kheirfakhreldin
KheirFakhreldin.com
A blog about La Grange, Illinois, in the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries
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U. S. Post Office, La Grange, Illinois. Curt Teich Postcard Archive, 0BH473, 1940. Newberry Library.
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Black Lives Matter protest in response to the murder of George Floyd and other acts of police brutality. La Grange, Illinois, police station. June 6, 2020.
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Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Read kheirfakhreldin.com for the testimony in Cossitt’s claim to the Southern Claims Commission for his losses in Fayette County, Tennessee, during the Civil War. He was awarded $14,102, the second largest amount of any claimant in the country, in 1876. The commission said his loyalty to the Union was fully proved. Photo courtesy of Chuck Brand.
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Summary of Franklin D. Cossitt’s Claim by the Southern Claims Commission for His Losses During the Civil War, December 4, 1876.
No. 20.459, 43.163,
CLAIM of Franklin D. Cossitt
OF
Fayette Co.,
Tennessee
SUMMARY REPORT.
Amount Allowed $14,102.00
SUBMITTED TO CONGRESS
December 4, 1876
BY THE
COMMISSIONER OF CLAIMS
UNDER
Act March 3D, 1871
No. 20459
The Claim of Franklin D. Cossitt, of Fayette Co., in the State of Tennessee
42 items. Amount of claims as per 1862. Statement in petition—hereto
Nov & Dec. annexed in detail.
Amount claimed: 31620.00
Amount allowed: 14102.17
Amount disallowed: 17516.83
Mr. Cossitt was a native of Connecticut. At the age of fifteen he went to Tenn. He there became a merchant & planter. He owned four plantations, vis, “Myrick”, “Urquhart”, “Sykes”, and “Adams,” and 127 slaves. He never held any civil or military office in the Confederacy & it does not appear that he ever gave any aid or comfort to the Confederacy. In the summer of 1862 he went to Bolivar where Generals Grant & McPherson were camped with their Army & told them that the Confederate forces did not amount to much & that they would have no difficulty in coming into and taking possession of the country. They had supposed that the Confederate force was large. The next day Genl. McPherson came to La Grange & took possession of the country. In Exhibit No. 2, Genl. McPherson, under date of Nov. 13, 1862 says “Mr Cossitt has rendered good service at different times & deserves compensation for articles taken from him.” Genl. McPherson also under date of Nov. 5 ’62 “certifies that Mr. Cossitt has shown himself a good loyal man & has rendered important services to the Federal cause” &c.—
Genl. Hamilton, who for 6 weeks in Oct & Nov. ’62 had his headquarters at his house, says—“I have known Mr. Cossitt since Nov. ’62,—have at all times found him a reliable & thoroughly loyal Union man, from whom I have received much useful information at times & have always found his sympathies with the Union Gov’t & Armies.”—Genl. Hurlbut, under date of Nov. 18, ’62 says—“Mr Cossitt has been known to me since June last as a reliable Union man,--I became acquainted with him at La Grange on the first occupation of that place by Union troops. I have reason to believe that he has always been loyal to the Gov’t & have received from him valuable information.”
Genl. Hurlbut was examined orally before us & his evidence is very full & satisfactory to prove claimant’s loyalty. We deem it sufficient to refer to it.—Many other papers are filed to show that other officers of our Army in 1862 regarded him as loyal.—He was threatened and molested by the rebels, & in April 1863 was obliged to leave. He went to Chicago where he has since resided. In regard to the necessity of his leaving Genl. Hurlbut says—“his life would not have been worth a straw outside of the range covered by the U. S. troops.” In June 1862 he was extracted by Genl. Sherman with the charge and repair of trestle work, which service he faithfully performed. See Genl. Sherman’s letter. Exhibits 6 & 7.—
Loyalty fully proved.—
As to the taking of the property. Genl. Hamilton encamped on the Myrick place with a large body of troops in Oct. ’62 & staid about 7 weeks.—At the same time Genl. McPherson with a still larger body of troops camped on the Urquhart place. The first 11 items & the items from 26 to 42 inclusive were all taken from the Myrick place, by the troops of Genl. Hamilton in Nov. 1862. Items 1 to 11 are shown by the evidence of Mr. Myrick, the superintendent of the Myrick place, also in part by Mr. Cossitt, & by the papers filed in the case which fully corroborate the testimony. Items 26 to 42 are proved by receipts by receipts given at the time and which are proved & filed in the case. But a small part of the property taken from the Myrick place was receipted for. Exhibit 1 is a statement drawn up by Mr. Cossitt in Nov. ’62 from the declarations made by Mr. Myrick at the time. The Myrick place contained about 1000 acres of cultivated land.
1862
1st to 30th Nov.
1 10 mules. 1500.—
2 90,000 lbs. fodder. 900.—
3 10 stacks, 15000 lbs. hay. 150.—
4 2625 bu. corn, taken from field. 2100.—
5 1125 bu. corn, taken from cribs. 1125.—
6 150 bu. sweet potatoes. 150.—
7 150 fat hogs, 150 lbs. ea. 2250.—
8 17 beef cattle. 714.—
9 250 lbs. brown sugar. 40.—
10 1/2 bbl. 20 galls. molasses. 20.—
11 100 stock hogs. 500.—
[Above amounts taken by Gen. C. S. Hamilton, U. S. vols. from “Myrick’s Place”]
12 63 stacks, 94500 lbs. fodder. 945.—
13 46 stacks, 46000 lbs. hay & pea vines. 460.—
14 7 stacks, 7000 lbs hay & pea vines. 70.—
15 400 acres corn, 10,000 bu. 8000.—
16 16 mules. 2400.—
17 150 fat hogs, average 150 lbs. 2250.—
18 100 stock hogs, average 150 lbs. 500.—
19 66 cattle, cows & calves, 50 cattle. $2000. 10 cows. $300. 6 calves. $60.}2360.—
20 25 bu. corn meal. 25.—
21 2 sacks salt. 20.—
22 13 bags, 13 bu. dried peaches. 13.—
23 1200 bu. sweet potatoes. 1200.—
24 17 sets [qeer? geer? green?]. 85.—
Total: $27,777.
[Above was taken from “Urquhart Plantation” by Gen. J. B. McPherson, from 1st to 13. Nov./1862]
(See Exhibit #2.)
Subtotal: 27,777
1862 Nov. 7
25 19 mules.
26 2 loads, 30 bu. corn.
27 2 loads, 2000 lbs. fodder.
[Above taken by Lt. Conynham [Cunningham?], Actg. Q. Mr., 16th Iowa Vols., under command Gen. J. McArthur, 6th Divis, Army of Tenn. See exhibit No 4]
28 3 loads, 4500 lbs. hay. 45.—
29 7 loads, 7000 lbs. fodder. 70.—
30 8 loads, 200 bu. corn. 200.—
[Above taken by Capt. E. D. Ostrand, Comdg. Co. “A”, 4 Ills. Cavy. See exhibits 5 & 6]
31 2 loads, 30 bu. corn. 30.—
[Taken by Lieut. Jones, Q. M. 16 Wis. Vols. See Exhibit No 7]
32 255 bu. corn. 255.—
33 1600 lbs. fodder. 16.—
[Taken by J. F. Stouffer, wagon master, 2 Iowa Cavy. See Exhibit No 8]
34 4 loads, 1200 lbs. fodder. 12.—
35 5 loads, 75 bu. corn. 75.—
[Taken Nov. 6. 7. 8. 10. & 12 Nov. 1862 by B. S. Williams Lt. & A. R. Qr. Mr. 8th Wis. Vols., Col. J. M. Loomis, Comdg 2 Brig. 2 Div. Army of Tenn. See Exhibits 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. & 14.]
36 4 loads, 1200 lbs. fodder. 12.—
37 3 loads, 45 bu. corn. 45.—
Subtotal: $31,437.—
38 300 lbs. hay. 3.—
[Taken Nov. 6, 7, & 10, 1862 by Lt. Spring, Qr. Mr. 26th Ills. Infy. Command of Col. J. M. Loomis, 2d Brig. 2 Div. Army of Tenn. See Exhibits 15, 16 & 17]
39 2 loads, 30 bu. corn. 30.—
[Taken by R. Kennedy, Qr. Mr. 13 Iowa Infy as per certificate of Leslie Bassett, 1st Lt. Co. “K,” 13th Iowa Infy. See Exhibit No 18]
40 10 loads, 80 bu. corn. 80.—
41 2 stacks, 3000 lbs. hay. 30.—
[Taken by Enos P. Searls, wagon master, 5th O. V. C. See Exhibit 19]
42 1 steer. 40.—
[Taken by Lt. Joshua Ricketts, Co. “C”. Eng. Reg. of the West. See Exhibit No. 20]
Total: $31,620.—
The other items from the Urquhart place are proved and therefore are allowed, except item 22 & a part of No. 23 of which the Estimate is too large.—The prices of pork & beef were very low in Nov. ’62.—
We allow as follows:—
Items 1. 16. & 25 For mules—$4000.00 & reject the rest.
2 For fodder—562.50 & reject the rest.
3 For hay—105.00 & reject the rest.
4 2625 bus corn in field—1050.00 & reject the rest.
5 1125 bus corn in cribs 562.50 & reject the rest.
6 150 bus potatoes—75.00 & reject the rest.
7 150 fat hogs—750.00 & reject the rest.
8 17 Beeves—340.00 & reject the rest.
9 250 lbs Sugar—17.00 & reject the rest.
10 1/2 bbl. Molasses—10.00 & reject the rest.
11 100 stock hogs—200.00 & reject the rest.
12 63 stacks of fodder—309.37 & reject the rest.
13 46 stacks of Hay & pea vines} 140.00 & reject the rest.
14 7 stacks of Hay}
15 400 acres of standing corn 3200.00 & reject the rest.
16 Included in item 1
17 150 fat hogs (Urquhart)—750.00 & reject the rest.
18 100 stock hogs (Urquhart)—200.00 & reject the rest.
19 66 head of cattle—980.00
20 25 bus corn meal—25.00
Amount carried over $13276.37
Amt. brot. forward—$13276.37
21 2 sacks salt—$10.00
22 13 bags dried peaches—
22 1200 bus sweet potatoes—300.00—
24 17 setts of Gear—85.00
25 Included in item 1.—
26 30 bus corn—15.00
27. 28. 29 Hay & fodder (receipts) 25.20
30. 31. 32 Corn as per receipts—202.50
33. 34. Fodder as per receipts—21.00
35 Corn as per receipts—37.50
36. 37. 38 Hay, corn, fodder as per receipts—33.60
39. 40 Corn as per receipts—55.00
41 Hay as per receipts—21.00
42 A steer—20.00
$14,102.17
Making in all fourteen thousand one hundred and two dollars and seventeen cents—and rejecting the rest of the claim.
A. O. Aldis
J. B. Howell
O. Ferriss
Commissioners of Claims
On the hearing Col. McAllister of Counsel for Clmt. moved that an item for 6375 bus. of corn taken from the field on the Myrick place be added to the petition & claim, as that amt. at 25 bus per acre would be equal to the “255 acres corn gathered” named in No. 1 (2 by Audem) which was filed when the petn. was, & is referred to in it.—But many other items in Exhibit 1 are not included in the petn., & unless specially named in the petn. can not be considered as a part of it. The exhibit is referred to as proof of the items of claim stated in the petn., but not as being intended to present other claims than those named in the petn.—Again the claim now is for 6375 bus corn taken from the field, while the Exhibit speaks only of “255 acres corn gathered.”—So the “45 acres gathered” agrees exactly with item 5. at 25 bus per acre.—We have no doubt that the Army took as much corn from the Myrick place as is charged in items 5 & 6 & in the items from 26 to 41 for which receipts were given & so allow. For corn in cribs in Nov. ’62 we have always allowed 50 cents per bus, & we do so here though the receipts estimate it only at 25 cents. Mr. Cossitt is entitled to that fair price which in all other cases has been allowed claimants. For corn in the field we allow 40 cents per bus., about the difference the clmt. makes in his charges.— The Urquhart place contained 1600 acres of which about 1000 acres were cultivated. The witnesses say there were about 600 acres in corn, & that deducting what was trodden down by the Army there were at least 400 acres gathered by the troops.
Exhibit No. 2 (marked 2A by Mr. Audem) is a paper which clmt. drew up from a statement made at the time by Gilchrist, the Supt. Of the Urquhart place under Myrick, & which he then presented to Genl. McPherson, who then, Nov. 13, 1862 referred it to Qr. Mr. Burr for investigation saying—“Mr. Cossitt has rendered good service at different times & deserves compensation for the articles taken & damages done him. This contemporary claim made & thus certified by Genl. McPherson is entitled to much weight as evidence. It is sustained by the testimony of his foreman Wm. Cossitt, a colored man, and to some extent by Mr. Myrick who had a general supervision of the place tho residing 6 miles off. The other papers strengthen the proof of the claim. We are satisfied that the “400 acres of corn” claimed in Exhibit 2 must have yielded to our troops at least 10,000 strong who were camped on the place for several weeks at least 8000 bus of corn & for which as taken from the field we allow $3200.00
The items from 12 to 25 inclusive were all taken from the Urquhart place & are all named in Exhibit 2 except the item 25 for 19 mules.
As to item 1 for 10 mules taken from the Myrick place it is fully proved by Myrick, & Cossitt & is in Exhibit No. 1.—
As to items 16 for 16 mules, & 25 for 19 mules all taken from the Urquhart place: in all 35 mules. There is no proof that these mules were taken from any other place than the Urquhart place. There were mules on the Sykes place but there is no proof whatever as to their taking. These two items make up 35 mules, & that is just the number mentioned in Exhibit No. 3, the paper given by Genl. McPherson.—In that paper he says—“Mr Cossitt has permission to retain for the present the 3 mules which he obtd. From the Qr. Mr. Dept. He has had 35 mules taken from him by our Army & the above 3 mules are required by him to secure his crops.”—The clmt. assumes that the 35 mules do not include the 10 taken from the Myrick place. But we think this statement, made on the 20th Nov., after all the mules had been taken, was made at an interview between clmt. & Genl. McPherson, & referred to all the mules taken from clmt. whether from the Myrick, the Urquhart or any other place.—Clmt.’s object was to keep the three by showing how many had been taken & that none were left;—and without reference to any particular plantation.
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Testimony Before the Southern Claims Commission in the Case of Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Washington, D.C., 1876. Part 5.
Chapter 5. Cossitt’s Former Slave, William Cossitt, Testifies.
William Cossitt (Colored) sworn & examined.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. What is your age?
a. Well sir, about 41 or 42, between that.
q. Where do you live?
a. I live on Mr Cossitt’s plantation, in the state of Tennessee.
q. Which plantation?
a. The Urquhart place.
q. How long have you lived on the Urquhart place?
a. I have been there about 20 years or more, as near as I can come to it.
q. Were you a slave?
a. Yes sir.
q. Who did you belong to?
a. First, I belonged to a man named Holer Hudgey. He sold me to Jack Bailey of Tennessee and Mr Bailey sold me to Mr Cossitt.
q. How long were you the slave of Mr Cossitt before the war broke out?
a. I think I was nearly 15 years.
q. All that time you were on the Urquhart place?
a. Yes sir: right on there.
q. Did you hold any position or office on the plantation?
a. I attended to business for him.
q. Were you overseer?
a. No sir: I was just what I call businessman—seed to everything.
q. Did they ever call you foreman or anything.
a. Yes sir: I was a foreman.
q. You don’t read or write?
a. No sir: I cannot read or write.
q. Are you a married man?
a. Yes sir.
q. How long have you been married?
a. I have been married some 10 or 12 years now.
q. Before the war?
a. Yes sir.
q. Can you tell me how large a plantation this Urquhart place is?
a. It is about 1500 acres I think. It may be more, it is called that or more. It was agoing to be surveyed once, but they didn’t do it: so that it has been called 1500 acres.
q. How much is cleared and cultivated?
a. Before the war I think we worked about a thousand acres, nigh about it, in corn and cotton and peas sowed down in oats you know.
q. Now do you remember the year during the war that Gen. McPherson came there?
a. 1862, wasn’t it?
q. Yes, it was the second year of the war. Were you there when the army came there?
a. Yes sir: I was right there.
q. How many troops came there?
a. Well sir, there was two bodies of troops laid each side and we were right in the middle of them. They were all there.
q. Were they on the plantation?
a. Yes sir they were on the plantation?
q. On the cleared land or in the woods?
a. In the cleared land, in the woods and just camped.
q. Who was the commanding officer?
a. I forget the General’s name now. He laid over there at Balls Bridge.
q. Was it McPherson?
a. Yes sir: that is it.
q. How many troops were there there in your best judgement?
a. I think they said he had 40,000. I heard that but I don’t know whether that was so or not: that is just what I heard.
q. Did they camp in the corn fields?
a. Yes sir: they certainly did do that. They certainly camped in the fields, in the gin house and in everything.
q. Did they trample down, run over, and destroy corn?
a. Yes sir.
q. What proportion did they trample down, destroy and run over?
a. Well, Judge, I think they trampled and run over corn enough—well, about a 150 acre field on the back side right in front.
q. How many acres did you have in corn that year?
a. According to my weak judgement I can hardly tell now. I could not exactly say to give you the truth, but we had so much corn in that it looked like we never was going to work it, hardly; we had to get hands to work it.
q. How many hands did you have on the place?
a. We had 52.
q. How many field hands?
a. We run 25 hoe hands. Little chaps half grown some of them.
q. Did you make as much as 400 acres of corn?
a. Yes sir: it would make more.
