Jerry Thompson, August 21, 1831 - August 23, 1901

[Image by Kari Petersen, 2010]

Jerry Thompson was born in Missouri on August 21, 1831. 1 This is what his death certificate says. Whether that was the date that he was actually born or the day that he celebrated his birth is unclear. The reason I have cause to question the date is that he was born into slavery. In my daily life, I need to be reminded of the date by my computer and by my calendars. These were not available to slaves, even those who could read. Keeping dates doesn't seem like it would have been too possible.

It is little things like not being able to keep track of dates that often bring the total impact of slavery to bear on my mind that has never known anything like it.

Jerry Thompson, also called Jeremiah in at least one census record, would have been a young man of 29 when the first shots of the war were fired. It is unclear if he was living in Missouri at the time, but that state faced a turbulent time at the beginning of the war. As a slave state, many of its citizens were firmly pro-secession; however, there was also a strong pro-union contingency which, along with the US Army, stood their ground. It had one state government identified as Union, and another identified as Confederate.

Wherever he lived, he was clearly free to fight with the Colored troops at some point during the war. His records do not show a date or a state of service. He is simply listed as serving in Company K of the 68th Regiment, US Colored Infantry. 2 This regiment was mustered into service in St. Louis in the spring of 1864, and saw service primarily in the western theater of the war. They were mustered out in Texas in February 1866. 3

Mr. Thompson is next found in 1870 living with his wife, Margaret, and his daughter, Williana, in Quincy, Illinois. 4 While he initially worked as a general laborer, by 1880 he was a teamster. 5 What brought the family to Oakland, is unclear, but by 1900, he is living there in the household of his son-in-law, Daniel Young. Daniel and Williana had married in the 1890s. 6

Mr. Thompson was considered quite old when he died in 1901. He was 70 years old. 7 Not only was this an advanced age for the population in general, but doubly so for a man who had been born into slavery. The cause of death for him was Septicemia, an infection of the blood, not an unexpected cause of death for an elderly gentleman living in an age before antibiotics. 8

He was survived by his wife and daughter. Until I receive pension documents about him, I will not know for certain who long his wife survived him. However, I do know that his daughter died within the next several years, as Daniel Young is listed as a widower in the 1910 Federal Census. 9

It is for men such as Jerry Thompson I feel so compelled to write these bios. His name would have gently faded from memory with no descendants to care. But it is the slaves, the laborers, the unremembered dead, that built the future that is our present, and they must never be entirely forgotten.
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1 Jeremiah Thompson, death certificate (1901), Oakland, Alameda County, California. Accessed at the Oakland Public Library, Main Branch, History Room.

2 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

3 "68th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry" online , data downloaded January 7, 2012.

4 Year: 1870; Census Place: Quincy Ward 6, Adams, Illinois; Roll: M593_187; Page: 639A; Image: 528; Family History Library Film: 545686. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

5 Year: 1880; Census Place: Quincy, Adams, Illinois; Roll: 174; Page: 366D; Image: 0734; Family History Library Film: 1254174. Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

6 Year: 1900; Census Place: Oakland Ward 1, Alameda, California; Roll: T623_81; Page: 6A. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

7 Jerry Thompson obituary, Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Oakland, CA, 23 August 1901, pg. 2.

8 Jeremiah Thompson, death certificate (1901), Oakland, Alameda County, California. Accessed at the Oakland Public Library, Main Branch, History Room.

9 Year: 1910; Census Place: Oakland Ward 1, Alameda, California; Roll: T624_69; Page: 14A; Image: 1649; Family History Library Film: 1374082. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Samuel Davis, abt 1841 - October 10, 1898

[Picture by Kari Petersen, 2010]

The first record I can find for Samuel Davis is his service record. He enlisted in a Kansas Volunteer Colored Infantry on January 4, 1863. 1 On any other service record this may not have seemed significant, but for Mr. Davis, this means that his first legal act as a free man was to join the fight to ensure his freedom. The Emancipation Proclamation had been enacted only three days before.

