Civilian Life

A Short Life

 

After the Civil War, William Graham resumed his farming life.  During the 1865-67 period William Graham was recorded as a farmer in two different places. One location was Horseheads, Chemung County, 18 miles southeast of Townsend, Schuyler County.  The second was Wayne, Steuben County, at the county line adjoining Schuyler County and 15 miles northwest from Townsend.

Platt/Graham farmhouse prior to being torn down

On March 1, 1869, at the age of 36, William Graham married Mary Elizabeth Platt (then age 27) in Townsend, New York. William was a Townsend neighbor of Mary. Upon their marriage, William moved into Mary Platt's family homestead and received a share of the farm.

Mary had been known to William's sister Libbie since before 1860.  The women had lived in the same neighborhood, a few farms apart.

The custom of the men marrying in their 30s or later started, so far as I know, with William's father James who married at age 48. It continued among 'Graham' oldest sons into the present day. 

Mary Platt Graham about the time of her marriage

Following marriage, William and Mary lived on the farm of Brewster Platt, Mary’s father. It was located near Townsend in the Town of Dix in Schuyler County, New York. They had two children: my grandfather Hiram Hovey Graham born December 9, 1870 [same birthday as mine] and Sarah born May 24, 1875. Hiram was named after Mary's brother who died in 1864 from disease contracted as a soldier in the Civil War.

William died on November 22, 1877 at the age of 44,  8.5 years after his marriage. Mary Graham’s 1900 pension application said kidney & liver disease incurred during military service was the cause of William’s death. Doctor William Heist, who was the family physician, said on May 17, 1895, “the hardship and explosives during the war hastened his death. He was a man of the best habits strictly temperate in every respect. And one of the best men I ever knew.”

In his obituary, the following was stated: "Especially will the poor and unfortunate miss the sympathy so freely and delicately rendered to them by the subject of this notice. As a citizen and neighbor Mr. Graham was esteemed by all who knew him and his life and its results are a worthy example to be imitated by all his acquaintances as showing how much that is good and praiseworthy may be accomplished even by a youth in a strange land without influential surroundings." (Watkins Express, November 29, 1877)  

In 1884, William's sister, Elizabeth 'Libbie' Graham (at the age of 46) finally married. Her husband was Eugene Pangborn, a widower with four living children. Three of them ranged from 5 to 15 years of age at the time of the marriage. The youngest, Ruth lived to the age of 102. Elizabeth died at the age of 71 in 1910, never having borne a child of her own.

Mary Graham applied for a Civil War widow's pension. Elizabeth Pangborn submitted an affidavit as part of Mary Graham’s 1900 pension application. Elizabeth’s affidavit said she had known Mary Graham for more than 40 years and knew William Graham for his lifetime. She said she was present at the marriage of William to Mary in 1869.

 

Mary's Pioneer Family

Mary's parents were some of the first pioneer settlers of the Townsend area.

Brewster Platt

Mary's father, Brewster Platt, according to his obituary, at 25 (1823) together with an older brother John migrated to what was then the Town of Catlin in the county of Tioga and settled on a farm of 150 acres about a half mile southeast of what was known as the Townsend settlement. The brothers drove back the forest and built a home to which soon came the parents and one other brother and sister.  Townsend eventually became part of Schuyler County.

Elizabeth Hovey Platt

Mary's mother, Elizabeth (Betsey) Scribner Hovey, was the descendant of an old New England family. The family could trace its roots to Daniel Hovey who arrived in Massachusetts in 1635 at the age of 17.

Her immediate Hovey family entered the State of New York at Niagara Falls. The British burned them out during the War of 1812 and they migrated to Canadaigua, New York. Around 1830 they arrived in Townsend. She married Brewster in 1835.

After Brewster's 1835 marriage to Betsey Hovey, the brothers divided the farm with Brewster taking the south portion. John Platt subsequently sold his portion and moved on to Illinois.

Brewster and his wife had one son, Hiram Hovey and one daughter, Mary Elizabeth. The son, Hiram died at 24 in the Civil War. Mary Elizabeth Platt was born on Christmas day in 1842.