(Mr Myrick: There was about 600 acres in corn on that place, on the Urquhart place.)
q. Now how much of that corn do you think that the troops—you saw them trample down 100 or 150 acres?
a. Yes sir: what I call wasting it: dropping it along the roads at places they hauled.
q. How much did they gather and draw off in their wagons?
a. There was two cribs—say three cribs—I am just putting two cribs that was full, and they averaged them 150 barrels to the crib—the two big ones, and the other one was more than half full, I never took much notice of that; and there was a ten rail pen that was full and they used up all that.
q. How many barrels did that hold?
a. I don’t know. It was not covered exactly. I never took much notice. It was a ten rail pen.
q. It would not hold more than a quarter as much as a crib?
a. Oh no sir.
q. Or a tenth part perhaps?
a. No sir.
q. And so if the crib held 150 barrels these ten foot pens would not hold over how many barrels?
a. Well, I could not tell. It was not finished any how, but it was a heap higher than I could reach.
q. Would it hold 20 barrels?
a. Yes sir, I should judge it would, well.
q. That would be towards 400 barrels of corn that were in the cribs and pens on the place?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now was all that corn that was in the cribs and pens on the place taken by the army?
a. Yes sir: taken by the army.
q. You had already gathered it before the army came?
a. Yes sir: and put it in them places.
q. So that there would be really something like 2000 bushels of corn in cribs that was taken by the army?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now was any taken from the fields?
a. Yes sir. After they used up all in the cribs and never left us any from all the cribs, then they took their wagons and went to the field and gathered with their quartermaster with them, the one that I call quartermaster was with them, and the wagons would break down under the loads and they would drop it in the swamps and sometimes they would come for it and sometimes it would lay there two or three days.
q. How many wagons did you ever see gathering corn in the fields?
a. In the first dash there was five wagons at one time gathering corn and carrying away fodder, that I saw in the field.
q. How long were they gathering corn and carrying away fodder?
a. It was off and on there for two or three weeks. They didn’t pull steady. They would sometimes take one load, and sometimes two would take a load after they got the first. And then maybe they would not come until the last of the week perhaps.
q. How many were the most wagons that you ever saw at one time gathering corn in that field?
a. Well, Judge, I don’t know hardly it has been so long.
q. Your best judgement?
a. I know I have seen as many as six at a time in the field after the corn give out in the cribs. I started to take notice and then I didn’t notice after that. They told me I need not be in any way uneasy, that Uncle Sam was good for it and would pay my boss.
q. Do you think they actually gathered out of the field (mind you I am not talking about cribs but only field)—Do you think they gathered so as to clear and gather the corn from 200 acres?
a. Yes sir: I do. I certainly do think that. I believe that.
q. Did they gather corn every day?
a. Some days they came two days at a time and some days they would not come until maybe on about the last of the week: and they was all the time coming and going & wagons running I cannot hardly tell you.
q. Was there any day that they didn’t gather corn from the field?
a. They gathered most every day just like a man was going to the spring for water, every day backwards and forwards, and it was at the Gin House. They would feed every time they came out there—feed their horses there.
q. Was there any cavalry camped in or around these fields—horsemen?
a. Yes sir.
q. How many?
a. I could not tell you to save my life.
q. Was there a regiment?
a. Yes sir: more than that: because one day across the field it was darkened with cavalry: that is certainly so. I saw them when they first came up. They came up there and I didn’t see much after that. I gave everything up. I gave them fodder or anything I had.
q. Do you know anything about any fodder there was there, that is, the corn fodder the blades which were pulled off from the corn?
a. I understand you.
q. Had you gathered any fodder that fall?
a. Yes sir.
q. As early as October?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much?
a. We gathered 55 stacks of fodder: and double stacks too, at that.
q. Well, how much was there in a stack?
a. Well, I have never been able to set it down. I cannot read or write.
q. Well, you know how much that there is in a stack?
a. Well, a double stack ought to call for 500 bundles in a stack.
q. How much would a bundle weigh?
a. A bundle will weigh two pounds and a half. Ten bundles: that is the way we sell it.
q. Ten bundles would weigh how much?
a. I forget now how much. A dozen bundles would weigh ten pounds. I disremember now what it would weigh, but I know it weighs a pound and a half to the bundle if it is tied up right.
q. How many bundles were there put in a stack?
a. Well, there ought to be 500 or 550: and some they put 600 in.
q. Now is that a double or single stack?
a. That is a double stack. We don’t allow any single stacks for the fodder.
q. Now how many stacks of hay had you?
a. Well, I believe as near as my judgement goes, I think there was 15 or 16 stacks of hay and pea vine, but it was hauled in such a way before they hauled it away that I didn’t pay much attention to it.
q. Do you mean to say that it was not worth anything?
a. It was worth something.
q. You say there were 15 or 16 stacks of hay and pea vines?
a. Yes sir.
q. That was all, was it?
a. Yes sir.
q. You have 53 stacks of hay and pea vines charged here?
a. Well, it must be this 5 stacks of blue grass in the bottom that they got in there.
q. How much was there there?
a. Five stacks of blue grass.
q. Then that would make 15 or 16 stacks of hay and pea vine and five stacks of blue grass. Would that be all?
a. Yes sir, all I know anything about.
q. How many mules did you have on that Urquhart place?
a. Thirty mules.
q. How many of them were taken by the army: and did you see them taken?
a. Yes sir: I saw them all taken. They all went from there.
q. You must testify to what you saw and not what you heard. Now tell me how many mules you saw taken?
a. The first draft in the morning, they came in with wagons and got corn and fodder and they took if I ain’t mistaken a quartermaster (I cannot think of his name now) he was on the ground and he took the saddle mule. He caught her first and then they drove up seven more in the lot and taken them all.
q. They and the saddle mule would make eight?
a. Yes sir, they would make 8. They went off with them & took the gears with them and some they hitched in to pull the corn away. I went to town to let the boss know and when I came back they had drove up the balance of the mules from the big long stable about 50 feet long and I said to them are you going to take all the mules and he said yes, clean them all up; they are Uncle Sam’s mules. And they took them all.
q. How many did they take this last time?
a. That is the time they cleaned them all up.
q. Did you count them then?
a. No sir, I didn’t. There were 30 mules in all: I declare to that. Thirty mules we kept at the farm.
q. Eight the first time and the rest the second time?
a. Yes sir.
q. They didn’t leave you a single mule?
a. No sir, not a single mule.
q. Were any of these mules young?
a. The most of them were young mules: yes sir.
q. How young?
a. In the fall before, he went up to Tenn. And brought down 5 or 6 there, 3 & 4 years old.
q. Weren’t any of them younger than 3?
a. The oldest mule we had was about six or seven.
q. Didn’t you have some as young as two years old?
a. Yes sir: we did: we raised two. These young ones, they took them away.
q. Two of the mules weren’t over two years old?
a. Yes sir: they hadn’t been bridled.
q. They weren’t suitable to work were they?
a. Yes sir: they were full grown.
q. But you hadn’t used them?
a. No sir, they were not broken. That is what I mean.
q. And the rest were older?
a. Yes sir.
q. Were any of them unsound?
a. Not of that crowd.
q. Any of them blind?
a. There was not a blind mule on that place.
q. Any lame?
a. No sir: neither a one lame.
q. Of these 30 mules all were sound and fit to work?
a. Yes sir: clear footed mules.
q. They were sound and fit to work and broke to use except these two young ones?
a. Yes sir.
q. Do you know what he gave for these mules that he brought from Tennessee: the five or six.
a. No sir: I don’t know, but I heard that you could not buy mules down there for less than $150 or $200. Good plow mules for any service, serviceable.
q. How many hogs did you have on the place: I don’t mean stock hogs, but fat hogs. This was in October or November and the hogs were being fattened I suppose, but you kill along in December don’t you?
a. Yes sir.
q. About Christmas, or just before?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now how many hogs had you that you were feeding: fattening hogs?
a. Well, I put up down there at the Urquhart place 250 hogs. Well there was some under age, but we let them run into the pen, but there was 200 head of hogs that were good hogs to kill. That is what we generally killed.
q. Did you say there were 200 fat hogs?
a. Yes sir: fat, what I call fat.
q. How many of them do you suppose the army got?
a. They got them all.
q. How did they get them: shoot them?
a. Yes sir: shot them down.
q. Didn’t they treat them pretty savage?
a. They treated them mighty bad I reckon.
q. Didn’t they use to leave a part of them on the earth?
a. Sometimes they would have the skin: that is all they left, just the skin and head.
q. Wouldn’t they leave any sides?
a. No sir: they would just take it right up.
q. What would they do with it?
a. Some they had wrapped up in the clothes and some put on the corn and some took them right across the horses.
q. And carried them off to camp?
a. Yes sir: off to camp.
q. How many stock hogs, pigs and such kind of trash had you?
a. The whole lot together we raised on that place was 500 head: pigs and little pigs and all.
q. Anything that you would call good stock hogs that you were not going to kill?
a. We would save about 200 or 150. Well, say 175, for perhaps some of them maybe would die out.
q. How do you know about these hogs: did you take care of them?
a. Yes sir.
q. You yourself took care of them?
a. Yes sir: I did. I attended to them every morning and every night.
q. Did you feed them yourself.
a. Yes sir: I fed them myself.
q. Didn’t you have other men to do the work for you?
a. Do the work for me! No sir, I fed them myself. I attended to them myself.
q. Do you know anything about the cattle?
a. Yes sir.
q. You didn’t attend to them yourself did you?
a. Yes sir: I looked after them myself and salted them myself.
q. Did you milk the cows?
a. No sir: I didn’t milk them: I had two milk maids.
q. How many cows did you milk?
a. Sometimes 15 or 16.
q. But at this time in October or November, when the army came there?
a. When the army came there we were milking 19 head of milch cows.
q. What became of these 19 head?
a. Carried to the slaughter pen.
q. Good milch cows carried off to the slaughter pen?
a. Yes sir.
q. How many cattle did you have in all there?
a. Ninety head of cattle in all.
q. They haven’t got but 66 charged: what became of the rest?
a. Well, there was 90 head of cattle, that is sure.
q. I should like to know how you could remember there was 90 head?
a. How I can remember? Well, I can remember that I have got my thumbs on to my hands.
q. Well, it is a different thing about cows and cattle?
a. I had them there to attend to and I suppose that was my business and I was as regular to do it as you are to sit down here writing with your pen.
q. Ninety head?
a. Yes sir: 90 head of cattle.
q. Of course you didn’t count them did you?
a. I expect I ought to have counted them to attend to my business if I had business to attend to.
q. Now the question is this: I don’t want to deal unfairly with your memory but still I want to know how you came to remember.
a. Well, I kept it in my mind: if I does anything like that I keep it in my mind and once in a while I go back and look over it, what I done, as near as I can, but I ain’t been doing it regularly like I used to do it. When I was tending to business I kept all these things perfect in my mind so that I should not be bothered. After I laid down nights I would be studying over it.
q. Two milk maids milked 19 cows: one ten and the other nine?
a. Yes sir, and we just made butter by the wholesale: plenty of milk.
q. It is a pretty good lot of cows to have a milk maid milk 10 cows, isn’t it?
a. No sir, that ain’t nothing down there.
q. How did it happen now if you had 90 cattle that they haven’t charged but 66?
a. I don’t know how that is: but there was 90 head of cattle down there, what I call cattle—from that size up [indicating] I call cattle.
q. They have got it here 50 cattle, 10 cows and 6 calves. That would take everything from that size up wouldn’t it?
a. Well, I don’t know how it is.
q. Do you know anything about your having any corn meal when the army came there?
a. Yes sir.
q. Can you tell me how much?
a. No sir: I could not tell.
q. Any salt?
a. Yes sir: they always kept a plenty of salt.
q. Do you remember how much?
a. No sir, I cannot exactly remember how much salt now.
q. Now anything about any dried fruit, peaches, or anything?
a. I don’t know how much there was, but I know we always dried a large quantity every year.
q. Now how much land did you plant in sweet potatoes?
a. We put in about—I think that is the calculation Mr Gilchrist said he wanted to put in about 6 or 7 or 8 acres: between that somewhere.
q. How much had you used at the time that the time the Yankees came; of potatoes?
a. We hadn’t used any of them.
q. Hadn’t dug any?
a. We had dug about half of them and put them up.
q. How many bushels do you suppose there was in these six acres. How many bushels would you raise to the acre, to average them?
a. I could not say exactly to be right. That is a part I never looked into.
q. Have you any idea at all?
a. An acre of ground makes a right smart of potatoes: from 200 to 275 bushels I think to the acre.
[Mr Myrick: that is a light crop of potatoes]
q. What: 275 bushels?
a. Yes sir: that is a light crop of potatoes. I have seen 6 potatoes make a bushel in our country by weight. They would weigh 5 6 [56?] pounds.]
[Mr Cossitt: I should consider 100 bushels a very poor crop. It depends entirely on the season and the land. You take a rich sandy piece of land and cultivate it well in sweet potatoes, get them seeded early and the ground is literally full of potatoes: it is wonderful how they do produce. They grow very large. You take the yam potato—they grow almost as large as a person’s head. I know I made it a point for many years before the war to raise these things in superabundance some years it was a very fine thing for me if the cotton crop was poor or the price of cotton was low.]
q. I see that you have got charged here some gear: how many sets of gear had you there?
a. We worked 30 mules single and there ought to be 30 pair of gear.
q. A set of gear would be for 2 horses?
a. Yes sir: that is the way we count them.
q. Do you know how many sets they had?
a. I never put them together. I just count by the number: that is, what I count for one horse.
q. Do you know anything about how much they were worth?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever see these 8 mules that was first taken and the 22 that was taken afterwards. When they were taken did you ever see them again?
a. Yes sir, I saw two or three of them.
q. Where?
a. In La Grange.
q. How far was that from the Urquhart place?
a. About two miles and a half.
q. What were they doing up there in the village?
a. They had them hauling wagons. They hitched one to a wagon when they were hauling corn. The Quartermaster took the riding mule and put his saddle on and kept it. I saw it twice I believe since the surrender.
By Counsel:
q. How many plows had you running at the Urquhart place?
a. Twenty five plows.
q. And each one of these plows had one mule?
a. Yes sir.
q. And then besides these 25 you had a few surplus?
a. Yes sir.
q. You feel certain you had 30 mules?
a. Yes sir: I feel certain about that.
q. You say about 150 acres of this land in the field was damaged and trampled down by the troops?
a. Yes sir: I think so.
q. And you say there was a thousand acres of land altogether cultivated?
a. Yes sir.
q. Was more than half of that thousand acres in corn?
a. Yes sir: it was.
q. Was there 600 in corn do you think?
a. Yes sir: I think there was.
q. There was more than half anyhow?
a. Yes sir.
q. Well how much do you think this land would raise to the acre, in corn?
a. Well some of our land has been averaging five and a half barrels, and some averages more, according to how the corn grows and the season.
q. Would it all average 5 barrels say?
a. Yes sir: it would average that I know.
q. Was all this corn taken from the fields except what was trampled down?
a. Yes sir: every bit. They never left anything. I left after everything left. There was nothing there to eat in the smoke house and I came to town and told them there was nothing there to eat.
q. These stacks of hay and pea vine in the fields—you have a better recollection of the number of mules on the place than you would have of the stacks of hay and pea vines?
a. Yes sir.
q. Have you a very definite recollection of the number of stacks?
a. I think they got nearly all the stacks.
q. You have a better recollection of the number of mules than you have of the stacks in the field?
a. Yes sir.
By Commissioner Aldis:
q. They call Mr Cossitt a secessionist don’t they?
a. Yes sir, that is what they call him.
q. That is what the people call him?
a. Yes sir. But he was a Union man, but he doesn’t allow it to be known: but when the army came there he left.
By Counsel:
q. Suppose he had staid there when the Federal army went away?
a. He would not have got a chance to come here to see you.
q. They would have killed him?
a. Yes sir. He would not have had a chance to come here and see you.
By Commissioner Aldis:
q. Did you pass for a rebel too?
a. No sir: I just went along so they didn’t bother me much. I heard the threats they put out before he went away.
By Counsel:
q. Were any of Mr Cossitt’s servants in the Union army?
a. Yes sir: nearly all of them.
q. Did he ever try to prevent them?
a. No sir. He told me it would happen five years before it happened. I told him it would not be so. He told me I would be free after a while. I told him no it would not be so. I told him I didn’t expect to live to see it, and he said if you die it will be so anyhow, and you will come to see the day that your children and my children will play together. He told me that five years before, but I didn’t believe it.
[Affidavit of Gen. Hamilton filed]
[Counsel stated that triplicate accounts for plows, plow points and plow molds amounting to $2343 were approved for payment by General U. S. Grant & were filed for payment April 23, 1868 and paid by the accounting officers of the Treasury after a full investigation as to Mr Cossitt’s loyalty. The original papers are in the 3d [?] Auditors office now.]
[Case closed & submitted]
0 notes
Text
Testimony Before the Southern Claims Commission in the Case of Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Washington, D.C., 1876. Part 4.
Chapter 4. Cossitt’s Attorney Questioned, then Cossitt’s Overseer, Edward Myrick, Testifies.
October 17, 1876
20459 Franklin D. Cossitt.
(Richard McAllister, Esq. appeared as counsel for claimant.)