The Kansas Colored Infantry units were soon combined with other Colored Infantry and he was mustered into Company K of the 79th U.S. Colored Infantry. Kansas had been a free state before the war and it is likely that during the war, Samuel Davis had fled from a neighboring slave state, such as Missouri. Given the haste with which he enlisted, I even imagine he would have already been working for the US Army in some capacity.

The army, for many newly freed black men, was an opportunity too good to pass up. The opportunity to make some money, along with rations and clothing, would have been welcomed by men for whom other means of livelihood were scarce. Mr. Davis found the opportunities in the army enticing, it seems, since he reenlisted after the war and spent a good portion of the reconstruction period stationed in Texas with the 24th US Colored Infantry. 2 Throughout his service he served as a musician, and was promoted to Principal Musician, during his last term of service. 3

As with my other veterans, I started with the information I could find on the gravestone. Finding the paperwork about the gravestone gave me his date of death, and confirmed the regimental information on the stone. 4 Then searching for a pension was the next step, which provided me with a widow's name: Hannah. 5

Common names are the curse of genealogists. It can be very difficult to find the correct Tom Jones or James Smith, and so it is important to look for other clues. In this case, the fact that he is black and his wife's name was Hannah did help to distinguish him from other people in the records, but not enough to make me comfortable that a particular census record might have been about him. So I turned to my next possible mine of information: the local newspaper.

With a date of death, I can often find a death notice. However, I have sometimes found that the usual routes of finding information do not always apply to African Americans back in the 1800s. Most of the media was owned by white interests who were not invested in printing things about people of color, unless it was a very particular version of those people that it portrayed. But with Samuel Davis, I got lucky.

The Oakland Tribune released a paid notice about his funeral which also tells us that he was born in Florida. 6 This is the type of information that would make Samuel Davis more clearly identifiable.

He is listed in the 1870 US Federal Census at his army post.7 But in the 1880 US Federal Census, he is living in Maverick, Texas with his wife, Hannah. He is working as a Freighter and his wife keeps house. 8 They are the only black couple listed on the census sheet upon which they appeared.

I don't know why they moved to California, although the railroad and jobs associated with it were big draws for many African American men. They could get jobs as porters on the cars which brought in good money, and the work was often not as dangerous as some of the railroad jobs. At some point, I will request his pension files and, perhaps, learn more about what brought him here and if they had any children before he died.

But I know that he died in Oakland. According to an article about his death in the San Francisco Chronicle, he died of an epileptic seizure out on the street.9 He was a member of the G. A. R., Lyon Post No. 8 in Oakland, and the services for his funeral were held under their auspices. 10
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1 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

2 Year: 1870; Census Place: Fort Clark US Military Res., Kinney, Texas; Roll: M593_1594; Page: 173B; Image: 350; Family History Library Film: 553093. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

3 National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

4 Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

5 National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

6 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Tuesday, October 11, 1898, pg. 2.

7 Year: 1870; Census Place: Fort Clark US Military Res., Kinney, Texas; Roll: M593_1594; Page: 173B; Image: 350; Family History Library Film: 553093. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

8 Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 2, Maverick, Texas; Roll: 1319; Page: 58B; Enumeration District: 106; Family History Library Film: 1255319. Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

9 San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 1898, pg. 7.

10 Mountain View Cemetery Records, Book 4, pg. 288.

Early African Americans in Oakland

After sharing information with a fellow researcher about the African American soldiers buried in the GAR plot, I made the decision to go ahead and share what I know about these veterans...taking them out of their chronological order of death. It seems right, on several levels, to group these gentlemen together, since the small community they were a part of would have known one another well. They also deserve to have a light shone on them for their service and separating them will highlight this. But, I cannot deny that the personal motivator of having my research work protected in some way is the primary driving force (Sorry, guys.).

Before I move on to the biographies, however, I wanted to talk a little bit about the African American community in Oakland at the time.

We are used to, in modern day Oakland, thinking about the city as having a prominent African American community, but this was not always true. The largest immigration of African Americans to Oakland happened during WWII when jobs in manufacturing and the military became available in large numbers.

