A HISTORY OF LEXINGTON

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Chapters 9 - 10

CHAPTER IX

Military Record

From the lonely forests of "The Thumb" no human voice responded to the calls of the Black Hawk or the War of 1812, owing to the fact that there were no settlements in the county until about the close of the Black Hawk War, and the inhabitants of this beautiful peninsula were "lulled in the cradle of peace" until the Civil War broke upon them. Though there had been years of warning, the pioneers were unwilling to trust their senses, but once the unwelcome news of Sumter was vividly before them, they stood up ready for the trial. When Bull Run confirmed the uncertainty and magnitude of the war, the spirit of Sanilac warmed into activity and the call for volunteers was answered with her voice in the chorus, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more."

The "Sanilac Wolverines" was the first military company to come together, though a few volunteers from this county had joined the Second and Seventh regiments. The name was soon changed to "Sanilac Pioneers," but the company was better known as Company D, Tenth Michigan Infantry. Captain Israel Huckins made the first effort to raise the company and after a few days canvassing found a ready response from about sixty of the best citizens. The necessary preparations were made and on Tuesday, November 19, 1861, the company was ready to step at the tap of the drum into active service. The company took passage on the steamer "Forester" enroute to Flint, the rendezvous for the regiment. The night was dark and windy, yet there were many citizens from all parts of the county down at the dock at Lexington to see the "Forester" swing off with her load of brave men on a journey from which there was such uncertain return, and to add a "God bless you." As the last rope was pulled in, three times three hearty cheers were given to those on deck who responded with a prolonged hurrah for the flag. The company was filled to its maximum quota in January, 1862, with the following list of officers: Captain, Israel Huckins; First Lieutenant, H. H. Nims; Second Lieutenant, G. W. Jenks; First Sergeant, Richard Teal; Second Sergeant, Rudolph Papst; Third Sergeant, C. R. Bunker; Fourth Sergeant, Watson Beach; Fifth Sergeant, Henry Wideman; First Corporal, Watson Bisbee; Second Corporal, Robert Lewis; Third Corporal, C. M. Cross; Fourth Corporal, T. J. Springstein; Fifth Corporal, Lemuel House; Sixth Corporal, Stephen R. Moore; Seventh Corporal, Hugh McCaffery. Many of these officers were afterwards promoted and a few assigned to other companies. The company left Flint for Pittsburg Landing with the regiment April 22, 1862, having a full roster of one hundred and three men and officers.

After numerous engagements the regiment reached Nashville where it remained until July, 1863, but was again summoned into action and engaged in many battles until the twenty-fourth of May, 1865, when after participating in the grand review at Washington it was mustered out of service July 19 at Louisville, Kentucky, arrived at Jackson, Michigan, on the twenty-second and disbanded on the first of August. Its losses were two hundred and ninety-nine, numbering four officers, fifty killed, three officers and twenty-six men died of wounds and two officers and two hundred men died of disease.

When the call for more volunteers was made in July, 1862, about three thousand dollars was raised in the county, and the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry was formed. Among those who enlisted from Lexington or who afterward came here to live were: Israel Huckins, J. B. Lucas, John Surbrook, Oliver Yake, Ralph Potts, Rudolph Papst, Lemuel House, James J. Boyd, William Dawson, John Papst, Frank Carman, William Murray, William Ellis, Nathan Dawson, Harvey Baker, H. H. Huffman, George Henry, John Willis, John Walker, Frederick Hykes, Michael O’Brien, Alfred Henry, Allen Worden, William Gould, Duncan Smith, Thomas Purkiss, George Gardiner, Henry Wideman, Walter W. Smith, William Wolfel, Stephen Gardiner, H. B. Morrison, B. F. Richards, Samuel Crone, Frederick Keohner, Samuel Bennett, Albert Alton, Samuel Utley, Nelson Utley.