[Counsel moves that item 4—2625 bushels of corn taken from the field, be increased to 8900 bushels of corn taken from the field, upon the ground that exhibit No. 1 referred to in the petition, and filed with the petition, contains both the 2625 bushels and also 255 acres of corn being 6275 bushels of corn, at the rate of 25 bushels to the acre; that item which is in exhibit number 1 filed was omitted by mistake from the petition.]
Richard McAllister sworn & examined.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. You may state with reference to that exhibit No 1?
a. This exhibit No 1 referred to in the petition was filed by me as the attorney of record with the petition and made a part of the record as the petition itself shows.
q. At the time the petition was filed?
a. Yes sir, at the time the petition was filed. The item of 255 acres of corn contained in the exhibit was omitted in the petition by oversight, or clerical mistake.
q. But was in fact in the exhibit No 1 which was filed with the petition?
a. Yes sir: it was in fact in the exhibit No 1 which was filed with the petition.
q. You therefore insist that it was a part of the original petition I suppose?
a. Yes sir: that it was a part of the original petition. This exhibit is in the hand writing of the claimant and was furnished to me from which to base that part of his claim being for stores taken for the troops under Gen C. S. Hamilton.
Edward M. Myrick sworn & examined.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. What is your age?
a. I am 56 years old.
q. Your residence?
a. In Tennessee: in Fayette County.
q. What part of the county?
a. I live in the western portion of the county near the Mississippi line.
q. What is your post office address?
a. La Grange, Tenn. And I live at La Grange, Tenn.
q. What is your occupation?
a. Farmer.
q. How long have you lived at La Grange?
a. Four years.
q. Where did you live during the war?
a. At Mr Cossitt’s place 3 miles from La Grange.
q. Did you live on it throughout the whole war?
a. Yes sir. I left there in 1870.
q. Is that the place that is referred to here in the petition under the head of property taken by Gen. C. S. Hamilton as property taken from the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir.
q. You lived there all through the war?
a. Yes sir, I did. I own it now, but Mr Cossitt owned it then.
q. How large is the place?
a. There is about—nearly a thousand acres in the place.
q. And there was the same amount then as now, during the war?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much was cleared & cultivated?
a. There was between four and five hundred acres under cultivation.
Claimant:
q. Do you mean on the place that I sold you, or on my own place?
a. On the whole. I bought 340 and there was 600 acres above that. And then we had some land rented above there.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. Did you carry on the place during the summer of 1862?
a. Yes sir.
q. Can you tell how much land on that place was cultivated in corn during the year 1862?
a. Yes sir: about 400 acres on the place.
q. How many hands did you have to cultivate it?
a. We had about 32 hands to work on the place: 32 names. We counted little & big there: we counted names.
q. You had 32 working hands?
a. Yes sir.
q. Besides the land that was cultivated in corn how much was there in hay?
a. Well, he had about ten acres I reckon in hay.
q. How much had you in wheat?
a. There was but little wheat raised on that place.
q. Rye?
a. Some little rye and some little wheat. 7 or 8 acres of each.
q. How much oats?
a. Fifteen or twenty acres in oats.
q. How much in cotton?
a. We had nearly 200 acres in cotton.
q. How much in potatoes?
a. We had two or three acres in potatoes. Sweet potatoes.
q. Any other crops raised on the farm that year?
a. Nothing except the pea crop which we always plant between our corn.
q. How many mules had you on the place?
a. We had 17 mules on the place.
q. Who did they belong to?
a. They belonged to Mr Cossitt. But there were two horses we have never said anything about. The horses I kept to ride all the time.
q. Do you know anything about any mules having been taken by Gen. Hamilton, or by any force under his command at any time.
a. Yes sir: I was there at the time he took them.
q. What was done and said?
a. Hamilton moved about a mile from my place to the Scott place. He made his headquarters there and the troops from there came and took those mules: 10 at one time. I saw them. I was right at the gate.
q. Was there any officer with them, & how many soldiers?
a. Twenty or thirty soldiers and two or three officers.
q. Who were the officers and what was their rank?
a. I cannot tell: they were from Lieuts up to Captains. A captain I think wore three stripes.
q. What was done when the mules were taken?
a. I asked them if they had any orders to take the mules, and they told me it was none of my business, I would find out: and they carried them off.
q. In what direction?
a. Over to Mr Scotts, to the Headquarters.
q. Did you see them at the Headquarters?
a. No sir: I didn’t at that time.
q. You didn’t go with them?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever see them afterwards in the service of the Government?
a. Yes sir: I saw them hauling up corn and everything of that sort from the plantations.
q. Did you see them hitched in Government wagons, or how?
a. They were hitched in Government wagons.
q. Did you know them?
a. Yes sir: I did.
q. Is it not easy to be mistaken in the identity of mules where there is a large number together?
a. No sir, not when a man has used them for many years.
q. Where did they take them from, the stable or the field?
a. From the stable.
q. Were the whole 10 in the stable?
a. Yes sir, and more than that, too.
q. Were they taken from the stable by these officers?
a. Yes sir.
q. Didn’t they say anything to you except it was none of your business?
a. No sir: nothing in particular.
q. That was all the reply they made?
a. Yes sir, they had had orders from Headquarters.
q. They said they had orders from Headquarters?
a. Yes sir.
q. They added that to that very uncivil expression?
a. Yes sir. I don’t know what was their object.
q. Were these full grown mules?
a. Yes sir.
q. None of them old, or unsound, or blind?
a. No sir: all good mules. What we call there, No 1.
q. To whom did they belong?
a. To Mr Cossitt.
q. What season of the year was this that they were taken?
a. In the fall of 1862.
q. What part of the fall: what month?
a. Sometime in October or November.
q. Was any fodder taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. When, at what time, and how much?
a. That was taken about the same time the mules were taken.
q. Did you see the fodder taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. Who took it?
a. The soldiers. The same regiment.
q. Did they come with army wagons or carry it off on their horses?
a. They came with army wagons.
q. How many army wagons?
a. I could not tell. They camped all over the whole plantation.
q. Can you tell how many army wagons drew fodder?
a. No sir: I could not. Every day or two it was taken off, a dozen wagons or two, at a time. They were hauling all the time.
q. I would like to have you tell as near as you can how much fodder was taken?
a. I know how many stacks were taken.
q. Stacks of fodder, or hay: which?
a. Both fodder & hay.
q. How many stacks of fodder were taken?
a. I think about 50 stacks as near as I recollect.
q. How much would there be in a stack?
a. About 1500 pounds.
q. That would be about what?
a. About 800 bundles.
q. That would be 75000 pounds of fodder. Was any taken besides what was in the stacks?
a. No sir.
q. How many stacks of hay were taken?
a. Ten.
q. How much was there in a stack of hay?
a. About 1500 pounds I think. About the same.
q. Now was any corn taken from the field?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you see any taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now tell how you saw it taken?
a. I saw them when they were in the field gathering it.
q. Who gathered it?
a. Soldiers.
q. Any officers with them?
a. Yes sir.
q. How did they gather it: what did they put it into?
a. Government wagons.
q. Did you see that done?
a. Yes sir.
q. Can you tell how many Government wagons came there first and last to draw away corn?
a. No sir: they were right in the field, camped all the time. They were camped all over this plantation.
q. Did you say that the army was encamped on this very plantation?
a. Yes sir.
q. And encamped in these fields of corn?
a. Yes sir, around the edges of the timbered land.
q. About how many men were encamped there?
a. Well, a whole Regiment. A whole company was there.
q. How large?
a. I reckon ten or fifteen thousand men and may be a hundred thousand.
q. How long were they encamped there?
a. Gen Hamilton, after he moved to my house—he staid there about 6 weeks.
q. Had he been in camp before he came to your house?
a. Yes sir.
q. How long before?
a. No more than four or five days, or a week: before he came to my house.
q. He then came to your house and encamped, as his Headquarters, for about 6 weeks?
a. Yes sir.
q. This corn was taken during that time?
a. Yes sir.
q. How early did he come to your house, what month?
a. He came I think in October 1862.
q. Now how much corn did they take from the field?
a. Well, I could not tell how much they took. There were about 400 acres in corn and there was only between 40 & 50 acres gathered.
q. That would make about 350 or 360 acres that was not gathered?
a. Yes sir: 350 acres that the troops gathered.
q. Did you say that they gathered it all clean or left a good deal?
a. They didn’t leave very much when they left there.
q. They did not take it as clean as a farmer would father his own did they?
a. No sir: not as clean, but they gathered it pretty clean.
q. What kind of land?
a. Some valley land and some upland.
q. How much would it yield?
a. Five or six barrels to the acre.
q. It would average 25 or 30 bushels to the acre you think?
a. Yes sir: that is our average crop.
q. You have to allow something for the coons and possums don’t you?
a. No sir, I didn’t have any of those there.
q. Didn’t you allow anything for the various depredations of animals or such things?
a. No sir: there was very few animals in that country after that. They put them all into pens—Beef cattle.
q. Do you think the troops got as much as 20 bushels to the acre?
a. Yes sir: they must have got more than that.
q. Did they take any out of the cribs?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much?
a. Well, we had 3 cribs full of corn. 200 in one crib and about 150 in the others. But they didn’t take that corn at the same time. Gen. Hamilton’s Headquarters were at my house. He protected that corn then.
q. When did they take it?
a. When they fell back from Holly Springs about two or three weeks after.
q. And how much did you say there was in the cribs?
a. Two hundred in one crib and 150 in the other cribs?
q. That would make 500 barrels in all?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now the sweet potatoes. Were any of those taken?
a. Yes sir.
a. About 150 bushels.
q. Did you see all this property taken that you have been speaking of?
a. Yes sir: I was right there all the time
q. How many hogs?
a. I think there were about 150 fattening hogs and about 100 stock hogs.
q. Did you say that they were all taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. Describe how they were taken?
a. They were shot down in the field and thrown into wagons and carried to camp.
q. Was not there some parts of the bodies left in the field?
a. Yes sir: some little parts of the bodies left, but not many. Where they would take out both ham & shoulders, some times, they would leave the head.
q. And sometimes they would leave the sides?
a. Not often; but they would generally leave all the head though.
q. Now beef cattle: any taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. How many?
a. Seventeen head.
q. How do you know that?
a. Well, I kept account of them. There were more than that taken, but that is all I have put down.
q. Did you put them down at the time?
a. No sir: I kept them in my head. I cannot write. I have to keep my business in my head. You see I gave this to Mr Cossitt at the time it occurred.
q. Any brown sugar?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much?
a. About 250 pounds.
q. And a half a barrel of molasses?
a. Yes sir: I think there was more than that.
q. That is all there is as charged as taken by troops under Hamilton from the Myrick place. Do you know about property taken from any other place?
a. I didn’t see them take it from any other place.
q. What do you know about that Urquhart place. What connection did you have with that place if any?
a. I was looking over that place—attending to it.
q. Was any other overseer besides yourself attending to it?
a. Yes sir: Mr Gilchrist.
q. What is his first name?
a. Aleck, I think.
q. Where is he living now?
a. He is now dead.
q. How long ago did he die?
a. He has been dead 6 or 7 years.
q. How large a place is the Urquhart place—the whole land, and then tell how much is cultivated?
a. There is between 1500 & 1600 acres.
q. Now as to the Urquhart place, how much was cultivated?
a. Between 900 and 1000 acres.
q. Did you go to it in the year 1862?
a. Yes sir: I went on it twice.
q. When?
a. I was on it in August I think, before the troops came, and I was on it after Hamilton left my house. He left there sometime I think in December.
q. Did you see any of the property taken from the Urquhart place by the army?
a. I didn’t see them take anything but I saw them with the mules afterwards. There were 22 of the mules.
q. How did you know they were the same mules?
a. I was raised with them. I knew them just as well as I did my own.
q. Had you ever worked them?
a. Yes sir.
q. How far was the Urquhart place from the Myrick place?
a. Six miles.
q. How should you come to know these mules and work them when you were not there but twice during the year and lived six miles off?
a. Why I was there before the war.
q. Were these mules all there before the war?
a. Yes sir. After I went to live with Mr Cossitt in 1860—on the different plantations all the time.
q. Were you on the plantation in 1861?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much of the time?
a. Just passing over it and looking over it.
q. You had no special charge of the mules there?
a. No sir: not at that time.
q. You say before the war you had seen these mules?
a. Yes sir.
q. Hadn’t he bought any mules or changed any off for about two or three years preceding 1862?
a. Three mules were bought in 1861.
q. That would leave 32 mules then. Now how many mules did you see taken from the Urquhart place?
a. I didn’t see any taken but I saw 22 of them afterwards.
q. Where were they when you saw them?
a. In the Government wagons hauling rails to town from the Adams’ place.
q. To what town?
a. To La Grange. They were hauling them through the camps
q. What month was it that you saw them?
a. It was the last of October.
q. Did you see them more than once?
a. Yes sir: several times: a good many times.
q. Was your attention called to it by anybody at the time.
a. No sir: I was by myself riding from one plantation to the other.
q. And you saw them pass in Government wagons?
a. Yes sir.
q. How do you know there were 22 of them?
a. I counted them.
q. At the time?
a. Yes sir. I thought I would count them all but I didn’t find but the 22.
q. Are you sure they weren’t mules from other places?
a. No sir.
q. It doesn’t seem as though you had much knowledge of these mules?
a. I ought to have: I had noticed and known all those mules for several years.
q. You weren’t on the Urquhart place but twice in 1862?
a. But the mules were taken from one plantation to another all the time
q. What for?
a. This plantation we called the Adams plantation, we had to work that with different mules from the different plantations. It lay right between the two plantations.
q. So that is the means you have of telling your knowledge of these mules. Now anything else from the Urquhart plantation besides the 22 mules?
a. No sir: only I saw them hauling corn and things from there. I was on the road and I saw them in the field once also. I was there one time when they were hauling off the corn.
q. How many wagons were there in the field then?
a. I would not say; there was a great many; I did not count them.
q. But they were in the corn field on the Urquhart place?
a. Yes sir.
q. And that is all you know about the corn taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. Do you know how large the field of corn was?
a. Yes sir: there were about 100 acres in that field they were in.
q. Is that all the corn there was on the Urquhart place?
a. No sir.
q. How much was there in all there?
a. About 600 acres in cultivation.
q. Whether they took it all or not you don’t know?
a. No sir.
q. It was all taken this same fall of 1862?
a. Yes sir.
[Counsel stated that all receipts for property taken, was property taken from the Myrick place.]
q. Item 25. 19 mules?
Counsel filed a letter to Captain Bennet (marked Exhibit A) asking him for the original paper given to him by Mr Cossitt of which Mr Cossitt retained only a copy and which he filed before the Commissioners: Also Capt Bennet’s reply (marked Exhibit B.)
q. Items 26 & 27. 2 loads = 30 bushels of corn and 2 loads = 2000 pounds of fodder.
Exhibit No 26 of J. L. A. [Capt. Cunningham’s receipt]
Do you know anything about that receipt?
a. Yes sir: he handed me that receipt.
q. Who did?
a. I don’t know the man. They would come and give me the receipts.
q. You didn’t know who the man who gave you the receipts was?
a. No sir: I know he was an officer of some kind belonging to the army. He would give me these receipts.
q. How did you identify these two receipts he gave you?
a. I remember receipts given to me by the officer.
q. But how did you identify that as one of the receipts that was given to you?
a. He handed it to me and I kept it.
q. How did you know it was a receipt?
a. Well, he told me it was.
q. You cannot read or write?
a. No sir: I cannot.
q. Is there anything about that paper by which you can identify it as the paper which was given to you by the officer, point it out.
a. Well, I reckon that is the paper. I don’t know that I can point it out. They would just give them to me.
q. What makes you reckon it is the paper?
a. The papers were handed to me by the officers.
q. What papers?
a. Receipts for corn and fodder they had taken. I never had the receipts, my wife had them.
q. Can you tell how many receipts?
a. No sir, for they would come every day to give them to me.
q. What did you do with these officers receipts?
a. I put them away until I saw Mr Cossitt and then handed them to him. All the papers that were handed to me I handed to him.
q. But whether this was a paper so handed to you, you cannot state?
a. I cannot tell anything more than all the papers were handed to me for receipts and I handed the papers over to Mr Cossitt: and they told me when they handed them to me that the papers were receipts for corn and fodder.
q. Two loads corn and fodder, estimated at 30 bushels: that is, 15 bushels each load?
a. Yes sir.
q. So that that 2 loads made 30 bushels, or does it mean that each load was 30 bushels?
a. It must be the two loads: 15 bushels to a load.
q. They would not carry 30 bushels to a load?
a. No sir: they would not carry 30 bushels to a load.
q. Items 28, 29 & 30. You don’t know anything about these receipts: You cannot say whether that is the paper that was handed to you or not?
a. No sir. Though it looks like it.
q. Now Mr Myrick, all the receipts which you received from officers and which you afterwards handed over to Mr Cossitt, were they all for property taken from the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir.
q. They weren’t for property taken from any other place?
a. No sir: not for property taken from any other place at all.
q. Didn’t these receipts cover some portion of the corn which you have already sworn was taken by soldiers from the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir.
q. The receipts cover the same property?
a. Yes sir, cover some of the same corn.
q. If any of the receipts were for corn—
a. The corn came out of the plantation, the Myrick place.
q. And is a part of this you have sworn to as being raised on the 400 acres?
a. Yes sir.
q. A load of corn is 15 bushels?
a. Yes sir: That is what they call it.
q. For instance: Mr Myrick, here is a receipt for property taken on 6th, 7th, & 10th days of November 1862 by Lieutenant Spring Quartermaster of the 26th Illinois Infantry by authority of Col. Lummis [Loomis?] as per exhibits 15, 16 & 17 and it is for 3 loads of corn and for 300 pounds of hay. Well, that hay was some of the hay of the 10 stacks wasn’t it, and that corn some of the corn out of the 400 acres?
a. Yes sir.
q. And so all through with these?
a. Yes sir: and this fodder was the same thing.
q. Now we will proceed to item 42. Which you say has not been proved [to Counsel?]
