Mary Jane Bowlby Documents

A.

Letter from Luther Hunt Johnson to Mary Jane Bowlby et al. Needs transcription.

Camp Benton, St. Louis, Mo, March 28th, 1862 Dear Wife & Family, It is with the greatest of pleasure…

B.

June the 1 1862

Dear friend

I tak the opportunity of writing to you to let you know how we are getting along. I suppose you have heard that Luther is in the army and I have a hard way to get a long as he put Amelia at my brothers Sam [?] when he left and she told me that they were not kind to her and requested me to ask you to let her make her home with you till her father comes back. She is young and needs kind treatment. She is getting to be a big girl and is a good girl. If I could keep her I should do it but my alowence is small to keep me and the rest and she is much dissadisfied where she is poor girl she wants to come so bad that her talk is about you all the time and if you will take her and cant come to get her let me know and I will send her. We are all well at present hoping that these times may find you all the same. I have not heard from Luther for one month. He was at Pittsburg Landen [?] then here [?] just across the crick from fathers and she lives in the house where fathers does with my brother. If you will take her I will get her cloaths for one year so that she may earn then for you. It may be that her father may come back before long if the war is ended which I hope will be. Let her come awhile and live with you. Write as soon as you get this direct to Mary J. Johnson, Galion in care [word illegible] 214.

Elisabeth Courtride

Frances wants me to tell you to tell grandmother and father that she is so big that they would not know her. She is larger than Amelia was when they was ther. Delbert is a big boy now and goes to school.

The three named in the post-script are Luther Johnson’s children by his first marriage, to Loisa Jarrard. So who is Sam, if the reading is correct? Mary Jane and Emanuel Bowlby had a brother Samuel. This would fit if the first-person voice in this letter were Mary Jane herself, which is implied by the request to write “direct to Mary J.” But who then is Elisabeth Courtride? Perhaps she is a friend, writing for Mary Jane, if the latter could not. Since Mary Jane’s father James did indeed die in Galion, this is a plausible interpretation.

C. Adjutant General's Office, Washington D.C., an acknowledgment of Pension Application 21,663, dated June 12, 1863, addressed to Mary J. Johnson, in Crawford County, OH.

D. Adjutant General's Office, Washington D.C., an acknowledgment of Pension Application 127059, dated June 2, 1868.

E. Adjutant General's Office, Washington D.C., an acknowledgment of Pension Application 127059, dated April 4, 1876.

F. 1 & 2. Certification of the marriage of Luther H. Johnston and Loisa Jarrard, in two forms, one dated August 4, 1846, the other dated October 8, 1875.

G. A hand-written note dated July 3, 1868, and bearing Emanuel Bowlby’s signature. Needs transcription.

H. 1 & 2. Widow’s Declaration – Army Pension. Two copies, from Crawford County, OH., dated December 21, 1863, in which Mary Jane Johnson appeared before the clerk and testified that she is the widow of Luther Hunt Johnson. The document gives their marriage date and names Ida J. as their surviving child. It bears Mary Jane’s signature. Hannah Bowlby and Sarah Shell also appeared and signed.

I. Minor Children Claim No. 127,059, dated June 29, 1876, two pages. Document indicates that Jacob Wooster, a resident of Beaver County, PA, and guardian of the minor children of Luther H. Johnson, is entitled to a pension and payment for the children Amelia (Neihart), Delbert, and Ida. “Widow’s claim filed May 16, 1863. Claimant died while the claim was pending. Amelia Neihart, a married daughter of the soldier, filed a claim in her own name June 29 ’76.” Marginalia indicate that Amelia is to receive payment at a “P.O. address, Mellbourne, Williams Co., Ohio.” Witnesses need summary.