (Wilmot), 12.
The 1865 NY Census also stated that Isaac F. Gorham (Frederick), age 21 married Fanny Thompson, age 19, on September 20 in the Methodist Church. She is in the census as Frances Thompson, 19, living in the village of Schaghticoke with her parents William, a carpenter born in Ireland, and Margaret, and her brother Edward. Frederick must have had some leave time in September, perhaps when he was switching from the 1st NY to the 4th. He had time to come home to marry Fanny. His pension file states he had furlough from June 25 to August 2, but that could be a bit inaccurate.
There is a very interesting story in the rest of the life of Frederick Gorham. His pension card illuminates some of it: he applied for a pension as Fred Gordon, alias Isaac F. Gorham, on March 30, 1894 from Minnesota. Meanwhile, Fannie E. Gorham, had applied for a widow’s pension in New York on February 2, 1893. And there is a “contesting widow”, Mary Gordon, who applied for a widow’s pension from Minnesota on November 3, 1921.
In the 1890 Veterans Schedule, I do find Fred Gordon, who lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He said he had been a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st NY Mounted Rifles from April 27, 1861 to December 3, 1865 .This was definitely Isaac/Frederick Gordon/Gorham, padding his service somewhat in rank and time. I also found Fred Gordon living in a boarding house in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in the 1880 US Census, no occupation given, and in both the 1910 and 1920 census, with his wife Mary, in Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota. All of this is confirmed by Gordon/Gorham’s pension file.
In the 1910 US Census Frederick was 65-years- old, and said he was born in Virginia. This erroneous birthplace was mentioned once in the 150-page pension file as well, along with many references to the correct birthplace of Schaghticoke. Wife Mary was 55, born in Germany. They said they had been married for 35 years, so married in 1875. He was a tinsmith working in a furnace factory. In 1920 he was still working as a tinsmith. Fred died on September 28, 1921, and is buried in Northfield. His tombstone states he was born in 1843.
My conclusion is that Isaac Frederick Gorham alias Fred Gordon went West to make his fortune, abandoning his wife Fannie. She finally assumed he was dead, so applied for a pension. Unfortunately there are no documents in the pension file about her. Meanwhile, Fred had become a bigamist, marrying Mary in 1874, changing his name and even his birth state. He repeatedly stated in the pension file that he had not been married before. Mary also applied for and received a pension, after his real death. Fannie Gorham died in Dunham, Pennsylvania in 1903 at age 58 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery here in Schaghticoke. Mary Gordon died in September 1924.
The pension papers of Fred Gordon/Isaac Gorham confirm my conclusions. According to the file, Fred married Mary Rhodas in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 1874. She stated that “as far as I know” and from “a mutual exchange of confidences” she felt he hadn’t been married before. As of 1876, they lived in Chicago, then went to Sioux Falls in 1882, then to Northfield, Minnesota in 1897. These dates gibe in general with the census data.
Civil War Pension Card of Fred Gordon, alias Isaac F. Gorham
The pension papers reveal that Fred began applying for a pension in 1894. Fred stated that while in the service at Suffolk, Virginia, on April 15, 1863, he suffered injury of the left testicle by being thrown on the pommel of his saddle during drill. He stated he was treated by the regimental surgeon at the time.
In the same affidavit quoted earlier, friend Frederick Hastings stated in 1895 that he didn’t know how Fred was injured, but that he knew he had been off duty for some time due to an injury to his testicles and was unable to ride. His comrades called him “Old Hernia.” It was during his time off-duty that Fred had so beautifully altered Hastings’ uniform.
Poor Fred underwent many, many examinations by his own and government doctors over the next ten years, first to qualify for a pension, then when he tried to obtain an increase in the amount he was getting. Initially he added that he had had pneumonia about five years earlier and had had chest pains and coughing since. He also felt he had kidney disease, and at one point said he had had chronic diarrhea since 1862.
In 1894 the first doctor concluded he did have a deformity of one testicle, and had bronchitis, but no kidney problems. Another problem was bad eczema around his anus and on his scrotum. The poor man must have been very itchy. The doctor also described Fred. He was 51 –years- old, 5’4” tall, and weighed 130 pounds. Fred received a pension of $6 per month.