[Counsel: Yes sir, it was not verified because I thought it was not sent over to the Treasury.
q. “Received of F. D. Cossitt one steer beef for the use of the United States army, (Sg.) Joshua Ricketts, 2nd Lieut Co. C., Nov. 14, 1862.” Look at that paper and see if you remember anything about the steer?
a. I can recollect the steer, but I don’t recollect the paper.
q. Do you recollect their taking a steer?
a. Yes sir.
q. Can you tell any of the circumstances?
a. Yes sir, he was a large red ox. We used to work him in the wagons. He was very fat when they got him. I don’t know what troops got him. He was drove off the plantation I know.
q. Was he one of the 17 head of beef cattle?
a. No sir.
q. Do you know where Gen. McPherson’s troops were?
a. I know where they said they were.
q. Where was that?
a. That was on the Urquhart place, not far from the river.
q. Were they on the Urquhart place?
a. Yes sir: on the Urquhart place.
q. Did you ever go over there to McPherson’s camp?
a. Not to his Headquarters.
q. Did you ever go over to their camp on the Urquhart place while they were there?
a. No sir: I didn’t: not at that time.
Counsel:
q. State whether you ever furnished Mr Cossitt soon after the property was taken, with any statement of what was taken on the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir. I gave him what were called receipts, that were handed to me.
q. In addition to these receipts did you furnish him with a statement of what property had been taken?
a. Yes sir: I did.
q. What did Mr Cossitt do?
a. He wrote it down on a piece of paper just as I gave it to him, I reckon.
q. Now look at this paper and say whether it looks like the paper he wrote down at the time?
a. Are there any lines drawn on that paper? Yes sir, I should judge it was the paper from the looks of it.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. What do you mean by the lines: do you mean ruled?
a. Yes sir: I noticed in his writing that he was writing on ruled paper.
Counsel:
q. Now in this statement I notice there is mules here, that is on the Myrick place. How many mules were on that Myrick place altogether?
a. Seventeen head.
q. What did you do with these 17 head: how many plows did you run?
a. We run 12, 14 or 15 plows.
q. How many mules had you to each plow?
a. We had one to each plow.
q. And you think there were 17 mules on the place altogether?
a. I know there was that number.
q. These 17 mules that you spoke of being taken, did you pursue these mules?
a. Yes sir.
q. Where did you go?
a. I went to Davis Mills—not for 3 or 4 days afterwards—not until Gen. Hamilton came to my house.
q. Did you get these mules?
a. No sir: but I saw them afterwards in the Government service.
q. Did you ever talk to Gen. Hamilton about the taking of this property?
a. Yes sir.
q. You stated what mules had been taken?
a. I told him what had been taken and everything of that sort and he sent an officer with me to hunt up these mules.
q. And you and the officer went to find them and could not get the mules?
a. Yes sir. We went to Davis Mills. One of Gen. Hamilton’s staff went with me.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. These 17?
a. No sir: the ten that they took at that time.
Counsel:
q. You talked to Gen. Hamilton about his troops taking the property. What did he say about it?
a. He said he was very sorry they were taking it, but it would be paid for: Mr Cossitt would be paid for it.
q. Now we have another statement here of the property taken from the Urquhart place. You say Mr Gilchrist was the superintendent of that?
a. Yes sir.
q. And you had the general superintendence of that place and the Myrick place and the Thomas place?
a. Yes sir.
q. Now state whether soon after the war Mr Gilchrist furnished you any statement?
a. Mr Gilchrist furnished me a statement in the time of the war.
q. Was that statement in writing, or verbal?
a. It was in writing.
q. Did you furnish this to Mr Cossitt?
a. Yes sir: I did.
q. What did he do with it?
a. He looked at it and put it in his pocket.
q. Did he make a copy of it at that time?
a. No sir, I don’t know that he did at that time. I don’t think he had any paper: we were out on the plantation by ourselves. He said he would do it.
q. Do you remember ever seeing this paper at all? (handing paper to witness].
a. No sir, I don’t recollect that paper.
q. The paper that you furnished Mr Cossitt was in the handwriting of Gilchrist was it?
a. Yes sir.
q. It was a statement of what?
a. Of the property taken from the Urquhart place.
q. Do you know how many mules they had on this Urquhart place, how many mules it took to run it. Was the place thoroughly stocked?
a. The place was thoroughly stocked: and we were working a thousand acres: that is, between nine hundred and a thousand acres and we calculate 3 mules to the hundred acres, but we always had to have mules over to put in if one got sick or crippled, which made 31, 32 or 33 mules on the place.
q. You count 3 mules to a hundred acres?
a. Yes sir.
q. Do you know how many mules were on that place?
a. My recollection is that there was 33 mules on the place: that is my best recollection now.
q. You spoke of having seen, afterwards, 22 mules?
a. Yes sir: I saw 22 mules afterwards.
q. These 22 mules was the only property that you saw afterwards in the possession of the United States forces?
a. Yes sir: the only property that I saw from that place.
q. When you first went over there did you go over there before the troops came?
a. I was there before they came there and after they went from there. The first time when I went in there it was all in good order.
q. Did you see the fields of corn at that time?
a. Yes sir. I went over with Gilchrist—over both plantations.
q. How many fields in corn did you see at that time?
a. We were over the whole plantation. It was fenced off into fields.
q. There was some 600 acres I think you said?
a. Yes sir: about that.
q. Was any corn at that time taken into the cribs at all?
a. No sir: it was all in the field. That was in August.
q. Were there any stacks of fodder there at that time?
a. No sir: they were pulling and stacking it at the time I was there. They had gathered the hay, but I don’t recollect how many stacks there was of hay.
q. Do you know how many hogs there was on the place?
a. No sir, I don’t. The day I was over there they called the hogs up, but I don’t think I saw more than a hundred. I think we counted about 100 or 150 they had: that I saw there myself.
q. Do you know anything about the cattle?
a. Yes sir: I saw the cattle. They were in the fields.
q. Was there a nice drove of cattle there?
a. Oh yes sir. I have seen them many times.
q. There is 66 head recorded here: would that be right?
a. I reckon that is right. There might have been more or less. I could not say.
q. How long have you known Mr Cossitt: when did you first get acquainted with him?
a. I have been acquainted with him ever since 1855.
q. You have known him since that time?
a. Ever since that time: yes sir.
q. From 1855 to 1861 at the breaking out of the war and down to the time the troops came, what was he considered: a Union man or a rebel?
a. He was considered a Union man so far as I ever heard: I never heard anything else.
q. On the question of the State of Tennessee going out of the Union, did he vote the Union ticket or the Secession ticket?
a. He voted the Union ticket.
q. Did you vote at the same polls together?
a. Yes sir. He voted in the morning and I came in the evening. I asked him after I got there how he voted and he told me.
q. Did you understand too from others how he voted?
a. Yes sir: I understood it from lots of them.
q. Did you have conversations with Mr Cossitt from that time onwards?
a. Yes sir: we have been in conversation all the time.
q. How did he talk?
a. He always expressed himself as being a Union man.
q. You remember about the time that McPherson’s troops came into that country?
a. Yes sir: very well.
q. State whether you accompanied Mr Cossitt to Bolivar, Tenn. before the troops came down?
a. Yes sir: we went to Bolivar together.
q. Did Mr Cossitt visit Gen McPherson’s Headquarters then?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you accompany him?
a. No sir: I did not accompany him to the Headquarters: I went to the Provost Marshal.
q. In a few days after this did McPherson’s troops come to La Grange?
a. Yes sir, in a few days, or maybe the next day.
q. Did the troops capture and take possession of the whole country then?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you ever get any receipts for any property taken off the Urquhart place?
a. Not a receipt except this one that I gave Mr Cossitt of Gilchrist’s. This is the only paper I ever got off that place.
q. That paper—what kind of a looking paper was it?
a. It was wrote on a piece of white paper about that long & maybe that broad [indicating]. It was like the paper they use in candle boxes.
q. Was it in good or bad handwriting?
a. He was a tolerable good writer: he was a man of education.
q. Did you give that original paper to Mr Cossitt, or did you retain it?
a. I gave it to him. No papers came into my hands but what I gave to him. I know I did. I never kept any of his papers.
q. Would all this Myrick place average about 25 bushels of corn to the acre?
a. Yes sir.
q. Is that a high average down there?
a. No sir: that is a low average for that place. It was in fine fix: a fine plantation: and a great deal of it, valley land.
q. Then 25 bushels to the acre would be a low estimate?
a. Yes sir.
q. How about the Urquhart place?
a. The Urquhart place is a good farm right on the river.
q. Was it as good a place as the Myrick?
a. It is a heavier land: more stiff. Not so easy to cultivate as the land on the Myrick place: one is on one side of the river and the other on the other but the Myrick place is more sandy.
q. How much cotton did you raise on the Myrick place that year?
a. About 150 acres.
q. Did you get any of it?
a. We saved the most of it except what was injured by the troops.
q. How was it injured: by camping on it?
a. Yes sir: camping on it and running through it. You see they had a camp on the edges of the field and the woods.
Claimant:—I recollect Mr Myrick gave me a paper, of things taken by Gilchrist. It was in very bad shape and dirty & I drew off a memorandum, and that is the memorandum which I drew. [referring to the paper already in evidence.]
q. Is that an exact copy?
a. (Claimant) That is an exact copy.
Commissioner Aldis:
q. Of the paper which Gilchrist handed Myrick and Myrick handed you?
Claimant: a. Yes sir.
Counsel: (to witness)
q. Do you know where that original paper, that candle box paper is now?
a. I don’t. It was in a very dilapidated condition.
q. Do you know whether when you showed that paper to Gen McPherson, and he endorsed it there, you had the other paper, the candle box paper, with you or not?
a. I don’t think I did.
q. And you don’t know where that paper is?
a. No sir: I don’t.
Commissioner Aldis to Counsel:
q. [Exhibit No 1] This is the paper that Mr Myrick says that Mr Cossitt wrote down from his verbal statement from memory: and it is from this paper that you made up the first 11 items here.
Counsel: a. Yes sir.
q. Now why doesn’t all the corn & fodder and hay that is mentioned in these subsequent receipts here embrace all these items?
Counsel: a. If you will examine these items and the proof—we prove more corn. We prove enough corn to cover the items and also the receipts.
q. So that what you claim is that inasmuch as the verbal proof through Mr Myrick and Mr Cossitt all the corn taken over & above what is embraced in these receipts will fully come up to these first 11 items, you ought to have the receipts in addition?
Counsel: a. Yes sir.
q. Now the point I want to make here in that connection is, what evidence is there that the receipts do not embrace all the corn they took, and why should they have given receipts for a part of the corn and not for the whole. I want Mr Myrick to answer that question?
a. [Witness] I can answer that question. Some would come and take corn and give receipts and others would not. I would, maybe, meet them in the field and they would say they would send the receipts too, but they never did. That was carelessness on their part, to take anything and not receipt for it. It was done by thousands and thousands there. Some would come and give receipts you know.
q. What do you think as to the proportion that was put into the receipts to the proportion that was not put into the receipts: which was the most?
a. Well, I think the most of the crop that was taken was not put into the receipts. That is my opinion about it.
q. You think that for most of the corn and fodder and hay which was taken, they didn’t receipt?
a. Yes sir, they didn’t receipt.
q. Now taking the Myrick place: do you say that all except 50 or 60 acres they took?
a. Yes sir.
q. They didn’t take it as clean as a farmer would have gathered it himself?
a. No sir: not quite as clean.
q. But on the whole would they get 20 bushels to the acre?
a. Yes sir: they must have got more than that. They gathered it pretty clean.
q. Now how do you know there were 400 acres?
a. Well, sir, it has been measured since then.
q. How many fields were there of it?
a. Three.
q. Can you give the measurement of the 3 different fields?
a. No sir, I cannot give the measurement of them.
q. When was it measured?
a. Directly after I bought it from Mr Cossitt.
q. Do you own it now?
a. Yes sir.
q. You own the whole of the Myrick place?
a. No sir: I don’t own the whole of the Myrick place. I own 640 acres of the whole Myrick place: the balance we have sold out to colored people.
q. What did you get an acre for it?
a. Fifteen dollars.
q. Any buildings on it?
a. Yes sir: five buildings on it.
q. What sort of a house?
a. In the house that I occupied there are four or five rooms & it is painted up nicely. Gen. Hamilton had his Headquarters in it.
q. Two stories?
a. Yes sir. Gen. Hamilton occupied three rooms of the house.
q. You gave $15 an acre. When did you buy it?
a. I bought it in 1867.
q. Two years after the war was over?
a. Yes sir.
q. Is it worth more or less now?
a. It is worth less now. Land has gone down now.
q. How much was it worth at the beginning of the war?
a. Worth about $20 an acre.
q. And how many acres did you say there was of the Myrick place?
a. I own 640, but he owned about 900 acres.
q. So that at $20 an acre it would be about $18,000?
a. Yes sir.
Counsel:
q. You had the Myrick place at the time the troops came fully equipped with animals &c. Now what did you make a year off this place?
a. We made clear off that place every year I reckon $10,000 or $15,000 profit. He gave me $550 to look after that place, myself.
q. Now take the Adams place and the Urquhart place and all the other property. What was Mr Cossitt’s revenue a year from them?
a. Well, I expect he made about $30,000 a year clear over all expense. He was the biggest planter we had in that country except one and he would have beat him in less than two years if the war hadn’t come on.
0 notes
Text
Testimony Before the Southern Claims Commission in the Case of Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Washington, D.C., 1876. Part 3.
Chapter 3. Hon. Stephen A. Hurlbut is Questioned by the Commission and by Cossitt’s Attorney.
Hon. Stephen A. Hurlbut, sworn:
Comi Aldis.
q. Please state your age, residence & occupation.
a. I am 60 years of age, reside at Belvidere, Ill. & my present occupation is that of a Member of Congress.
q. During the war you were a Major General in the army & had command for a while at La Grange Tenn did you not?
a. Yes sir. I was a Brigadier General commanding the fourth division of the Army of the Tennessee, & after capturing Corinth, we moved across the county on the line of the Memphis & Charleston R.R. & occupied the country around Grand Junction, & La Grange, Corinth being my headquarters for a while. That was perhaps in June or July 1862.
q. Did you during that time become acquainted with the claimant F. D. Cossitt?
a. Yes sir. I became acquainted with Mr. Cossitt as soon as I came into La Grange I think.
q. Please state your means of knowledge as to his being a loyal or disloyal man to the US. gov’t.
a. Mr. Cossitt was among the first of the men in that region of country who came out openly & avowedly when the army came there, as a Union man & so declared himself at once to me & to my officers, & I found upon inquiry that he was so considered by the people there before we came. He was under a cloud. That section of Tennessee along the line of the Memphis & Charleston R.R. was bitterly secession. The region North of it, up above, was very much more divided in sentiment. From all the means of information I could get at that time (and it was my business to know) I was advised that he was distinguished as a Union man & has always been loyal to the gov’t. He gave us a great deal of important information, & his conduct was so marked by his known fidelity to the Union that when I was about to move on from La Grange to Memphis & there was no probability that the troops would be retained there, Mr Cossitt considered it necessary (and I have no doubt it was) for him to leave the country & he went, I think, immediately to Chicago—I would not be positive about that.
q. In your judgement it would not have been safe for him to have remained?
a. No sir They would have executed him, sure. He was about my headquarters a good deal & was known to give me information—important information too, & that connected with his marked career before, would have made it absolutely unsafe for him to have remained there. I do not think his life would have been worth a straw outside of the range that was covered by the US. troops. There are not a great many people in the South that I can vouch for as being essentially Union people, but I can for Mr. Cossitt.
q. Did you know anything in regard to his property—his plantations, & how they were stocked?
a. I could not tell that. I have a sort of general knowledge & that is all. Major Daniel J. Bennet who was my quartermaster could, I have no doubt, give pretty full information on that subject.
q. Where is he now?
a. At Gettysburg Pa. Major Bennet was my quartermaster & in all this matter of taking supplies as we did sometimes—especially foraging through the country, he always gave (where these supplies were taken by regular authority so that they would be distributed among the army)—gave vouchers. I can not give you any knowledge except the general impression I had in my mind, that Mr. Cossitt put, practically, everything he had at the disposal of the gov’t. That is all I can say to you. That I understand to be the fact. I can not give you any more direct information because that was all done by staff officers. The amounts of the claim or the articles taken I could not possibly give. I only know that whatever Mr. Cossitt had that was available for the gov’t, we got.
q. These letters are in your handwriting [Showing witness letters filed as Exhibits.]
a. Yes sir.
q. Were these four letters purporting to be signed by you, written & signed by you?
a. Yes sir. I don’t know precisely at what date Mr Cossitt left. I can not tell those things. He may have remained around La Grange, because there were occasional troops kept along the line there. My impression is now that he went to Memphis & from Memphis he went to Chicago. As regards his property, I can not give any more definite information than that whatever Mr Cossitt had there that the gov’t required, was at the disposal of the gov’t.