About the same time of the forming of this company, Lieutenant H. H. Nims was promoted to a captaincy and recruited for Company K from Sanilac and Huron counties for the Tenth Michigan Infantry, returning to the regiment in April, 1863. The boys for the Twenty-second were enrolled as Company K with Alexander Galbraith as captain, and on September 4, numbering nine hundred and ninety-seven strong, started for Kentucky under the command of Col. Moses Wisner, ex-Governor at that time. They were engaged with General Thomas at Chicamauga, and in his report of the Twenty-second there Col. Le Favour said, "At the second charge the rebels drove the brigade to the bottom of the hill. It was reformed, marched up, and again took the crest. The regiment was out of ammunition and word was sent to General Whittaker to that effect. ‘You must use your steel’ was the reply. The regiment rushed forward with fixed bayonets and empty muskets under a terrific fire of musketry, received the counter charge of the enemy, repulsed and drove them at every point." Among other encounters the Twenty-second was with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, and was finally mustered out June 20, 1865.

The Sixth Michigan Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth Infantry also received volunteers from Lexington, and when the draft came, it had little claim in this county. When that dread conscription came, William S. Mills was appointed commissioner of this county and Walter P. Brown, surgeon, but there were only about forty men to be drafted, and the required number was raised by volunteers before the time appointed for the drawing. Hence the trouble and embarrassment of those who had fled to Canada or the woods went for naught only incurring upon them the just odium of all who were manly enough to remain at their posts.

The women were not slow to recognize the necessity of their assistance during these trying times and soon there was formed a Soldiers’ Relief Society in Lexington. This society was very earnest and energetic in doing all that could be done by woman’s hands for soldiers in need, and many boxes of clothing, bedding, food, knick-knacks, and newspapers were sent to the hospitals and camps of the Michigan boys. Many a wounded soldier thanked God that the country had such women.

Capt. H. H. Nims who left Lexington as First Lieutenant of Company D, Tenth Michigan Infantry, participated in the active service in which his regiment was involved until July, 1862, when he was detailed for recruiting service in Michigan. Shortly after his arrival in Lexington he received official notice of his promotion to a captaincy, and the following April left to rejoin his regiment. He was engaged in many fights and skirmishes until the attack at Jonesboro which resulted in the fall of Atlanta. After regaining the inside of the fortification, he received the wound from which he died September 2, 1864. He was buried at Jonesboro but after the war his remains were disinterred and brought to his old home in Lexington and his laurelled name lives with those who have died that liberty might live. The H. H. Nims Post, No. 118, G. A. R., was organized in March, 1883, having been named in honor of the beloved captain.

For thirty-three years peace reigned throughout the country, when on February 15, 1898, the sinking of the Maine in the harbor at Manila Bay with a loss of two hundred and sixty-six of her officers and crew precipitated the Spanish-American War which had been brewing since 1895. Inbued with the spirit of his father who had fought in the Civil War, Rudolph Papst, Jr., was the first Lexington boy to enlist. His experience is best told in his own words, in a letter received from him in February, 1928:

"I received or rather Father did a dispatch from Lieutenant G. H. Brown that if I wanted to enlist in Company F 33 to be at Port Huron the morning of May 10, 1898. I heard the glad news when I arrived home for supper.

"I didn’t have very much time to bid my friends good-bye but I did the best I could. Everyone I saw could not believe that I was really going to war. Some of the ladies took on dreadful. I thought that was a bad way to send a kid off.

"I left Lexington on the morning stage and took the train for Port Huron, arriving at Lieutenant G. H. Brown’s office about noon.

"He also was surprised as he didn’t think I’d show up. He was glad to see me just the same. He gave me some papers to take over to the doctor who said I was all O.K. I stayed all night at Hotel Union and left Port Huron the next morning on an early train with several other recruits, arriving at Island Lake Camp about noon.