A Hard Life

William's premature death in 1877, at the age of 44, left Mary a widow with two small children (age 6 [almost 7] and 2 years). Mary's elderly father died in 1883 and her invalid mother in 1886. Mary never remarried.

As stated in Mary's pension application, the farm included 106 acres and was valued at $2000 in 1900. It was her family's sole source of sustenance.

Mary Platt Graham in 1900.
Clearly, the hard farm life has
taken its toll.

Life was hard on that farm. According to Mary's granddaughter, Irene Graham Evans, "it was such a little farm. I do not know how they made a living. They must have had lots of chickens, as I remember at family dinners Dad would always pass on the chicken as he said he had had his fill in early life."

To put some hard numbers on their poverty, the following was stated in Mary's pension application: Personal property consisted of $500 of furniture, farming implements and stock plus $500 in US Bonds. Gross yearly income does not exceed $200 out of which must be paid taxes and repairs. This leaves a net income of $100. Produce of the farm included wheat, oats, potatoes, butter, wool, pigs, calves and other livestock.

Hiram Hovey Graham about 1903

Between 1895 and 1902, the highest annual gross income from the farm was $250. After taking out produce kept by the family and the expense of hired help, repairs and taxes, the highest annual net income was $5. Four of those years the farm operated at a loss.

Mary wanted to educate her son Hiram and so sent him in a horse and buggy to school 13 miles north in Dundee. Hiram finally had to quit school before graduation when his mother could no longer get help in running the farm.

Hiram self educated himself from that point forward, becoming a political power in Schuyler County and elected a member of the New York State Assembly (lower legislative body) in 1918.

In 1983, Hiram's only son, Joseph Graham, described him as "pretty well known as a raconteur and he enjoyed nothing more than getting together with a group of three or thirty to tell a humorous episode."

Mary Platt Graham died in 1905 at the age of 62. She lived to see both her children married and the birth of two grandchildren.

Hiram Platt

Hiram Platt's Portrait

Hiram Hovey Platt was born on the New York frontier in 1839.  His only surviving sibling was Mary Elizabeth Platt. Prior to the Civil War, Hiram worked as a farmer on the land of his father, Brewster Platt.

On August 14, 1862, Hiram enlisted as a corporal with Company A of the 141st Regiment. At his enlistment he was described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, of florid complexion, with blue eyes and auburn hair.

According to his war record, he was absent on leave in New York from February 10, 1864 until March 10, 1864. While home on furlough in Dix, New York, he died of chronic diarrhea on May 9, 1864. He was 24 years old at his death. His sister's future son was named for him.

He never married but was engaged to Delia Coryell. In 1860, Adelia Coryell was 17 years old and working as a teacher. She lived with her father and mother and 19 year old sister Harriet on a farm in the Town of Dix.

Some doodles from Hiram's diary

According to stories handed down in the family, Hiram was handsome and very intelligent. His single surviving diary would support the latter characteristic. His surviving photo would support the former.

Hiram kept several diaries during the war. The two best diaries, depending on who told the story, were lost either by (1) theft when my father took them to school as a boy or (2) appropriated by his Syracuse College professor to whom he loaned them. Whatever the exact cause, Hiram's future grand nephew received the blame. Hiram Platt's surviving diary covers the period from August 22, 1862 to May 1, 1863 and contains about 100 pages.

The 141st Regiment fought in numerous battles. However, other than the siege of Suffolk, Virginia, all regimental conflicts with Confederate forces occured subsequent to the period covered in the surviving diary.

Hiram would have participated in a number of skirmishes or battles with the regiment including: Diascund Bridge, Virginia - June 16, 1863, Crump's Cross Roads, Virginia - July 2, 1863, Wauhatchie, Tennessee - October 28-29, 1863, Chattanooga and Rosswill Campaign in Tennessee (including Missionary Ridge) - November 23-27, 1863, and London, Tennessee - December 5, 1863. At the time of his death, the regiment was participating in the Atlanta Campaign.