Follow the middle branch of the Mormon Trail about nine and a half miles slightly southwest from Confidence through Bethlehem and across the Jordan (Creek) and you'll find yourself at the site of New York, once a flourishing crossroads village.
There's nothing there now other than a modern house. The last historic building, the New York Christian Church, was moved some years ago to the Round Barn Site east of Allerton after years of disuse.
The New York Cemetery is located on a hillside west of the creek a mile east of town. That's where Samuel J. and Virgil Messenger, after whom New York's Messenger Post No. 288, G.A.R., was named, are buried alongside their father, Frederick Dent Messenger (1806-1871) and two infant siblings, Hyrum (1858-1859) and Martha (1861-1862).
The senior Messengers, Frederick D. and Jane M., arrived in Wayne County about 1852. The family home reportedly was located just across the road from the cemetery. The couple had 12 children, three of whom died young. Of the remainder, eight were sons.
New York village was platted three years after the Messengers' arrival by Micajah Cross on April 20, 1855. It flourished in a modest sort of way with several business buildings, a few houses, Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges in addition to the G.A.R. Post, and two churches.
The little town's viable life span was only about 50 years, however. A major fire during June of 1904 burned five business buildings, the post office was discontinued soon thereafter and the founding of Millerton just to the west when the Rock Island Railroad went through in 1913 sealed its fate.
But that was far in the future when the Civil War broke out and four of the Messenger boys answered the call.
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Three of the boys, Samuel J., age 20, Dennis B., age 22, and Royal H., age 18, enlisted as privates in Company I, 4th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, during the late summer and fall of 1861. Samuel, the first to enlist, was mustered in at Benton Barracks near St. Louis on Aug. 31, 1861. Dennis and Royal were mustered on Nov. 9.
Royal, probably because of sickness, was discharged two months later on the 22nd of January at Rolla, Missouri, and returned home.
Dennis was the only one of the Messenger brothers who served until the end of the war. He advanced in rank to corporal and was mustered out at Louisville on July 24, 1865.
Samuel was captured during the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7, 1862, then exchanged on May 14. He continued to serve until Jan. 8, 1864, when he was discharged because of disability at Woodville, Alabama, and returned home with his health broken. He married Margaret O. Sherman on March 10, 1864, in Wayne County and they had two children, but he never was able to recover fully and died at age 26 on the 22nd of October 1867 and was buried in the New York Cemetery.
The last of the brothers to enlist was Virgil, 18 when he was mustered into a 100-day unit, Co. H., 46th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on June 10, 1864. He served until the expiration of his term and was mustered out at Davenport on Sept. 23, 1864, but apparently was in ill health at the time. He made it home to New York, but died there a few days later on Oct. 7 and was buried in the New York Cemetery.
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Twenty years later, when Civil War veterans in the neighborhood decided to form a G.A.R. chapter, they remembered the Messenger men and their extraordinary record of family service --- even though all living family members had by this time moved west, most to Washington state.
The post named in their honor was chartered on Feb. 9, 1884, with 18 members. It always was a small post and there's no clear record to show when it was disbanded and surviving members transferred their memberships to other posts. There had been 48 in total, according to state records, but the names of only 44 are found in the master card file of Iowa's G.A.R. membership. Here they are:
Thomas M. Akers, James Allison, John William Brewer, Charles O. Brown, Elijah Barton, William Byxbe, Amos A. Clark, Thomas Church, Friend Davis, James Davison, John H. Dotts, William Dotts, Amos Dunn, William J. Faras, Levi Fry, Lucien H. Goodell, Thomas L. Green, Samuel K. Hardy, Danforth L. Hare, George W. Harn, George J. Havner, John D. Havner, Benjamin F. Jarad, Charles Leach, Matthew Mackey, James W. Morris, John Oldfield, Henry Clay Olmstead, John S. Patterson, Andrew J. Peek, Robert T. Pray, Milton D. Rew, John C. Robertson, John Roberts, Charles L. Sayer, Elias E. Scales, Samuel Scott, William H. Smart, Silas A. Snyder, Philip L. Stech, Berry Street, Greenlead N. Sutton, Madison Thorp and David J. Wood.
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Although the Messengers were very good about marking family graves, tombstones fell as the years passed and in some cases were obscured by encroaching grass. According to notes associated with family entries at Find A Grave, family members eventually returned to Wayne County and arranged for the fallen stones to be repaired and, when possible, righted during 2015-2016. The image here of Virgil ("Vergil") Messenger's stone is used courtesy of Gayle Van Dyke, a Messenger descendant.
2 comments:
“ The family home reportedly was located just across the road from the cemetery.”-from this article;
That was the Stech place where my Grandparents lived. But their house was only two bedroom and it was build new around 1900. John H. Stech married my grandmother Dorothy (Fortune) Stech from that area. My grandparents farm surrounded the cemetery on all sides until the 1980’s. They always talked about their hometown of New York.
I remember the John Stechs living there when I was a kid (he trucked for my dad quite a bit). I'm guessing there had been other houses at the same location. Considering when the Messengers arrived, their house may well have been a log cabin.
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