Counsel:
q. Did you understand that he had a large property down there?
a. Oh yes sir.
q. Where were your troops stationed—near what plantation, if you remember any name?
a. My division was quartered in La Grange—that is, not in the town exactly. The town stands on a bold bluff looking down to the valley on the stream & we covered that stream—the bridges over it looking South, and looking also at the left flank so as cover Grand Junction which was the junction of 2 railways.
q. Please state the number of troops under your command?
a. I must have had 7500 men.
q. How far did you extend from La Grange out into the country—your own troops?
a. Well, we didn’t reach out into the country that way. We sent expeditionary columns to exercise the men & to bring in forage from different directions—generally into Mississippi which lay just below us—that is, South, and sometimes off in other directions. But the troops were simply in quarters there. Before we occupied La Grange we were for 2 weeks I think, below La Grange at a point called Davis’ Mills. That was South of La Grange.
q. How far from the Mississippi line is Davis’ Mills?
a. I think it is in Mississippi.
q. What other commands were in that neighborhood at that time?
a. General Sherman had a division at Moscow 12 miles east of La Grange on the railway—on the Memphis & Charleston RR., and Gen. McClernand had a brigade which occupied Grand Junction a part of the time. Grand Junction is about three miles west from La Grange. Sherman had about eight thousand troops & McClernand had a brigade down there under command of Gen. Leggett—I think three regiments.
Comi Aldis: There must have been 20,000 men?
a. Along that line! Yes sir.
Counsel: Were you foraging upon the country at this time for your supplies?
a. For forage, yes: foraging for the animals.
Comi Aldis: Which would include corn?
a. Oh, certainly.
Counsel: And subsistence too?
a. For the men? I think not: that is not my recollection.
q. You were taking horses & mules?
a. Oh yes, when necessary.
Comi Aldis: There is quite a large charge for cattle.
a. I don’t know what there is in the bill.
q. Would it be likely that at that time any of these bodies of troops would require cattle?
a. Yes sir, it might be. It was difficult for us to get fresh beef during the most of this time. Memphis had not yet been captured. I do not remember the precise date at which Memphis was captured. Our line of supplies was either by wagon-train from Corinth or by the northern railway leading up to Columbus. I remember now, that at one time I had my men on quarter rations—I can not say how long a time, and on half rations for quite a time. That is simply to show the uncertainty of communications, and when we were on quarter or half rations I always drew from the country such supplies as we needed—bacon, vegetables, corn meal & other things.
q. Did you get any pork there?
a. No sir, there was no pork in that country: it was all bacon. I do not know of any instance in which we took up hogs regularly.
q. He has four or five hundred hogs charged?
a. I don’t know about that. I don’t know that we ever regularly took up hogs.
q. Who was your Commissary?
a. Capt. Wm. W. Jackson was at that time. He is right here in the city. I think he would know. He lives in Washington. I have never known of their taking up any pork, or live hogs, but it may have been done. I can not say. This column of Sherman’s & mine was the pioneer column moving across that country on the way towards Memphis. We intended to take Memphis in the rear, but the gunboats came down the river & cleared out the front of Memphis & they all ran away & we moved in leisurely. We got into Memphis in August 1862. Our column moved in, & up until sometime in August 1862 we were along that La Grange road.
Counsel: Were there any other troops stationed there except the ones you have mentioned?
a. Yes sir: troops followed me.
q. Do you remember when your troops moved away from there?
a. Well, we got into Memphis about the 18th of August 1862, so that I suppose we must have left that La Grange country somewhere in the neighborhood of the 10th of August. We moved leisurely across. It was terribly hot weather. I can not tell what troops succeeded us: that I can not tell.
q. You took Memphis at what time?
a. We entered Memphis with our troops (Lew. Wallace took Memphis, you know)—Sherman’s division & mine entered Memphis the 17th or 18th of Aug. 1862.
Comi Aldis: There were forces that came back to La Grange in Nov. of that year?
a. Oh yes sir: The line was never abandoned.
Counsel: What troops occupied that section of the country after you left?
a. I don’t know what troops occupied it from that time until January 1863. In Jan. 1863 I came back to Memphis & took general command of the whole country extending from Memphis to Corinth. My own corps—the 16th—was stationed all along that line. General Sooy Smith commanded at La Grange after I took command of the 16th corps, under me. Gen. Tuttle [?] of Iowa also commanded there for a while but I could not tell you the details of the troops. I had 80,000 men there & I can not remember them all.
q. How about Gen. Hamilton?
a. Hamilton was at La Grange.
q. Where does he live now?
a. He lives in Wisconsin. He is U. S. Marshal of the Southern & Eastern Districts of Wisconsin.
q. How many troops did Hamilton have?
a. A division.
q. About what number of men?
a. About six thousand men were in the division then.
q. McPherson was there also?
a. Yes sir.—& I know that only by report. He was not a part of my command. That country was full of troops. You will see it was at the intersection of 2 railways. When Gen. Grant made his movement down on Vicksburg overland, the troops all passed through there. I moved from Memphis in Sept. 1862 with my division & established my headquarters at Bolivar Tenn. About 30 miles; I should think, from La Grange—North—and commanded there until the latter part of December or the 1st of Jan. 1863. I sent two expeditionary columns below during that time. It was at that time that the Price & Van Dorn attack was made upon Corinth Oct. 6 & 7, 1862. I marched my division across towards Corinth & passed within probably ten miles of La Grange. After that I went back to Memphis under orders from Gen. Grant, & he in January or February, moved all the disposable troops South on his march down through Holly Springs & along the Mississippi Central railway to attack Vicksburg in the rear, which march was broken up by rebels coming in in his rear & cutting off his depot of supplies at Holly Springs. After that, our line was reestablished on this same Memphis & Charleston railway, & then it was that this General C. S. Hamilton was put on duty at La Grange.
q. Do you remember about that date?
a. I can not tell you the date. When I received my order as commanding the 16th corps, Gen. Hamilton became part of my command for the first time, & he was then at La Grange. La Grange was occupied permanently by troops all along after that as long as I remained in that region of country
q. Gen. McPherson you understood at one time commanded at Bolivar. What I want to find out is, if you know when his troops moved down to La Grange?
a. No sir: I never said that McPherson commanded at Bolivar.
q. But I have been advised that such was the fact?
a. McPherson must have moved down to La Grange as part of Gen Grant’s column because my division was given to him & went through there.
(Case continued.)
0 notes
Text
Testimony Before the Southern Claims Commission in the Case of Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Washington, D.C., 1876. Part 2.
Chapter 2. Cossitt is Questioned by His Attorney, and by the Commission.
Counsel:
q. Where were you born?
a. At Granby, Hartford Co. Conn.
q. How long did you live there?
a. I was about 15 when I left there. & went to La Grange.
q. What year did you go to La Grange?
a. In 1836.
q. When you left home was your father living or dead?
a. He was dead.
q. Was your mother living?
a. Yes sir.
q. How many sisters had you?
a. Three.
q. What did you do when you arrived at La Grange?
a. I commenced checking for an uncle I had there—George J. Cossitt, & remained with him 6 ½ years.
q. What did he then propose to you?
a. He proposed a co-partnership.
q. Did you accept it?
a. No sir. I declined it.
q. Did you have a settlement with him?
a. Yes sir. He gave me $600.
q. Did he give you any letter of credit to merchants in New York at that time?
a. Yes sir.
q. Where did you go then?
a. I went home & saw my mother & sisters. They had moved to Hartford, Conn, then.
q. What did you do with the $600?
a. I gave it all to them except enough to go back to Tennessee with.
q. Did you go back to Tennessee?
a. I did, after buying a stock of goods on credit. I got nearly $5,000 worth
q. You carried them back & established a store?
a. Yes sir.
q. When was that?
a. In 1842
q. What kind of a store was it?
a. General stock. I kept a little of everything.
q. Did you keep that store until the war broke out?
a. I went out of the business in 1849 (I think it was) temporarily, & I was out, probably, something like 8 or 10 months. With that exception I was in business all the time.
q. Was your business prosperous there?
a. Very.
q. What property did you become the owner of there—state the whole thing.
a. I went on merchandizing & commenced buying land & negroes & planting.
q. How many plantations had you?
a. I had three pretty large ones & a small place—300-odd acres it was.
q. You have stated you had 127 slaves. What were they worth?
a. I suppose about a thousand dollars apiece at that time.
q. That would be $127,000. What were the plantations & the stock worth?
a. I should think they were worth over $100,000.
q. What was your net income, after supporting your slaves & overseers &c—derived from these plantations—per year—the average income?
a. I should think about $20,000. I was managing my matters pretty closely. I never had anything to do with politics or anything outside of my legitimate business.
q. You lived in La Grange?
a. Yes sir.
q. What did your house there cost you?
a. That I built a short time before the war I had a block there—a square. The entire block & improvements cost me about $18,000.
q. You made all this property by your own indefatigable industry?
a. No sir. I got a little by marriage—$5,000 or $6,000, all told, probably. With that exception I made it.
q. Who did you vote for in 1860?
a. Bell & Everett.
q. Were they considered Union men or secessionists in that part of the country?
a. Union men.
q. You say you knew Dr. Biggs, Mr Rosine & Mr Pullian of La Grange, to be Union men?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you have frequent conversations with those gentlemen before, & during the progress of the war?
a. I had.
q. Did you regard them as Union men & did they regard you as such?
a. Yes sir, I think so; they have always said so.
q. Is your uncle George G. Cossitt, living?
a. No sir, he is dead.
q. Was he regarded as a Union man?
a. Yes sir; he was.
q. La Grange is near the Mississippi line, isn’t it?
a. About 4 ½ miles, I think.
q. That part of the country was very decidedly rebel, wasn’t it?
a. Pretty strong. There were a good many who were not outspoken Union men who I think at heart were really union men. They were afraid to express themselves.
q. This foundry that you have spoken of. That you say belonged to J. W. Shipp?
a. Yes sir.
q. They were making plows there?
a. Yes sir.
q. And shot & shell?
a. Yes sir.
q. You say you broke up the manufacture of shot & shell as soon as you could?
a. I did, after I bought an interest in it.
q. You stopped that as quick as you could?
a. Yes sir.
q. You didn’t authorize the making of any shot or shell in any way?
a. No sir.
q. And received nothing from the Confederate gov’t in payment for any shot or shell?
a. No sir.
q. And anything that was done in that direction was done by your other partner against your wishes & consent, I understand?
a. He had the entire management & control. I simply had an interest in the business to secure myself for the money that he owed me.
q. You say you were arrested by Gen. W. Sooy Smith, & kept sometime, & discharged?
a. Yes sir.
q. That is the same General Smith who gave you permission to sell your property & go to Chicago.
a. Yes sir.
q. Where is he living now?
a. Near Chicago.
q. The foundry question was involved in that trial, as well as the spy matter?
a. Yes sir. After I moved to Chicago Gen. Smith hailed me on the street. I was driving in a buggy & I drove up to the sidewalk & he came & offered me his hand & I shook hands with him. He remarked it was Mr Cossitt he believed. I told him yes, but that I didn’t recollect him, however. He wanted to know if I didn’t recollect Gen. W. Sooy Smith. I told him then that I did—as soon as he mentioned his own name, & I told him I was glad to see him. He asked me “Are you glad to see me?” I told him I was. He said “I am very glad to know it.” We had some conversation & I invited him to come & see me at my office, & he did so afterwards. I suppose he thought possibly I had some unkind feeling towards him, from the remark he made.
q. Were you acquainted with General Sherman & Gen McPherson, Gen. Hamilton & Gen. Hurlbut?
a. Yes sir.
q. State whether, at different times, you gave these Generals any information in regard to the disposition of the Confederate forces, or anything that would be to the advantage of the federal army.
a. I had several interviews with each one of them & talked very freely with them as to the Confederacy & as to the troops, & being called upon, gave them all the information I could give them.
q. Did you go back again to Connecticut to see your mother & sisters after the time you gave them the money?
a. Yes sir. I went back every year almost.
q. Is your mother living now?
a. Yes sir—with me in Chicago.
q. Where is your sister living?
a. One in Denver, married, one in Chicago, and one in Connecticut.
q. Have you all your life helped to support them?
a. I have. I have done a great deal for them & am very glad I have been able to do it.
q. Was your feeling at all times, from the time you went south, & during the whole time of your residence there in favor of the Union & against any division?
a. It was, always.
q. Had you ever, any sympathy at all with secession in any shape or form?
a. No sir, & I told many of them that if they could gain their independence & if there was a possible division, that it would be the worst thing for the South in the world.
q. Your judgement & your actions were always against it. Was it considered dangerous there to express your opinions openly?
a. Yes sir, it was very dangerous after the war had really commenced.
q. You spoke about burning your cotton. Did these agents of Beauregard burn your cotton?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much did they burn for you?
a. Two hundred and sixty odd bales.
q. Did you protest against it all the time?
a. I did.
q. Did they carry you by force to the different places where the cotton was?
a. Yes sir, they compelled me to go.
q. Have you ever got anything from anybody for that cotton?
a. No sir, & I never expected anything.
q. How did the Confederate authorities look upon Southern men who were opposed to the burning of cotton?
a. They thought they were Yankees or ought to go with the Yankees.
q. Were you regarded down there by them as a Yankee?
a. Yes sir, & called so very often & denounced as such. If I had been a large slaveholder there I would have been hung. I don’t believe I could have staid there or lived there a month.
q. Did you have debts at the North for goods &c., at the breaking out of the war?
a. Yes sir.
q. Well, you paid those debts?
a. Yes sir. But I was notified by the Confederate authorities, by letter, not to do it.
q. Have you paid them all?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you go to Chicago as soon as you could get out of the country? You went in April 1863.
a. Very nearly. The troops came in there permanently in the fall of 1862 & I left in April 1863. I could not have very well gotten out sooner.
q. You sold what you could of your personal property & left, did you?
a. Yes sir.
q. State whether any citizens there at that time had made deposits of money with you.
a. Yes sir, quite a number of them.
q. Before you left state whether you offered to pay it back to them?
a. I did. Some I paid back, & some they would not receive—would not take it, & some I took with me to Chicago & one party I paid three years afterwards. He didn’t call on me for it until three years afterwards & I paid it & paid him six percent interest.
q. Have you paid off all those sums you took with you to Chicago?
a. Yes sir, every dollar.
q. Were these men who gave you their money, Union men or not?
a. Well, the money I took to Chicago was for Mr. Wm. M. May who was a strong Union man & so regarded.
q. Was he afraid to have the money kept down there?
a. He was afraid that he might be robbed.
q. And you took it with you as a favor to him?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you state that you paid all your Northern debts?
a. Yes sir.
Commissioner Aldis
q. Now as to the taking of the property. You had three large plantations?
a. Yes sir.
q. The first one was called what?
a. The Myrick place.
q. How far was it from La Grange?
a. Between three & four miles.
q. How many acres in it?
a. We called it a thousand acres.
q. How many hands did you work on it?
a. I think there were about thirty hands.
q. How many mules did you keep on it?
a. Twenty-odd head.
q. How many oxen?
a. I believe six yoke.
q. Any cattle?
a. Yes sir, quite a number of cattle. I raised a good many cattle & kept a good many cows. I should think about a hundred oxen & cows on the Myrick place.
q. Any sheep?
a. No sir.
q. Any swine?
a. Yes sir, a great many hogs. That was one leading feature with me in farming. I used to sell a good deal of meat & lard. I thought raising hogs was about as good as anything else.
q. Now name the second plantation that you had?
a. The Urquhart place.
q. How many acres in that?
a. Between 1600 & 1700.
q. How many acres cleared & cultivated?
a. Over a thousand, & there was a little over 700 in the Myrick place, cultivated.
q. How many hands did you employ on it?
a. Some 35 I think.
q. Did you raise cotton on both these places?
a. Yes sir.
q. Whereabouts is this Urquhart place situated?
a. About three or four miles S.W. The other was between three & four miles S.E. from the town.
q. Tell how many mules, cattle &c., you had on this place.
a. There were about thirty head of mules, & more cattle & more hogs on that place than there was on the other, & better range & larger outlet for them. There was a very fine range there for hogs & cattle. It was on Wolf river & there was a great deal of mast that enabled us to raise hogs cheaply.
q. Now the third plantation.
a. That was about 8 miles South—the Sykes place of 800 acres—400 cleared.
q. How many hands?
a. There were 21 or 22 hands, 13 or 14 mules & other things in proportion.
q. Well, all this property you owned prior to the coming of the federal army?
a. Yes sir.
q. Any other place?
a. There was a place containing a little upwards of 300 acres about a mile South of La Grange. That was sometimes called the Adams tract or place. About a hundred acres of that was cultivated.
q. How many hands?
a. The hands from the Myrick place cultivated that. They raised corn there entirely.
q. Those are the four places that you owned?
a. Yes sir.
q. Do you know anything, personally, about the taking of the eleven items charged in the petition as taken from the Myrick place?
a. I saw them shoot down some hogs at the Myrick place—I can’t say how many. I was out there two or three times & I saw the soldiers kill some hogs & some beef cattle & I also saw some of the mules belonging to the Myrick place in some army wagons driving through town: I didn’t see them taken from the place.
q. Any other of the eleven items did you see taken?
a. I did not.
q. Now of the ten mules charged as taken from the Myrick place how many did you see that you could identify as your own afterwards in the use of the army?
a. I think seven.
q. Where did you see them?
a. In La Grange.
q. What were they doing when you saw them?
a. They were hauling—hitched to wagons going to & fro.
q. In the vast number of mules that the army had, are you sure that you could identify those seven?
a. I think I could.
q. Might they not have been other mules—other than those seven?
a. I do not think they were.
q. Can you describe them now—how they were marked, &c.?
a. I do not know that I could exactly.
q. Did you ever see those seven more than once afterwards?
a. I do not know that I ever saw them afterwards.
q. Are you sure that you saw seven at that time?
a. Yes sir, I am as sure as a person could be under such circumstances.
q. How many hogs did you see killed on the Myrick place?
a. Well, very few. At the time I speak of, they were camping all around on the plantation & it was in the rear (or South) from where the house stood, that they were shooting, & it was in a little skirt of woods. They were shooting quite a number of hogs. I saw several shot down & saw the soldiers cutting up some of them, & some of them they were cleaning.
q. Did they carry off the whole hog?
a. No sir. Well, they usually, from what I saw them cut up, would take the quarters, & the balance seemed to be left—the main forequarters was all they took.
q. Did they take those away on wagons?
a. No sir, they were camped.
q. Whose troops were they that shot the hogs?
a. General Hamilton’s.
q. Were the officers present when they were shooting?
a. I don’t think they were present, but they were near.
q. Didn’t Gen. Hamilton have his supply-train along?
a. I suppose so: I don’t know.
q. How many troops were there under command of Hamilton?
a. I don’t know; a good many thousand.
q. How long were they camped there?
a. Several weeks.
q. You are not able to say there was any real necessity for taking these hogs, are you?
a. No sir, I do not know that I could.
q. How large was the body of troops—five or ten thousand men, or more?
a. I don’t know: I have no means of saying. It was a large body of troops but I have no actual knowledge of the number.
q. This paper which your Counsel calls “Exhibit No. 1”, & which is marked by us “Exhibit No. 2”—do you know anything about when it was made & who made it?