"I was sworn into the U.S. service that same afternoon, May 12, 1898. The officers of the company were: Captain, Joseph F. Walsh; First Lieutenant, Geo. H. Brown; Second Lieutenant, H. McKenzie; First Sergeant, James Stewart.

"Between May 12 and June 1 we were in camp at Island Lake, Michigan, afterwards at Camp Alger, Virginia, about ten miles from Washington, D. C. We were in pretty bad shape before we left Camp Alger in regards to clothes as we had only old clothes in the first place.

"Leaving Camp Alger we arrived at Cuba, June 26, and landed the next morning in small boats. We sailed over on the U. S. s. Yale and returned home on the U. S. S. Howard. We were on the island about two months. We were in two engagements on the second and third of July and saw the great sea battle on that Sunday morning.

"When we embarked on the Howard to return home they took us up the coast so that we could see all that was left of the Great Spanish fleet.

"I don’t remember the date of my return home but as you remember it was a Sunday night and the first place I wanted to get to was my own church. I tried to get into a seat without anyone’s seeing me, but I didn’t do it very well and poor Rev. Wall stopped in his prayer.

"I was mustered out at Port Huron, December 30, 1898. I guess I was the only Lexington boy who saw active service under fire." Mr. Papst died February 8, 1934.

Bert Eacrett, Sam Munroe, Will Oles and Frank Snyder also enlisted in the Spanish-American War.

The singular coincidence that the sinking of another ship should precipitate our entrance into another war of which the boys of ’65 had never dreamed, will ever bring a shudder to those who lived through the days from 1914-1918. There were those who hoped that the United States would not feel called upon to enter the World War, but after overlooking many insults, the sinking of the Lusitania, May 7, 1915, which cost the lives of one hundred and fourteen Americans, precipitated the crisis.

Lexington had loyal young men who were eager to serve their country and soon they were in training in camp while some went over seas. These were: Charles S. Clark, Fred Cummings, Lee Sheldon, Lloyd Sheldon, Martin Drost, Fred S. Dingman, Cyril Kennedy, Stanley Kipp, Frederick Kotzke, Roy Macklem, Lawrence McKenna, Warren Parker, Jerome Wellerritter, Roscoe Purkiss, George Bascom.

Miss Ethel Henry who was born in Lexington and lived here until after her graduation from high school, was the only young woman upon whom Lexington has a claim, who served as a nurse during the war. She enlisted in Detroit, where she had graduated as a professional nurse from Harper Hospital, and went over seas with Army Nurse Corps, Base Hospital No. 17 services of supply with the American Expeditionary Forces. She received a French medal of honor of silver, March 18, 1919, from the Minister of War.

Death took its toll from the small number of Lexington boys who enlisted. Ira Yake, Harlow Avery, Arthur Nunn and Fred Marriott gave their lives for their country and now rest with the honored dead. The remains of Ira Yake were brought here from France for burial and were accorded all possible military honors. The post of the American Legion which was organized in Lexington as the Ira Yake Post, attended the funeral in a body.

With the world wide peace movement there is little hope that Lexington will ever again be called upon to give of her sons in so cruel and wasting a thing as war.

The women of Lexington joined the Red Cross and did noble work for war relief. The Methodist Aid rooms were used for Red Cross headquarters where vast quantities of work were turned out.

CHAPTER X

Cemeteries

While it is not the object of this history to record Lexington township events, there are three cemeteries near Lexington which are closely associated with its early settlers.

What is known as the Dimond cemetery lies one and one-quarter miles south of the village on the ground originally owned by Judge Reuben B. Dimond who is buried there. The marker, which lies flat and almost buried by grass and weeds, bears the inscription, "R. B. Dimond, died March 29, 1852, aged 51 years." Beside the grave of Mr. Dimond is a marker with the inscription, "Sidney Dimond, died April 7, 1815, aged 9 months."

If Mr. Dimond suggested the name, Lexington, for the village, how fitting it would be to erect a monument on his final resting place.