Before that, the black population of Oakland was a small percentage of the whole. In 1900, there was just over 1000 in a city of about 67,000. The number jumped dramatically by 1910 to 3055 in a city of 150,000. 1 Part of that jump was the result of population shifting from San Francisco to Oakland after the 1906 earthquake.

There was much to recommend California to African Americans, including a tepid, by modern standards, Civil Rights law passed by the state legislature in 1897. 2 However, there were still restrictions and prejudice. In most industries, white laborers were preferred, and despite legislation, blacks were effectively segregated from joining white organizations. 3 African Americans created a parallel culture, starting black fraternal organizations, churches, and social activities.

Black union veterans, however, did belong to integrated Grand Army Posts. The GAR went through internal debates about the segregation of units, particularly in the south, in the 1890s with the prevailing attitude being that all men, regardless of race, who fought in the war were comrades. 4

How this played out for Oakland GAR members is a little unclear. Scholarship suggests that African American members of the GAR were expected to be deferential to their white comrades. 5 But I have not been able to find any primary source documents for the GAR posts in Oakland to look for clues. While their day to day actions may not have been clear, what is clear is that they were welcomed enough to share an eternal resting spot. This is enough of an oddity in practice for those times, that the issue of the Grand Army plot in Mountain Views Cemetery had never been questioned before.
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1 Taylor, Quintard. In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990 New York: N. W. Norton, 1998, pg. 193.

2 Oakland Tribune, April 6, 1897, pg. 1.

3 Taylor, In Search of the Racial Frontier, pg 198.

4 Shaffer, Donald R. After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2004, pg. 150.

5 Ibid., pg. 153.

James A Chase, 1834 - December 12, 1877

As previously discussed, there are times when there is almost nothing that I can prove about a veteran. James A. Chase is another of these gentlemen. The earlier gravestones are different from later veteran stones, and it is unclear to me if they were paid for by the GAR, the deceased's family or money that was in the estate of the deceased.

In later burials, the veteran's service info, if known, is on the stone, and often I can confirm that there was a veteran's stone for said gentleman who was interred on a specific date. But if the government did not provide the stones, as they did later, my first lead into finding information on the veteran is gone. Indeed, if I had not found the Mountain View Cemetery record books at my local Family History Center, I would know only that James A. Chase had died on December 12, 1877, aged 43 years.1

Having found his information in the Mountain View records, I was able to confirm his date of death, and learned that he was born in Maine and died in Oakland.2 I also learned the cause of his death, but I'll get to that later.

When I have a regimental history, I can usually find the veteran's service record, and, if one was filed, a index card for the pension. That index card is a door to another level of information, if the widow applied for pension after her husband's death. This assumes a widow, of course. If she exists, it is much more likely that I can confirm that a possible veteran found in a census record is actually who I think he might be. Later census records can confirm the address of a residence in a City Directory listing, which may confirm the job listed on the census. All these can be reinforced by any newspaper articles or biographies.

One link broken can mean that all other information which your gut tells you is about your veteran may be, by necessity, left in the realm of speculation.

So I will speculate, a bit. There is a James A. Chase who enlisted in Company F of the 1st Maine Cavalry on October 19, 1861 in Freeport, Maine. He was born about the right time, so I'm not just spitting against the wind, entirely. During the course of his service he was promoted twice, attaining the rank of Full Sergeant before being discharged June 20, 1865.3

This speculation is strengthened by an article about his death in the Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, which reports that he was a cavalry soldier in the "late war."4 There is another James Chase living in Oakland at this time, and I had previously wondered if they were the same, but this one was working as a carpenter when he died and the other was a grocer.

I don't have to speculate about cause of death: anemia.5 Even the cause of death is a little unclear to me since there is no elaboration in the cemetery records about the cause of the anemia (or even how it might have been determined), and I have been unable to locate a death certificate for Mr. Chase. The article about his death only states that he "fell suddenly ill and died a few moments afterward."6

With some veteran's, I have the luxury of trying to verify all of this by looking into getting the pension records, but since it does not appear that James applied for one, even that avenue is closed and I may be left with this mystery.
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1 Jas A. Chase headstone, GAR plot, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland.