Counsel: Is that in your handwriting?
a. Yes sir.
Comi Aldis:
q. When did you make it?
a. It was made in the winter of 1862. Mr. Myrick who was the overseer on the place kept a memorandum & I made this from his report.
q. From what he told you?
a. Yes sir. He had charge of everything & had been on the place several years.
q. In your petition you state that items 12 to 24 inclusive, were taken from the Urquhart plantation. Did you see any of these items taken yourself?
a. I saw some of the cattle driven off by the soldiers.
q. How many cattle did you see driven off?
a. I don’t know: there was quite a crowd of them,—35 or 40 head perhaps.
q. What kind of cattle?
a. Beef cattle, most of the, in good order—steers most of them.
q. Where were they driving the cattle to?
a. They were going towards La Grange.
q. Where they were encamped?
a. Yes sir.
q. Was McPherson’s corps then camped at La Grange?
a. They were, some of them, & some of them were North of this plantation about a mile.
q. Besides these cattle, did you see any of these other items taken from the Urquhart place?
a. I saw some of the mules at the same time some soldiers caught quite a number of mules. One of them had a mule we called “Tiger”—hardly anyone could ride him at all & he came very near killing one of the soldiers—so near that that soldier didn’t carry him off, but another soldier swore that he could ride him & he did succeed in riding him off. They had halters with them. I don’t recollect the number they took.
q. In your best judgment, how many of the 16 mules charged from the Urquhart plantation did you see either taken off at the time you speak of, or in the use of the army afterwards?
a. I could not say: I don’t know—I should think ten or twelve at the time I speak of. There were 35 mules taken from that place altogether—at both times: 16 one time & 19 another. The time I speak of is the only time I ever saw any mules taken, & I should think there were 10 or 12 mules.
q. Do you mean to include in that ten or twelve the seven you spoke of before?
a. No sir, they were from the Myrick place.
q. This 10 or 12 is in addition to the former number?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you see any other property taken from the Urquhart place?
a. Nothing, personally taken.
q. This is in your handwriting. [Handing witness “Exhibit No 2.A”]
a. Yes sir.
q. Give us a history of how you wrote it & when, & whether you presented it to Gen. McPherson.
a. Mr. Gilchrist was on the Urquhart place & Mr Myrick on the Myrick place. Mr. Gilchrist had been with me only about two years, & Myrick had been with me many years. I relied on Mr Myrick to superintend not only where he was, but required him to come to this place frequently & look after it. I had the utmost confidence in him & his management. Mr Gilchrist kept a memorandum which he gave me, just as Mr Myrick had done. This was made out in the winter of 1862: I don’t recollect the date.
q. This is dated Nov. 13.
a. Yes sir. I got it in the same way that I got from Mr Myrick.
q. Is Mr Myrick living?
a. Yes sir, near La Grange. Edward M. Myrick
q. Is Mr Gilchrist living?
a. No sir, he is dead.
q. Is La Grange Mr Myrick’s post-office address?
a. Yes sir. He has lived there for a good many years.
q. Now items 26 and 27—30 bush. corn & 2000 lbs fodder, taken by Lieut. Cunningham [See Exhibit No 4 dated Nov 7, 62.] You know nothing more about that than the receipt?
a. No sir.
q. Do you know anything about the three loads or 4500 lbs hay, 7,000 pounds of fodder & 200 bush. corn taken by E D Osband?
a. I do not, personally.
Counsel:
q. Now as regards the Myrick place. About how many hogs were on that place at the time the federal army came there?
a. I suppose we had upwards of 300 head there.
q. State about the average weight of those hogs.
a. When I say upwards of 300 head, I meant fattening hogs & shoats & sows. I should think the fattening hogs would weigh 150, & the rest probably 75 to 80 pounds.
q. What was pork worth a pound at that time?
a. I think about ten cents.
q. How many head of cattle had you on this Myrick place?
a. I think it was about a hundred head.
q. About what would they average?
a. I should think the steers would weigh 600.
q. Then you had cows there?
a. Yes sir, & yearlings.
q. Were they in good condition?
a. Yes sir. We had plenty for them to eat, & they were in first-rate condition.
q. What was beef worth a pound there at that time?
a. I think it was worth about six cents.
q. What was the price of corn there in 1862?
a. There was no market then, to fix the price.
q. How much corn did you raise on this Myrick place—you say you had 700 acres cleared.
a. Yes sir, a little over 700.
q. How much of that was in corn?
a. I think there was over 400 acres of it.
q. Was 1862 a good corn year?
a. A very fine corn year.
q. Did you raise more than the average crop that year?
a. I think we raised rather more than the average crop.
q. How much corn would it average to the acre?
a. I should say 25 to 30 bushels. I used to make better corn than some of my neighbors who didn’t plow so deep or keep so good mules.
q. Had you much corn stored there in 1862 on the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir: a good deal.
q. Had you cribs there on the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir.
q. Were those cribs full?
a. Yes sir. I do not know that it would do to say they were all perfectly full because we were using some corn all the time & we used out of the cribs.
q. I mean did you gather the corn & then fill all the cribs?
a. We didn’t gather all the corn. Some corn was taken by the troops out of the fields.
q. Some was in the cribs & some in the fields?
a. Yes sir.
q. How much corn would those cribs on the Myrick place hold?
a. I should think 2500 bushels.
q. How was the corn in the field—shocked?
a. No sir, it was left just as it grew & we gathered it whenever we had time. Corn would stand there until December, very nicely.
q. What proportion was in the crib, & what was in the field on the Myrick place?
a. I could not state what proportion.
q. How many acres of corn had you on the Urquhart place—you say you had a thousand cleared then?
a. Yes sir.
q. You had some cotton and some corn?
a. I had a small crop of cotton at each place.
q. How much corn had you at the Urquhart place?
a. I think there were over 500 acres there.
q. Would that make the same average as the Myrick place?
a. Quite as good. It was really better land.
q. How many mules did you have on the Urquhart place?
a. About thirty.
q. How many head of hogs did you have there?
a. About 400 head. We had more there than at the Myrick place.
q. How many cattle?
a. We had more cattle. We had considerably over a hundred head there. We had a very fine range.
q. This other little place called Adams place. What was that cultivated in?
a. In corn. Mr Myrick had charge of that place.
q. Would that average about the same amount of corn to the acre?
a. No sir. I should not think it was quite so good—say between 20 & 25 bushels.
q. You brought the stock to work that place from the Myrick place?
a. Yes sir.
q. Had you any cattle, mules, or hogs, belonging to this place particularly?
a. No sir.
q. You had another place called the Sykes place. Where was that?
a. That was nine miles South.
q. These other places are all in Fayette county?
a. Yes sir, & the Sykes place was in Benton Co Miss. I had 800 acres there, 400 acres cleared.
q. Is Sykes living now?
a. I think so. H. O. Sykes, Post Office address Benton, Benton Co, Miss.
q. How many mules had you on that place?
a. Twelve or fourteen.
q. Was that as good a place for corn as the other places?
a. It was very fine land.
q. How much corn would it average to the acre?
a. We did not consider that the places differed much in the average crop. Some years it would make more, & sometimes less.
q. How many acres had you in corn there in 1862?
a. I don’t recollect—a pretty large corn crop. I should think there was a little upwards of 200 acres.
q. Had you any hogs there?
a. Yes sir. I don’t know how many: I should think 140 or 150 of them.
q. How many cattle?
a. Some sixty-odd.
q. When did the federal army first come there?
a. It was in July I think.
q. When they first came was this stock undisturbed as you have described it?
a. Yes sir.
q. When the army left did you visit your plantations afterwards?
a. Yes sir.
q. What did you find with regard to your stock and produce—after the army left?
a. The army went to Memphis in June & came back again in November. After they finally left there I found everything gone: it was a general cleaning up; it was stripped of everything. The people didn’t know what they were going to do to live.
q. And your agents made reports to you of what was taken?
a. Yes sir.
q. And upon those reports & what you saw yourself you have filed your claim here?
a. Yes sir.
q. Is there anything else that you want to state here?
a. I do not think of anything.
0 notes
Text
Testimony Before the Southern Claims Commission in the Case of Franklin D. Cossitt (1821-1900). Washington, D.C., 1876. Part 1.
Transcribed by Kheir Fakhreldin, 2018
Chapter 1: Cossitt is Questioned by the Commission.
Washington, D. C.
June 28, 1876
No. 20,459
Franklin D. Cossitt.
(R McAllister Esq. appeared as Counsel for claimant.)
Franklin D. Cossitt, sworn:
[Counsel asked permission to add the following items to the petition of claimant:—
{35,000 rails…..$1,050.
14,000 rails…..420.
5,000 rails…..150.
20 acres standing timber…..600.}
Permission was not granted to amend the petition.]
Commissioner Asa Aldis:
q. Please state your age and residence.
a. I am 53 years of age & reside at La Grange, Cook Co., Illinois.
q. Where did you reside during the war?
a. At La Grange, Fayette Co. Tenn. until the spring of 1863, & then left & went to Chicago, where I have since resided.
q. What was your business while you lived in Tenn.
a. I was planting largely & also merchandizing.
q. Did you plant cotton as well as corn?
a. Yes sir.
q. Did you own slaves?
a. Yes sir—127 of them.
q. What was the amount of your capital invested in them?
a. I hardly know. It was a general stock. I kept a little of everything.
q. What time in 1863 did you leave for Chicago?
a. April.
q. After President Lincoln’s proclamation emancipating slaves?
a. I think it was: I don’t recollect distinctly.
q. Did you vote on the question of “Convention” or “no Convention” in Tennessee in February 1861?
a. I don’t recollect.
q. Did you vote when the question of separation or no separation was submitted to the people?
a. I think I did.
q. Which way did you vote?
a. No separation.
q. Are you sure of that?
a. Yes sir, I am.
q. Where did you vote?
a. At La Grange.
q. Was there more than one precinct for voting in La Grange?
a. No sir.
q. Did they have any poll books in which the names of voters were registered?
a. I do not know.
q. What is your present business?
a. I am engaged in the real estate business. I have been in the wholesale grocery business in Chicago—until February.
q. Where is your office in Chicago?
a. At No. 71 Washington Street.
q. You are a married man?
a. Yes sir.
q. And were you married when you lived in Tennessee?
a. Yes sir.
q. How many children had you in Tennessee?
a. Six—one of them a boy.
q. Was he old enough to go into the war?
a. No sir. He is but 15 now.
q. Had you any children in the war?
a. No sir.
q. Had you any relatives in the war?
a. I had 2 cousins that were in the Confederate service & 2 cousins that were in the Union army.
q. Did you yourself enlist or were you conscripted into either army?
a. No sir.
q. What was your age when the war broke out?
a. Thirty-nine.
q. How did you contrive to keep clear of military duty when you lived in Tennessee?
a. I hardly know how to answer that question. There was very little conscription, really, about La Grange. There was no systematic regular rule adopted there for enforcing it. I was urged, & a great deal said & done about going into the army, but I had no idea of going into the army—didn’t want to go into the army & was opposed to the war & did all I could to evade the thing & keep out of it just as I did.
q. Did you resort to any expenditure of money, or did you furnish a substitute, or anything of that kind in order to keep out of the army?
a. I did not.
q. Did you ever contribute any money in any way, directly or indirectly, for the aid of the Confederate cause?
a. Nothing willingly. I do not know that I ever did further than to give some of their soldiers something to eat, and that was a matter, you might say, of compulsion. They would frequently come and take what they wanted, or take anything, in fact.
q. Didn’t you ever give money to the various societies & companies that were going into the war?
a. Not a dollar, and was cursed & abused for the reason that I didn’t do it.
q. You were requested to do it?
a. Yes sir, but I refused & was really suspected of being an enemy to them on that account. That was, I think, one very strong reason why
they—
q. Did the Confederates ever threaten you?
a. Yes sir.
q. State who threatened you, what the threats were, &c.
a. When Gen. Beauregard issued his order for the burning of cotton, I had cotton on hand, and opposed the burning of cotton. The Lieutenant in command—who was then in command, I think, of two companies, went through the country for the purpose of burning cotton in obedience to the command of Gen. Beauregard, claiming that the Yankees would get it if it was not burned. I opposed the burning of cotton & the Lieut. who had command of these companies took me by force & made me go with him & show him where my cotton was, & abused me & used very harsh language, threatening to hang me & said I was an enemy to the country & ought to leave, & so on, & a great deal of that kind of treatment.
q. Any such treatment from other persons besides this Lieutenant?
a. Well, only personal abuse.
q. Were you ever otherwise molested by them—either by Confederate authorities or private individuals?
a. Nothing more than personal abuse & threats.
q. No actual imprisonment, or arrest, or anything of that kind?
a. No sir, I think not.
q. Did you belong to any Home Guard or Vigilance Committee?
a. I belonged—I don’t know hardly whether you would call it a Home Guard or not. I don’t recollect the date now. But they had an organization there in our town gotten up for the protection of the citizens with reference to the negroes specially, fearing an outbreak. That is the only organization that I belonged to.
q. How long did you belong to that?
a. Well, I think two or three days.
q. That is to say you were under drill two or three days?
a. Well, really, there was no drill. It was simply an organization proposed & the people requested to form, & they joined it.
q. Didn’t you go to some place of rendezvous for two or three days?
a. No sir, there was nothing of that kind.
q. You never drilled with any guns?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever hunt deserters?
a. No sir. I didn’t quite finish about this cotton question. There was a gentleman there who was a pretty strong secessionist—an old citizen he was there & a personal acquaintance & he thought quite hard of me—Major Winston & also Capt. Jones who is now living, & was then a prominent, wealthy planter. They thought I was acting wrong to do and say as much as I did on the occasion, & spoke of the bonds or receipts which they proposed to give for this cotton that they would be paid. I told them that I didn’t regard the receipts as being worth anything—I had no confidences in their promises or ability to pay. And Maj. Winston had so much to say. He had a horse, a very good horse, holding him by the reins & there was quite a crowd around & I told him if he had so much confidence as he expressed, if I got any receipts (this was before they burned the cotton) what would he give me for my receipts. He said he thought they would be worthless. “Well,” said I “Major, I have got 200 and odd bales of cotton & if my cotton is burned up, to show you how much confidence I have got in them—you have got a pretty good horse there, & I will give you all my right & interest in the claim, for the horse.” Well, he got somewhat excited & thought I was acting very impudently & that I would get myself into trouble. That was about the end of the cotton question.
q. What month in 1863 was it that you left there?
a. In April.
q. Did you ever take any oath to bear allegiance to the Confederate States?
a. I never did. I had notice served on me not to pay any Eastern debts, very early, I don’t recollect the date. I went on & paid right along so fast as I could get money, & continued to pay.
q. Have you ever taken any amnesty oath?
a. Oath of allegiance to the United States?—oh yes! I took that when the troops first came in.
q. Have you ever been pardoned by the President, or did you ever apply for a pardon?
a. No sir.
q. Did you every hold any civil office under the State or Confederate States gov’t—justice-of-the-peace or anything of the kind?
a. No sir—none whatever.
q. Did you ever act as Agent or Clerk in the employment of the Confederate authorities in any way?
a. Never.
q. Were you ever in any capacity in the military or naval service of the State or Confederacy?