On the land adjoining the Dimond cemetery lies the Stevens cemetery on land originally owned by Joel Carrington, the first white man who settled in the county, and later by Webster Stevens who was buried there in 1884.

In 1853 the township board voted to buy an acre of ground at fifty dollars from Louis Sherbernaw for a burying ground and the next year a half acre adjoining at twenty dollars from Israel Huckins. This cemetery lies three miles west of Lexington and is known as the "Huckins" cemetery. In it lies buried Rev. Thomas Huckins who was born in 1795 and died in 1853. He fought in the war of 1812 and was the father of Israel Huckins, a Civil War soldier, and great grandfather of Mark, Charles and Arthur J. Norman of Lexington.

At the same meeting of the township board it was voted to "fence the burying ground in the village of Lexington." This is apparently the old cemetery which lies at the southwest corner of the village, and which must have been staked before the Huckins cemetery, as the oldest marker on which the date is decipherable bears the inscription. "Julia A. wife of Amos Hykes, daughter of Aaron and Candace Baker, died February 5, 1852."

About 1864, S. C. Tewksbury and J. A. Waterbury gave to the village an acre of ground to be used as a place of burial for the soldier dead of the Civil War. The first person to be buried there was Capt. H. H. Nims who died of wounds during the war. Gradually the newer cemetery became the place of burial after the older became fully occupied, until it was necessary to purchase more land and now covers five acres. A handsome mausoleum was built at the entrance to the cemetery seven years ago by Mrs. A. E. Sleeper and Mrs. Ella Hanley as a memorial to their sister, Mrs. Emma Myers.

The ground for the Catholic cemetery which lies one mile north of the town was donated by Richard Wagner. A few years later Mr. A. R. Schell purchased a rod of land surrounding the original plot of ground and donated it to be added to the cemetery.

CHAPTER XI

No history would be complete without a record of the men and women now living in Lexington who have passed the age of fourscore years and who are not mentioned in the preceding chapters.

Mrs. Amanda Keys, widow of Jaspar H. Keys, is Lexington’s oldest resident. She was born October 11, 1846, in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Keys came to Lexington in the summer of 1895 when Mr. Keys became publisher of the Lexington News. He passed away February 11, 1913.

Mrs. Mary A. Fead Mitchell was born in the township of Worth, August 29, 1849, in a log house in the wilderness. She married Hilman Hatton who died July 10, 1858. They had two children, Mrs. Mittie Wilson of Romulus, and Wilford Hatton of Lexington. Her second marriage was to Joseph Mitchell who died a few years ago. In an interview with Mrs. Mitchell she recalled many interesting things relating to early days here. She spoke of the difference in the dinners served at Hotel Cadillac when it was a two-log building, and those served now. In the early days the menu consisted of bread, black-strap molasses, beans, salt pork and dried apple pie.

Mrs. Hannah Shierman Kessel was born in Germany in 1851 and came to Michigan in 1867. She married Frank Kessel of whom it has been said that he was one of the best carpenters in Lexington, many homes and public buildings now standing as silent memorials to his artistry. Mrs. Kessel has eight children.

Elmer Sheldon, son of John and Sophrona Sheldon, was born on a farm northwest of Lexington, February 20, 1853, and followed the occupation of farmer until the death of his father when with his mother he moved to Lexington in 1903. Mr. Sheldon has remained a bachelor.

Mrs. Jennie Kennedy, widow of Thomas Kennedy, was born in New York June 19, 1853, and came in 1869 to Lexington where Mr. Kennedy worked in the Partridge hoop and stave factory and later became one of the town’s leading painters and paper hangers. Mrs. Kennedy has eight children.

Albert Yake, whose eighty-third birthday will be observed during the Centennial, July 21, came here in a covered wagon with his parents in 1854. He helped to clear the forests and in later years became a farmer. Mrs. Yake, who was Isabella McKenzie, was born in Croswell in a house on the site of the present Croswell cemetery.