Over the years, doctors described Fred’s testicle as very big, very small, and just right. The date of the accident changed from one year to another, then was described as happening in the midst of a battle at Ream’s or Reeve’s Station in 1864. In 1897 he added that he had been cut with a saber on the right side of his head during the battle and had horrible headaches for years afterwards. One doctor said he had kidney problems, one that he had extensive syphilis, one that he had no signs of syphilis or other “vicious habits” (habits connected with vice). He did lose his eyesight over time. It sounds like he had cataracts. By 1900 he certainly could no longer work very well as a tinsmith due to poor eyesight.
Fred’s pension did increase over the years, to $12 per month by 1907, $25 by 1913, and $40 by 1916. In 1913 he told the government he was unable to furnish a public record of his birth as his family had been broken up for many years. By April 1921, a doctor stated that he had had to stop working due to heart problems, and needed daily help just to live his life. He died that September, when his death certificate reported he was still a sheet metal worker at age 78, and that he died of chronic myocarditis.
I wish I could provide a resolution of the two marriages of Frederick/Isaac- but don’t know how to get any more insight. The rakish lad of the Civil War did leave his young wife, but then had a long marriage with Mary. He was apparently a skilled worker, increasingly disabled, mostly by age.
George H. Golden was born in Stillwater in 1842. He was the son of Nathaniel Golden, a carpenter, and his wife Jane. His parents were 39-years- old as of the 1850 US Census for Stillwater. George, 7, had an older sister Susan, plus younger sisters Catherine and Cornelia, 6, and Sarah, 1. His grandmother Theodicia Golden, 77, lived with them. By the 1860 US Census, George was an 18-year old farmer, living in the family of neighboring farmer George Vandewerken. Undoubtedly he was a farm worker for them.
George enlisted in the 54th N.Y.S. Infantry Regiment in Schenectady in August of 1863. The regiment had been formed a year earlier, mostly of New York City Germans. Undoubtedly George was filling the place of someone injured or killed at Gettysburg. His enlistment card is not very informative, just giving his age as 28- which is incorrect. He was about 20. But it adds he was a “substitute”.
NYS Muster Card of George H. Golden
The 54th was based at Folly Island, off South Carolina, during the time George served. He was discharged on January 14, 1864, after serving only five months- but the reason isn’t given. The 1890 Veterans Census lists he was discharged by “special order 575.” I do not know what that was.
George returned to New York State. He married a woman named Lydia Gallett in 1866. She was about ten years older than he. They lived in either Stillwater or Schaghticoke- in the Reynolds area that is east of Mechanicville- for the rest of their long lives together. In the 1870 US Census they were in Schaghticoke. George, a farmer, had property worth $1200. He and his wife had one son, Frederick, under a year old; and his sister Susan was living with them.
By the 1880 US Census, they were living in Stillwater, now with children Frederick, 10; Fletcher, 6; Willie, 3; who was listed as epileptic, and Charles, 6 months. Susan, now listed as a dressmaker, still lived with them. The 1890 Veterans Census listed George back in Reynolds, as did both the 1900 and 1910 censuses. George applied for a Veteran’s Pension in 1890.
The 1900 US Census stated that George had been born in July 1842 and Lydia in 1833, and that they had been married for 34 years. Frederick and Fletcher were the only surviving children. They and their wives and children lived with their parents. In the 1905 NY Census, parents George and Lydia lived alone. George listed no occupation, retired by age 63. Sons Fletcher and Frederick were both married, prosperous farmers in Schaghticoke, each with two young children. By the 1910 US Census, George and Lydia had moved in with son Fletcher, who was listed as the head of household. Fletcher stayed in Schaghticoke, and he and his wife are buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
George and Lydia have a tombstone in the Baker Cemetery in Stillwater. The names and dates of three of their children who died young are on the stone, but the parents’ death dates have not been added. Lydia applied for a widow’s pension on December 13, 1910, indicating that George had died by then. The 1915 NY Census still lists Fletcher and his family, but not Lydia. I would conclude that she died between 1910 and 1915. I found older son Frederick in the 1920 US Census for Hoosick, but his mother wasn’t with him either.
tombstone of George and Lydia Golden in Stillwater: no death dates added
History of the Town of Schaghticoke 