a. No sir.
q. Never in the state militia?
a. No sir.
q. Or in any “home guard” or vigilance committee, except what you have already stated?
a. No sir.
q. Never in the rebel service or furnished a substitute?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever purchase supplies in any way for the Confederate gov’t?
a. No sir—none whatever.
q. Did you ever have charge of any property for the Confederate authorities?
a. No sir.
q. Did you have it in your possession to keep for them?
a. No sir.
q. Were you engaged in the manufacture of anything for their use—either munitions of war, boots, shoes, clothing, or anything of the kind?
a. I was connected with a foundry in La Grange—a little, small establishment where they were making plows: that was the legitimate business. A party named John W. Shipp was buying merchandize of me & had got into my debt, & to save myself I bought a half interest in his business. That was right at the commencement of the war—I don’t recollect the date. He had (by force) taken some work in making shot & shell for the Confederate authorities at Memphis, under pressure, as he said, they would have confiscated what iron he had & everything he had if he hadn’t done it, & I in that way became interested in that business. As soon as I became interested there I was the cause of Mr. Shipp’s quitting making any shot or shell. I was opposed to it, I told him so, but I was very anxious to secure the indebtedness. When Gen. Sherman first came into our country I told him all about it—I made a plain statement of the facts to him in reference to that particular thing, & he very kindly said that he didn’t think it amounted to anything so far as I was concerned.
q. Is Shipp living?
a. I think so. I don’t know his exact locality. He is near Memphis I think—either down in north Miss. Or maybe out some 10 or 15 miles from Memphis. He was with a party there for a number of years. I haven’t heard from him for 2 years.
q. When was it that you took an interest in this foundry?
a. I think it was in 1862—along in the summer or fall. The federal troops came in July I think & it was a short time before they came in.
q. How long after you took an interest in that foundry did you continue manufacture shot and shell?
a. A very short time. I should not think it was three weeks.
q. Did you stop before the Union troops came there?
a. Yes sir—I should think about a month before, I am not certain as to dates though.
q. And you never were engaged in manufacturing anything in aid of the Confederacy except the shot & shell of this foundry as you have stated?
a. No sir, nothing. Then we had no material. It didn’t amount to anything anyway.
q. How much pay did you receive for shot & shell as you share after you went into the foundry?
a. I didn’t receive any pay. I don’t know what amount was ever collected. Mr. Shipp attended to that. I didn’t give any personal attention to the foundry at all. I was merchandizing & planting & really took no interest in this matter at all, & no change of the business at all—the debts, collections, or management of it.
q. You have stated that you were, on a certain occasion, arrested for a short time, in reference to the cotton taken?
a. Well, I don’t know whether you would hardly call it an arrest. I was taken by the Lieutenant & compelled to go along with him.
q. Were you ever arrested on any other occasion by the Confederates?
a. No sir.
q. Were you ever arrested by the United States?
a. Yes sir. In the fall of 1862 I was arrested by Gen. Wm. Sooy Smith, & was kept under arrest 10 days or 2 weeks—I don’t recollect the exact time.
q. Where were you kept in custody?
a. At La Grange—in a room they selected for that purpose.
q. What was the charge they made against you?
a. Well, there was a spy arrested there, as they claimed, & in examining him, in giving in his evidence he stated he had come to my house & got something to eat, and in connection with that that he had gone by one of my plantations and had got something to eat from the negroes, that he had asked where he could get something to eat in town, and they told him their master was rich & that he never refused to give anybody something to eat. That was his statement, & they thought there was some complicity or something wrong in connection with myself, as coming to the plantation & then coming to my house to get something to eat. On that I was held about ten days & then I wrote to Gen. Hurlbut—no, I didn’t write, but I got an officer to write (I don’t recollect his name) to Genl. Hurlbut, & Gen Hurlbut answered it & requested Gen Smith to give me a fair trial, stating that he knew something of me & he didn’t think I had done anything wrong, & would say I was a Union man. That is the way I understood it. I may not have all the facts in connection with it. Anyway, I was tried, & they brought up about everything they could against me. I think that Gen. Smith thought that possibly there was something wrong somewhere. And they brought up this shot & shell question & my connection with that foundry & the feeding of this soldier.
q. Did you have a fair trial?
a. Yes sir. Col. Hatch was one of the Commission & there was 2 others, I don’t recollect their names.
q. Is Col. Hatch living?
a. I think he is.
q. Where?
a. I don’t know.
q. From what state was he?
a. I don’t know. He was a general afterwards, I think. He was a cavalry officer, I believe.
q. What was the verdict of the Comn.?
a. I was acquitted & Gen. Smith sent for me & treated me very kindly afterwards, & I understood from his remarks, that he thought I had been treated wrong, & that the only ground they had for suspecting anything wrong was simply the statement of that spy that he had got something to eat at my plantation & that the negroes had directed him to my house at La Grange & they thought that looked suspicious, & Gen. Smith thought it was just ground for arresting me. After arresting me they summoned a good many witnesses. I think Dr. Henry Briggs was one, & George P. Shelton, I think was another.
q. Were they witnesses against you or for you?
a. I don’t think I called any witnesses at all. They brought up this spy as they called him.
q. What was his name?
a. I forget his name.
q. Did he live at La Grange?
a. No sir. He claimed to live in Kentucky & claimed to have been sent down there to steal mules or get mules for the federal army. In cross-questioning him I had no attorney. I asked Gen. Hatch in reference to that same question & told him I could not imagine what they could prove against me: that I knew of nothing I had done. I asked this man if he ever knew me before. He said he did not: that he never had known me. I asked him if he ever saw me before the time he called on me & asked for something to eat, & he said he never had.
q. Did you ever do anything for the Union cause while you lived in Tennessee?
a. Yes sir. I went to Bolivar 21 miles north of our place when Grant & McPherson were located there with troops, & they supposed the Confederates were in large force at La Grange & between there & Holly Springs & I went to McPherson’s headquarters & told him he would have no difficulty at all in coming into the country there & taking possession of everything—that the Confederate forces didn’t amount to much. He thought I was pretty well posted & knew what I was talking about.
q. Who did you tell this to?
a. To Gen. McPherson. I returned the same day that I went up there, & I think it was the next day that they came into our town—the troops came right down.
q. Did you do anything else to aid the Union cause?
a. Nothing specially, that I remember.
q. Did you ever contribute any money?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever aid any soldiers in the hospitals?
a. I very often fed them, & I have a pass from Gen. McPherson to go to one of my places across at Balls Bridge, & when I got there they were having a fight—the Confederates & federals & the federal officer stopped me and asked me where I was going. I told them I wanted to go to my farm. The officer in command said “well, you can not go”. Finally he said “If you want to go (you see what is going on), you can go”. I told him I didn’t want to go. They were bringing over a good many soldiers
then that had been wounded & some killed, & there was one brought over who was badly wounded, & I was in a buggy & the officer asked me if I would not take him to town, about 3 miles, and I did so. I forgot that until just now since you made the inquiry. Anything that people did at that time, on either side, was noted by the citizens as a matter of course, & they were to some extent held accountable—censured at least & abused. It was a very peculiar time.
q. Did you ever contribute to the Union hospitals?
a. No sir. I don’t think they had a hospital there.
q. Did you ever receive a pass from any Confederate officer or authority?
a. No sir.
q. Did you ever hold any office under the Union or Confederate authorities?
a. No sir.
q. At the beginning of the rebellion did you sympathize with the Union cause?
a. I did.
q. Did you talk about it?
a. I did.
q. To whom & when?
a. Well, I talked to this same gentleman Dr. Biggs, & I had an uncle residing there that I talked with a great deal.
q. Did you take any active part in the political canvass in regard to “separation” or “no separation”?
a. I did not take an active part at all. I never have taken an active part in politics. I have studiously avoided it all my life. I have had so much to do that I have never given any time or attention to politics in no way. In a great many elections I have never gone to the polls even, to vote.
q. Do you solemnly declare that from the beginning of hostilities against the U. S. to the end thereof, your sympathies were constantly with the cause of the United States?
a. I do.
q. And that you never, of your own free will and accord did anything, or offend or sought or attempted to do anything by word or deed to inquire said cause or retard its success?
a. Never.
q. And you were at all times ready & willing when called upon, & if called upon, to aid & assist the cause of the Union?
a. Yes sir.
q. If there is anything else that you have not stated in regard to your loyalty or disloyalty I wish you would now state.
a. I do not know that I have anything special.
q. Can you name any citizens of La Grange, Tenn, with whom you were acquainted, who were Union men?
a. Yes sir. There was Mr Rosine—I forget his given name. He is now living at La Grange. Dr Henry Biggs, I believe lives at Salisbury, Henderson Co. Tenn. He is an old citizen of La Grange. Mark Pullian of La Grange.
q. Have you any papers or exhibits to show your loyalty?
a. Yes sir. [Producing Gen. McPherson’s certificate of Nov 5, 1862; filed marked Exhibit 1.]
q. Was that handed to you by Gen. McPherson?
a. Yes sir.
Claimant also filed a statement of property taken from him, endorsed by Gen McPherson. Filed marked Exhibit No 2. (referred to in Petition as Exhibit No 1)
Claimant: That was given to me by Gen McPherson from his own hand.
Claimant also filed a pass from Gen McPherson dated Nov 14, ’62. Exhibit No 3.
q. Did you receive that pass from Gen McPherson?
a. Yes sir, & I think I then called on the provost-marshal.
Claimant also filed a pass dated Nov 20, 1862. (Exhibit No 4)
Claimant: I received that from Gen McPherson.
Claimant also filed a permission from Gen. McPherson to retain three mules, dated Nov 20, 62. (Exhibit No 5)
Claimant: This is a duplicate of the original which I received from Gen McPherson’s own hand. The original was handed to Capt. Bennet.
Also filed letter from Gen W. T. Sherman dated June 16, 1862 (Exhibit No 6)
q. What do you say about that?
a. I don’t know that I have anything special to say. I cannot say who I received it from. I had several interviews with Gen Sherman while he was at La Grange.
q. Did you have charge of trestles & teams, & state whether it was for the Union service or not.
a. I brought in from my Oakwood place some oxen & wagons & chains & negroes for the purpose of hauling timber to build these bridges—this trestle-work, & I went out with Col. McDowell into a skirt of timber there for the purpose of selecting timber, & rendered all the assistance I could.
q. How long were you engaged in that?
a. Not more than two or three days.
q. That was as early as June 1862?
a. Yes sir.
q. When did you take the oath of allegiance to the United States?
a. I think sometime in June 1862.
q. (Handing 2 “oaths” to witness) Did you ever take any oath earlier than Nov. 1862?
a. I don’t recollect. I don’t much believe that I did. I am under the impression that this [indicating] is the first.
q. Nov. 19th?
a. Yes sir.
(Oaths filed marked Exhibits 7. & 8.)
Claimant also filed the following as Exhibits:
Letter from J. H. Hammond, June 15, ’62, (Exhibit No 9.)
Certificate from Gen Hurlbut, Nov. 18, 1862. (Exhibit No 10.)
Pass from Gen Hurlbut dated Apl 14, 1863. (Exhibit No 11).
Letter from Gen. Hurlbut, dated Apl 14, 1863 (Exhibit No 12)
Letter from Gen. Hurlbut, dated Nov 22 1862 (Exhibit No 13)
Letter from Gen. Hamilton, dated Apl. 1, 1864 (Exhibit No 14)
q. Did you receive that from Gen Hamilton?
a. Yes sir.
Permit to purchase cotton from John E. Smith, provost marshal, dated Nov. 22, 1862. (Exhibit No 15)
q. Was that given to you by him?
a. Yes sir.
Letter from Lieut. E. V. Cherry, dated Nov. 22, 1862 (Exhibit No 16)
Claimant: I received that from him.
Letter from James F. Gilbert, dated Nov 25, ’63 (Exhibit No 17.)
Certificate of Col. Cushman, dated Apl 9, 1864 (Exhibit No 18)
Permit from Gen. W. Sooy Smith, dated Apl 8, 1863 (Exhibit No 19.)
Claimant also filed receipts for property taken which were filed & marked Exhibits No 20 to 34, inclusive.
Also a receipt for one steer, dated Nov 14, 1862 (Exhibit No 35)
Claimant: I remember the taking of the steer.
q. Do you remember anything about the receipt being given, or its genuineness?
a. My memory is not clear on that. I do not know how I could have it unless it is genuine.
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Greetings from La Grange, Illinois. Curt Teich & Co. postcard 9BH888, 1949.
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History of Lyons: La Grange (1884)
History of Cook County, Illinois, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Complete in One Volume
By A. T. Andreas
Chicago: A. T. Andreas, Publisher. 1884.
History of Lyons
La Grange
This beautiful suburb, attested by large boards along the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to be the “garden spot” of Cook County, is situated on that railroad about fifteen miles from Chicago. It has two depots on this line, one situated at Fifth Avenue and the other at Stone Avenue, the old depot, however, which was called West Lyons, was situated a short distance west of the Stone-avenue depot. At this point the first settlement was made, although it comprised but a few persons. The land upon which Kensington Heights, and subsequently La Grange, was laid out was a part of four hundred and forty acres owned by Robert Leitch.
Robert Leitch was born in Orleans County, N. Y., in 1820, of John and Catherine Leitch, and came to Cook County May 2, 1837. He worked by the month as a farm-laborer for nearly four years, and for the same length of time for Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, of Chicago, in the packing business. He came to the section of country where La Grange now is, purchasing four hundred and forty acres of land. At that time there was no one resident of the immediate vicinity, except Thomas Covell, who resided in the timber, and he has stood upon the porch of his house and shot wolves and deer. Mr. Leitch followed farming for a number of years in connection with cattle-dealing and stock-raising and shipped a great many cattle to New York. He was the first man to settle on the prairie and broke the first land between Lyons and Brush Hill. In 1844, he married Miss Mary A. Wilder, daughter of Colonel Benjamin and Elizabeth Wilder. They have eight children—Maria F., Benjamin J., Robert, Belle, Edward B., Zephaniah G., Walter B., and Dollie F. Mr. Leitch was Commissioner of Highways for eight years and also served on the school board for eight years. In 1870, he moved to Chicago and engaged in the distillery business; the distillery burned down in 1872, after which he was connected with the Garden City Distillery. Mr. Leitch sold the tract of four hundred and forty acres to Mrs. Breed, and sold part thereof to Franklin D. Cossitt, who laid out the town. He now, however, resides on a portion of his original tract, having returned to La Grange in 1881.
In this connection, it is germane to remark upon the adventitious booms that elevated the prices of real estate temporarily, as some locality would seem especially favored by the suburban fever, or an imagined right of way, and under such speculative conditions a great deal of money was realized and lost in real estate. In the vicinity of La Grange some much mutations have been experienced, and also in that vicinity settlement has been retarded because of tenacious holding of real estate for speculative prices instead of being willing to accept a fair price from actual settlers. Franklin D. Cossitt and D. B. Lyman, however, have manifested a liberal and public spirit in their transactions and by their exertions La Grange is a garden spot; the natural bleakness of the prairie transformed by the liberal planting of thousands of deciduous trees, and the grassy waste made into a garden; the landscape testifying to the enterprise of the projector and the hundreds of handsome dwellings manifesting the appreciation of the property buyers.
To revert to the antiquities of the town. Mr. Leitch states that the first road that ran through there was about a mile wide, and was called the Chicago & Dixon road; the road traversing the same route, although circumscribed in its width, is now designated Ogden Avenue. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad came through about the year 1862, being opened on June 1st. The depot at West Lyons was established about 1868, the agents being J. J. Kimmons, W. E. Smith, W. F. Billings, A. Potter, J. A. Bryden, John Unold, A. McMillan, W. E. Stanger, E. O. Smith, A. W. Ladd, and E. O. Smith. John Van Ottrick, who was president of the road at the time, predicted that it would never pay. “A prophet come to judgment!” The road then ran to Aurora, and thence to Batavia, intersecting the Chicago & North-Western at Turner Junction. Prior to this, the stages of Frink & Walker ran to Doty’s at Lyons, thence to Naperville, and from there to Aurora. The first school was established about 1852-53, and was taught by Miss Gertrude Smith.
Samuel Vial, one of the oldest living settlers of Lyons Township, lives in the vicinity of La Grange; he was born in Chester, Orange Co., N. Y., in 1819, son of Joseph and Louisa (Smith) Vial; he came to Chicago with his parents in the fall of 1833, the family locating in Lyons Township in the spring of 1834. Mr. Vial was married in 1846, to Miss Margaret McNaughton, daughter of George and Jane McNaughton; she died in 1856, leaving four children, Jane, George M., Joseph and Louisa. In the fall of 1856 he married Mrs. Gertrude North, who died in 1879. Mr. Vial was Supervisor of Lyons Township for five years.
The subdivision of La Grange was made by Franklin D. Cossitt in 1871, and since that time its progress has been steady and material. Before this subdivision there was a little coterie settled where John Unold’s store now is, but there was no extended settlement.
On May 26, 1879, a petition was filed for the incorporation of La Grange as a village, and upon June 11 of that year an election was held to ascertain whether Section 4 and the east half of the east half of Section 5, Township 38 north, Range 12 east, of the third principal meridian, should be thus incorporated; and the following vote was cast:
For village organization forty-two votes, against village organization, thirty-four votes.