Neither would it be complete without a short sketch of those who have been outstanding in their chosen vocations and who either live here now or claimed Lexington as one time residence.

Albert E. Sleeper, who was born in Bradford, Vermont, December 31, 1862, came to Lexington in the fall of 1884. After several years spent in the employ of S. C. Tewksbury & Co., and of which firm he later became a partner, he launched into the banking business and became director in the banks at Yale, Bad Axe, Marlette, Ubly, Applegate, and Lexington. After his marriage to Miss Mary C. Moore, July 30, 1901, he moved to Bad Axe. He was senator of the twentieth district from 1901-04 and elected state treasurer in 1910. He was elected governor of Michigan in 1916 and 1918. Mr. Sleeper died at Bad Axe, May 13, 1934, and was brought to Lexington for burial. His funeral was perhaps the largest of any ever held here, and was attended by Governor Comstock, ex-Governors Brucker and Groesbeck, the state militia, the several orders of the Masonic fraternity and school children who marched in a body. Thus the young man who came to Lexington penniless found his last resting place here amid the homage due one who had been accorded one of the highest honors in the state.

Louis H. Fead was born at Lexington May 2, 1877, the son of John L. and Augusta Fead. He graduated from the Lexington High School, then went to Olivet College and later to the University of Michigan where he graduated in 1900. He practiced law at Newberry, Michigan, and served as prosecuting attorney of Luce County from 1901-1913, and as judge of the eleventh judicial circuit from 1913-1928. He served overseas in the American Red Cross during the World War. He was appointed a justice of the supreme court of Michigan, February, 1928, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Flannigan, and at the general election November 6, 1928, was elected to fill the unexpired term. He became chief justice at once which office he held for the balance of the year 1928. He was re-elected April 1, 1929. Mr. Fead is married and has three children.

Walter S. Wixson, son of Phillip L. and Helen Smith Wixson, graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1883. After successfully practicing law for a number of years, he became prosecuting attorney of Tuscola County and was appointed circuit judge a few months before his death in February, 1928.

John Beach, son of the late Judge Watson Beach, graduated from the Lexington High School in 1888 and from the University of Michigan in 1896. He did post graduate work at the U. of M. and at the University of Colorado in Boulder after which he started teaching at Mt. Morris, Illinois. He later taught at Ft. Worth, Texas; Huntingdon, Pennsylvania; Fargo, N.D., and for the past fourteen years has been professor of Greek and Hebrew at Aurora College, Aurora, Illinois.

George D. MacComb is another graduate of the Lexington High School who has climbed the ladder of success by his own efforts. Upon leaving school in 1900 he began the study of music until he stands today as a prominent musician in these parts. He is director of the Shubert Club, St. Stephen’s Church choir and the Baptist church choir of Port Huron, and his services as soloist are eagerly sought not only in Port Huron but throughout the district.

Grant H. Smith was a member of the graduating class of 1895 of the local school. He became interested in farming and the raising of fine livestock. After holding a number of public offices he was elected Judge of Probate for a period of twelve years. He was appointed chairman of the Sanilac County Centennial celebration held in Lexington this year, a position he has filled in a most conscientious and painstaking manner.

Just as fishing was one of the chief occupations of the early settlers it has continued through the years, and is still an important industry. Michael Meyer, son of Michael Meyer, Sr., an early settler, has been in the fishing business since leaving the employ of the Clarke store. Mr. Meyer has time from his work as fisherman to attend to village affairs as its president, after serving several terms as councilman. He is also president of the Eastern Michigan Tourist Association.

Nor are the successful ones all men. Miss Minnie Franke, who graduated in 1887 at the age of sixteen, was a successful teacher until her retirement a few years ago. After teaching in Lexington, she attended the Ferris Institute and taught there. She later went to Detroit where she taught twenty years, then returned to Lexington where she now resides.

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