2 Mountain View Cemetery Record Book 1, pg. 76.

3 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

4 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, December 13, 1877.

5 Mountain View Cemetery Record Book 1, pg. 76.

6 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, December 13, 1877.

Nathaniel Case Potter, abt 1843 - April 3, 1877

[Photograph by Kari Petersen, 2010]

Nathaniel Case Potter was born to Abraham Potter and Susannah Case Potter somewhere in Wayne County, IN sometime in 1843.1 He was the eldest of 8 siblings.2 He was 18 when he enlisted to go to war and served for four years in Co. C, 8th Indiana Infantry. He was promoted to Corporal during his service.3

The 8th Indiana Infantry was originally organized for a 3 month enlistment under this name, but they had disbanded before Potter enlisted. A second regiment was organized under this name, serving the first part of the war in Missouri, then moving south to Mississippi and Louisiana by the end of the war.4

He, presumably, returned to Indiana right after his discharge at Savannah, GA.5 The next record that is likely to be his is a marriage record from Marion County, IN on May 27, 1869 for Nathaniel C. Potter and Eliza J. York.6 This name matches his widow's name on the pension records7, but I'm hoping that one detail is wrong - her estimated birth year - as the recorded transcription lists her birth year just 10 years before her marriage.

I was unable to find any records for Mr. Potter until his death in Oakland. He had only lived in the city for about 5 months and was employed as a clerk before he died of "Phthisis," the old Greek term for tuberculosis.8 It is again possible that he and his wife had moved out here hoping that the more temperate climate would prove a cure.

Eliza can be found a few years later still living in Oakland, as Mrs. N. C. Potter (widow). She was still Eliza J. Potter when she applied for her pension in 1886.9 They did not have any living children that I have been able to discover, but perhaps when I am able to get pension records I may learn differently.

In many ways, it is for those who didn't have descendents that I love to tell the stories, even the barest ones like this. No one else remembers or will remember for them, and it seems sad to me that a man who served throughout the whole Civil War would be forgotten in time.
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1 Year: 1850; Census Place: New Garden, Wayne, Indiana; Roll: M432_180; Page: 274A; Image: 555. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

2 Ancestry Family Tree, titled "Extended Family 2010" owned by kskinner189, Ancestry.com, online , downloaded January 23, 2011.

3 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

4 Union Regimental Histories: Indiana, The Civil War Archives, online , downloaded January 24, 2011.

5 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

6 Title: Marion County, Index to Marriage Record 1866 - 1870 Inclusive Vol, Original Record Located: County Clerk's Office Ind; Book: 451;. Ancestry.com. Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

7 National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

8 Nathanial Case Potter, death certificate (1877), Oakland, Alameda County, California. Accessed at the Oakland Public Library, Main Branch, History Room.

Mountain View Cemetery Record Book 1, pg. 58.

9 National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

Charles J. Robinson, May 13, 1838 - March 6, 1877

[Picture by Kari Petersen, 2010]

The truth about history is that most of it is written about the big names and the heroes. I suppose because my family were farmers and carpenters, I have always been fascinated by those people whose lives were more mundane. I want to try to read between the lines to flesh them out of the ether.

But in my research, I'm finding that even those whose lives were less well-known have left gems (or maybe more appropriate to say nuggets) in the sand for us to find. Charles J. Robinson was one of those men. Of course, he didn't leave the gem so much as his family or friends, but one exists in the form of his obituary. Indeed, it is tempting to just cut and past the whole of it, as it speaks to not only his history, but also his character.

Mr. Robinson was born June 22, 1838 in Clarendon, New York. I don't know much about his early life, except that he was able to receive a college education.1 After he graduated, he moved to Wisconsin. He was there in Columbus, WI when the census was taken in 1860. He was working as a teacher and living with a family, possibly one of his students' families.2

When the war broke out, Charles enlisted in Company G of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry. He served as 2nd Lieutenant, until he was discharged about 9 months later due to illness.3

In 1865, he came out to California to escort "greenbacks" to the mint in San Francisco, and once here established himself as an educator, and ended up turning down the opportunity to be a professor back east to stay in the west.4 It is unclear whether he was infected with tuberculosis by this time. I don't know how long it takes for the infection to progress, but if he was infected, a move to California would have been considered a beneficial one as the "fresh air cure" was the only way to improve your chances to survive.