On July 10, 1879, the election for town officers resulted: F. D. Cossitt, L. L. Bassford, P. G. Gardner, J. D. Myers, E. B. Clark and T. W. McMillan, Trustees, of which board Mr. Cossitt was subsequently elected President; William G. Little, Police Magistrate, and Benjamin T. Lewis, Clerk.
July 24, 1879, D. B. Lyman was appointed village attorney, and the Trustees divided themselves by lot into holders of one and two year terms of office, as follows: One year, L. L. Bassford, P. G. Gardner and T. W. McMillan; two year, F. D. Cossitt, J. D. Myers, and E. B. Clark. J. K. Philo was also made Village Treasurer. The poll-tax was declared to be $1.50, for which two days’ labor could be substituted.
August 27, 1879, the prohibitory four-gallon measure became one of the ordinances of the village, and there is not now (1884) a saloon within its limits. The same day David C. Crain was made constable.
Election of April 26, 1880 resulted: P. G. Gardner, T. W. McMillan and F. H. Vallette, Trustees for two years, B. T. Lewis, Clerk and Gustaf A. Johnson, Constable. P. G. Gardner was made President of the board, and J. K. Philo continued in office as Treasurer. William Walmsley was elected to fill the place of J. D. Myers, Trustee, on June 19, 1880, removed from the village, and Samuel Lewis was made Postmaster. The annual appropriation bill for 1879-80 was $350.00—not a very lavish expenditure. The office of village marshal was created August 20, 1880, and Charles P. Amet appointed thereto for two years.
Election April 19, 1881, resulted: William Walmsley, W. W. Weatherstone and E. B. Clark, Trustees, and J. A. Brydon, Clerk. P. G. Gardner was made President of the Board of Trustees, and J. K. Philo, re-appointed Village Treasurer. The office of pound-master was created in May, and George D. Unold appointed thereto; he declined the office, and Gustaf A. Johnson was thereupon appointed.
Election April 18, 1882, resulted: F. D. Cossitt, E. G. Squire, James Travis, Trustees, and J. O. Metcalf, Clerk. E. B. Clark was elected President of the board. The Board of Trustees is composed of six members, three being elected each year for two years. On November 1, 1882, George D. Unold resigned as village marshal, and William LeBerge was appointed.
Election April 17, 1883, whereat one hundred and forty-four votes were cast, resulted: G. M. Fox, H. B. Parker and William Walmsley (President), Trustees; B. T. Lewis,* [*To the courtesy of B. T. Lewis, the collaborator is indebted for an inspection of the village records.] Clerk; Charles Thornton, Police Magistrate—commissioned by the Governor, April 17, 1883—and W. W. Bowker, Constable. J. K. Philo was continued in office as Village Treasurer, and on June 20, 1883, Herbert Morgan was appointed village marshal and pound master.
The post-office is managed by J. K. Philo, Post-master, who thinks the office was established about 1867. To provide the inhabitants, who number about one thousand, with news, the Suburban News is published every Saturday morning by Whitney & Clevinger at 53 and 55 Michigan Avenue, Chicago. The Suburban News is also published in the interest of other suburban towns on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
It is contemplated to erect a high school at La Grange, very shortly, the present scholastic facilities being composed of a common school and a kindergarten. Of the former, Miss Dora Winds is principal, and Miss Lillie Winds and Mrs. Emily H. Stuart, assistants, and the kindergarten is taught by Miss Mary F. Fox. The number of pupils in both schools is about one hundred. The school directors of the district, which includes Western Springs, are W. B. Wickersham, president; D. B. Lyman, clerk, and John Unold.
Emanuel Episcopal church is an elegant edifice, constructed in the rural English style of architecture. It is built of stone, and presents one of the prettiest exteriors of any church in the county, outside Chicago. Ground was broken in the spring of 1875, and the corner-stone was laid June 5, of that year. The church cost $8,000, and is out of debt. The vestry are deliberating upon the purchase of an organ, subsequent to which the interior of the church will be embellished and architecturally re-modeled to comport with the exterior. The vestry is composed of D. B. Lyman, senior warden; A. W. Mitchell, junior warden; J. K. Philo, treasurer; Franklin D. Cossitt, W. Walmsley, R. F. Ludwig, H. B. Parker and J. Travis.
The Congregational Church is situated at the corner of Cossitt and Fifth avenues and has a congregation of thirty-six members, and an average attendance of eighty-five persons. The church cost $3,000, is a neat and pretty edifice, and was dedicated in September, 1882. The pastor is William Barnes Frazelle, and the deacons are J. E. Snyder and W. E. Little.
There is also a Baptist Society, numbering about forty members, that meets at Masonic Hall, whose pulpit is supplied by theological students.
La Grange Lodge, Under Dispensation, A. F. & A. M., was inaugurated September 1, 1883. The officers are P. G. Gardner, W. M.; E. G. Stiles, S. W.; E. I. Sackett, J. W.; J. H. Borwell, S.; T. W. McMillan, T.;—Howard, S. D.; C. E. Thornton, J. D., and Charles Thornton, tyler.
La Grange Lodge, No. 693, I. O. O. F., was instituted in May, 1881, with the following officers: L. W. Briggs, N. G.; D. M. Roberts, V. G.; Charles Thornton, secretary; George D. Unold, treasurer, and Charles E. Thornton, P. G. The present officers are G. B. Walker, N. G.; J. W. Darnley, V. G.; Richard Vorpahl, secretary; W. G. Little, treasurer, and W. W. Bowker, S. P. G. The members are thirty-eight.
There is one manufacturing establishment at La Grange, where silversmithing and manufacturing for the jobbing and wholesale trade is performed under the management of J. P. Weatherstone.
The existence of one other institution has to be noted, an unfortunate parenthesis in the history of La Grange, the home of Mrs. Anna Schoeck, particulars whereof can be studied at length in the newspapers of the present year.
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La Grange: A Charming Environ (1883).
Chicago's First Half Century: 1833-1883, The City as it was Fifty Years Ago and as it is Today.
The Trade, Commerce, Manufactories, Railroads, Banks, Wholesale and Retail Houses, Theaters, Hotels, Churches, and Schools.
Chicago: The Inter Ocean Publishing Company. W. P. Dunn & Co., Printers. 1883.
Chapter XV.
Some Suburbs
La Grange.
A Charming Environ.
If Chicago is the Northwestern sun, La Grange is the moon, rising queenly on the West and glowing in reflected brilliance and splendor. A journey to this moon, unlike Jules Verne's, takes only thirty minutes, while no fanciful aeronaut's car but a luxurious Burlington and Quincy coach cleaves the yielding space. But metaphor misleads, for this charming environ, perched on the first ridge west of the metropolis, is like unto nothing but its own unapproachable self.
What other suburb has such rolling, picturesque vistas? What other such “poems” in tasteful cottage and mansioned stone, such loves of lawns, such gems of churches? Where more flourishing and abundant shade-trees, evergreens, hedges, gardens? Where more solid driveways? Where such drainage, confessedly unsurpassed. Where more pure and crystalline water, the very substratum of the village being a gravel filter? What community of 2,000 souls more cultured and refined, more steadily growing, and instinct with good neighborship? What other suburb has finer quarries of building stone at its very door? About 100 new and fine houses were added to La Grange the past season. The markets and schools are of highest grade. There are two depots in the village, while the railway terminus in town is that headquarters of accessibility, the Union Depot, Madison street bridge. Mr. F. D. Cossitt, as the original proprietor, still owns a considerable tract of the choicest property, though the demands from purchasers and the favorable prices and terms are rapidly multiplying the lords of the manor. With the integrity of a gentleman as his basal characteristic, and with a rare superstructure of the amenities that make agreeable and pleasant, as well as profitable, the dealings of man with man, the tribute is irrepressible that Mr. Cossitt is the customers’ beau ideal. Formerly for many years Mr. Cossitt was engaged with marked success in the wholesale grocery business in this city, and his reputation and standing among merchants and business men were of the best. In the general wreck at the time of the great fire, when so many obligations were compromised and notes extended, Mr. Cossitt promptly paid dollar for dollar, though, believing in home industries, home insurance, placing his policies in Chicago, he lost all. Turning his attention to the development of his landed estate, the gentleman has devoted a fortune to the enrichment and beautifying of La Grange, and it is with natural pride he now witnesses its flood-tide of prosperity and popularity. Associated with him at the La Grange headquarters, rooms 5 and 6, 85 Washington street, are his son, Mr. F. D. Cossitt, Jr., and Mr. C. W. Richmond, and they also are ever ready with plats, maps, and a courtesy and eloquence worthy their senior to forward the quest for model suburban homes.
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Des Plaines River from the window of a Metra BNSF express train going west, 2018.
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Biographical sketch of Franklin D. Cossitt, 1894.
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Cook County, Illinois, containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County. Chicago, Lake City Publishing Co., 1894.
Franklin Dwight Cossitt.
Franklin Dwight Cossitt is the founder of La Grange, and with the history of the growth and progress of Chicago’s suburbs his name is inseparably connected. He was born at Granby, Hartford County, Conn., on the 19th of September, 1821, and is the only son of Rana and Marietta (Standard) Cossitt, the former of French and the latter of English origin. His grandfather, Asa Cossitt, served in the Revolutionary War, and was with Washington in his retreat from New York. Rana Cossitt was a merchant at Granby, and died when Franklin was thirteen years of age. Thus, early in life he was thrown upon his own resources, and the support of his mother and three sisters fell upon his young shoulders.
Soon after his father’s death, our subject went to La Grange, Tenn., where he entered the employ of his uncle, George G. Cossitt, in a general store. His companion on this trip and in this employment was his cousin, Frederick H. Cossitt, afterward founder of Cossitt’s Library at Memphis, Tenn. After giving six and one-half years’ service to his uncle, in the expectation of a partnership in the business, and receiving in the mean time but little more than his board and clothing, they mutually agreed to separate, and he received $600 in cash as remuneration for his services. He purchased a home for his mother at Westfield, Mass., and returning to La Grange, Tenn., engaged in business on his own account, being very successful. With the exception of less than one year, he continued in business until 1863. He also became the owner of three plantations near La Grange, a part of which he still owns, and he held one hundred and sixty slaves at the outbreak of the Civil War, his estates altogether being estimated at that time as worth $1,000,000. At his elegant home in La Grange, he entertained Gen. Grant and wife, the wife of Gov. Louis P. Harvey, of Wisconsin, and the wife of Col. John Mason Loomis, now, and then, of Chicago. Col. Dickey, chief of Gen. Grant’s cavalry staff, made his headquarters for some time at Mr. Cossitt’s home, where he was accompanied by his daughter. Though friendly to the Union cause and its commanders, Mr. Cossitt’s extensive interests and family connections compelled him to maintain a neutral position, and he was often suspected by both sides to the armed controversy. He was arrested six times, and as often acquitted of any treasonable act toward either party.
In 1862, acting on the advice of Gen. Sherman, who was his friend, he invested heavily in cotton, realizing $66,000 from its sale. Through the kindness of Gen. Hurlbut, he was enabled to ship his purchases to the Mississippi River without much difficulty. Again accepting the advice of Gen. Sherman, he removed to Chicago in 1863 and in 1865 engaged in the wholesale grocery business in that city, as a member of the firm of Barrett & Cossitt. This connection continued for about five years, or until the death of Mr. Barrett, when Mr. Cossitt purchased the interest of the heirs, and continued the business under the title of F. D. Cossitt & Co. The great fire of 1871 entirely consumed his store and contents, at the corner of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. He rebuilt at No. 145 Michigan Avenue, and did an extensive wholesale business until 1875, when he retired from that line of trade.
Mr. Cossitt also did a large real-estate business, and since selling out the grocery establishment has devoted his entire time to operations along this line. In 1869 he purchased eighty acres of land, and established the town of Montrose, building a number of houses at that place. The following year, he purchased about six hundred acres on which La Grange has been built, and also a third-interest in a tract of one hundred and sixty acres were Western Springs now stands. This is now known as the “Marshall Field Tract.” He established the depot at La Grange, laid out the town, and gave to it the name of his old home in Tennessee, where he so long resided, and where all of his children were born. He here planted trees to the value of $30,000, was one of the prime movers toward securing all the churches of the place, and has made liberal donations toward sustaining all enterprises and interests which he believed would be of benefit to the community.
In 1844, Mr. Cossitt married Miss Martha L. J. Malone, a member of an old Virginia family. By this marriage, there were five children, two of whom are deceased. Those living are, Mary Eliza, wife of D. B. Lyman, of the firm of Lyman & Jackson; Fannie, wife of C. C. Lay; and Margaret B., wife of C. B. Shedd, all of Chicago. The mother of this family died in 1853, and in the following year Mr. Cossitt married Martha L. Moore, who bore him five children, only three of whom are now living. They are: Betty W., who married Herbert S. Mitchell of La Grange; Frank D., whose biography appears on another page; and Mattie, wife of Rev. C. DeWitt, Rector of St. Andrew’s Church, Chicago. In 1863 Mr. Cossitt was again bereaved of his wife, and in 1864 he married Mrs. Addie C. Hunt, nee Hedges.
Mr. Cossitt adheres to the religious faith of the Congregational Church, and sustains the principles of Democracy in political contests. He has served for many years on the Village Board of La Grange, he being its first President. He was nominated by his party as its candidate for State Senator, but was defeated on account of the overwhelming Republican majority of the district.
About 1851 Mr. Cossitt’s mother sold her home in Westfield, and resided thereafter with her son until her death, which occurred in Chicago in 1880 at the age of eighty years. Her memory is faithfully cherished by her filial son. Mr. Cossitt is sagacious and far-sighted, straightforward and honorable in all dealings. His investments have proved judicious, and through the legitimate channels of business he has won his fortune. His habits have always been temperate, and his successful life should serve as an example and inspiration to every ambitious young man.
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F. D. Cossitt a Suicide. Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1900.
F. D. Cossitt a Suicide
Shoots Himself in the Head while Temporarily Insane
Founder of the Villages of La Grange and Montrose Returns from Florida Enfeebled and Is Prostrated by the Heated Term—Was Arrested Six Times During the Civil War for Treason—Big Wholesale Grocer Here Years Ago.
During the absence from his room yesterday morning of his wife, who had been attending him during an attack of nervous prostration, Franklin Dwight Cossitt, founder of the Villages of La Grange and Montrose, arose and, procuring a revolver, returned to his bed and shot himself through the head, dying before assistance could be called.
Mr. Cossitt had recently returned to his home, Cossitt boulevard and Sixth avenue, La Grange, from a trip to Florida, where he had gone to recuperate his health. The effort was unsuccessful and Mr. Cossitt, returning in an enfeebled condition, was completely prostrated by the recent heated term. His son, F. D. Cossitt Jr., had called the attention of his physician, Dr. Fox, to his weak mental condition.
Of Revolutionary Stock.
Mr. Cossitt was born in Granby, Conn., in 1821. He was descended from revolutionary stock. At the age of 13 he left his native town, and, in company with his cousin, Fred H. Cossitt, who afterwards founded the famous Cossitt Library of Memphis, Tenn., he entered the employ of his uncle, George C. Cossitt, proprietor of a general store in La Grange, Tenn. At 17 he left his uncle’s employment to embark in business for himself.
At the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Cossitt was the holder of property to the value of $1,000,000 and was the owner of sixty-one slaves. He was an ardent advocate of the federal cause. During the war he was six times arrested for treason and as often acquitted.
Friend of Sherman and Grant.
He was a warm friend of General Sherman and General Grant, and during the war entertained at his plantation near La Grange General Sherman and General and Mrs. Grant. The plantation was also the military headquarters of Colonel Dickey, chief of General Grant’s cavalry staff.
In 1863 he removed to this city, and with S. L. Barrett started the wholesale grocery firm of Barrett & Cossitt, which two years later was one of the largest in the West. On Mr. Barrett’s death in 1870 Mr. Cossitt continued the business. The building at the corner of Randolph street and Michigan avenue was destroyed in the fire of 1871, but Mr. Cossitt resumed business in a short time.
Founds Montrose and La Grange.
In 1869 he purchased eighty acres of land far west of the city, and founded the Town of Montrose. Two years later he invested in 600 acres of land around the site of the present village of La Grange. This he made a town site, which he named after his former home in Tennessee, and four years later removed there.
Mr. Cossitt served many terms as President of the Board of Trustees of La Grange. One expenditure of $30,000 for trees for the village streets was a characteristic item of expenses of which Mr. Cossitt was proud.
Married Three Times.
Mr. Cossitt was three times married, the first time to a Virginian, Miss Fanny L. Malone, in La Grange, Tenn. After her death, in 1857, he was married to Miss Martha Moore, in Macon, Tenn., who died in 1863. The last wife of Mr. Cossitt, who was Miss Addie C. Hunt of this city, survives him.
Arrangements for the funeral have not been completed. The interment will be on Wednesday.
Mr. Cossitt was the father of one son, F. D. Cossitt Jr., well known in Democratic politics, and five daughters, all of whom are married. He was the father-in-law of D. B. Lyman, President of the Knickerbocker Ice company; William C. De Witt, rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church; H. S. Mitchell of Sweet, Dempster & Co.; and Charles C. Lay of this city.
At the inquest held by Deputy Coroner Reynolds a verdict was returned of death by self-shooting while temporarily insane.
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Cossitt Avenue School, La Grange, Illinois, Curt Teich & Co. postcard 0BH467, 1940. Newberry Library, Internet Archive.
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