Regardless, he lived a successful and productive life in the Bay Area. He moved to Oakland in about 1872 and worked for Burnham, Standeford & Co., a planing and milling company which later also would contract to construct cable cars in San Francisco.5 After having to leave this industry due to failing health, he was appointed the Oakland City Clerk and Treasurer which post he held until his death. 6

Mr. Robinson was obviously well-respected among his friends and colleagues. He was considered learned and passionate about education. He was described as compassionate, but uncompromising about his ethics and morals. And he was a strongly religious man and kept that part of his life very private.7

When he died on March 6, 1877 of Tuberculosis,8 he left his wife, Madge,9 and 2 young daughters.10 It is likely that Madge moved or remarried before the next census as I lose track of her in the records, and I do not know the names of their children. I really hope that someday, someone may search for him and find this bio because there is so much to know about him and he seems like just a good man to have as an ancestor.
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1 Charles J. Robinson Obituary, Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Wednesday, March 7, 1877, pg. 3.

2 Year: 1860; Census Place: Columbus, Columbia, Wisconsin; Roll: M653_1401; Page: 184; Image: 189; Family History Library Film: 805401. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

3 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

4 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Wednesday, March 7, 1877.

5 Henry G. Langley, editor, A Directory of the City of Oakland and the Town of Brooklyn, for the Year Ending June 30th, 1873 (Oakland: Henry G. Langley, 1872), pg. 211.

6 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Wednesday, March 7, 1877.

7 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Wednesday, March 7, 1877.

8 Mountain View Cemetery Record Book 1, pg. 56.

9 Historical Data Systems, comp.. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.

10 Oakland Daily Evening Tribune, Wednesday, March 7, 1877.

Alexander W. Copely, abt 1831 - September 9, 1976

[Photograph by Kari Petersen, 2010]

Alexander W. Copely is the first of our known foreign-born veterans. It shocked me to learn that so many men not born in the US had served in the Civil War, but it turns out that about one third of all service men in the Union blues were foreign. I suppose that shouldn't surprise me too much. They were choosing to come to this country for a new life.

Capt. Copely was no different, I suppose. He was living in California before war broke out a continent away, but he had already chosen to serve his new state, then his country. He enlisted in Company B of the 4th California Infantry in the fall of 1861 and served as 1st Lieutenant for that company until he was promoted to full Captain in 1864 and served in Company A of the same regiment.1

Again, we can only speculate about the reasons for his emigration to California, but it is not hard to imagine that a young man from England wouldn't have been attracted by the lure of gold and silver in California in the 1850s. And such a young man might be lured again by the adventure of war. Unfortunately, the California regiments did not serve in anything like the eastern engagements of the war and served mostly garrison duty along the entire west coast.

After the war, Capt. Copely moved to Washington Territory where he was living in Wallula with his wife, Jessie.2 He was working as a carpenter, but there are few details about his life in this place, but at the time construction on the railroad was in the works and the need for a carpenter would have been high.

He applied for his pension in 1872 while living in California3 and continued to live here until he died on September 9, 1876 of cerebritis.4

This isn't a lot to go on, as a story, but I am drawn by the sense of romance that must have captured so many men and women to travel to a distant land and make a new life for themselves filled with possibilities. To further that sense of romance, I have found that there evidence that his widow, Jessie, never remarried.5
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1 National Park Service. U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

2 Year: 1870; Census Place: Wallula, Walla Walla, Washington Territory; Roll: M593_1683; Page: 305B; Image: 615; Family History Library Film: 553182. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.

3 National Archives and Records Administration. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

4 Mountain View Cemetery Record Book 1, pg. 44.

5 Year: 1920;Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: T625_1499; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 45; Image: 1044. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.