William McIntyre and Family

"This man, William McIntyre, is densely ignorant." Robert E. Greeve, Notary Public, 1908.

William McIntyre is one of the many walking casualties of the Civil War. He went to war unwillingly and served only under duress. He returned with an injury that made it more difficult to earn his living as a manual laborer. With the help of his young second wife, he raised a family that as enormous for any time period. William and Ellen must have struggled to make ends meet, and their children found it difficult to move beyond manual labor into more lucrative occupations. NonetheelessIt is a tribute to William and Ellen's parenting that those children did not appear in newspaper accounts chronicling the misdeeds of disfunctional families and petty criminals.

William McIntyre was born on 15 May in Elbridge, Onondaga Co. NY, probably in 1833, the son of Nelson McIntyre and Mary Rogers. [1] His year of birth is difficult to determine. In a 1907 deposition, when he was attempting to prove that he was 75 years old in order to gain an automatic increase in his Civil War pension, he stated that he was born in 1831. His enlistment papers from 1863 show him to be 30 years of age, suggesting a birth year of c. 1833. He stated that this discrepancy arose because when asked what year he was born, he said thirty or thirty-one, and this was written down as his age. [2] The 1850 census supports a birth year of c. 1834, and the 1860 census of c. 1836. [3] The best clue to his age may come from the statement he made in his deposition that his sister (presumably Samantha, to whom he was close) was two years younger. [4] The 1900 census indicates that Samantha was born in April 1835, suggesting a birth year for William of 1833. [5]

Except for his military service, William spent his whole life in Elbridge, the town of his birth. He grew up in a poor household, according to his own account. He stated that because of his family's poverty, he only attended a district school for one year, when he was 12 (if he was born c. 1833, that would have been c. 1846). That same year, his family's home burned, a home described by the local notary in 1908 as a "shanty." [6] The 1850 census shows the family's circumstances to have been somewhat better. His father owned $400 in real estate, small by comparison with his neighbors, but property none the less. William, aged 15, was already working as a farmer. All the children, including William and 5-year-old Edwin, were attending school. The whole neighborhood appeared to be dedicated to learning, as the neighborhood children also were without exception attending school. [7] This report of universal school attendance may, in fact, have been the result of a lack of diligence on the part of the census taker. William, in addition to attending school, was already working, and included in the list of school attendees was "Elly," a sister described in the 1860 census as "partially insane" and in 1870 as "idiotic," unable to read or write. The 1860 census showed none of Nelson McIntyre's children attending school, and very spotty school attendance by neighbor children as well. [8] He did have some literacy, as his scrawling signature can be found on many of the papers submitting for his pension claim. Census records consistently indicate that he is able to read and write until 1900, when he was described as unable to do either. His skills were probably minimal, given his limited schooling. [9] The local notary, Robert E. Greeve, attempting to help him gain the pension increase available to those 75 and older, offered the following deposition in 1908:

The signature of William McIntyre, 1884.

This man, William McIntyre, is densely ignorant. There is no possible way of proving his exact age. He has been twice married and reared a large family but does not know the age of his children. I should say his oldest Son was over 50 years of age. I have known him for fifty years, that is, the claimant William McIntyre. [10]

1860 found William working as a farmer in the village of Jordan in the town of Elrbidge. He was married to Electa Ann, born c. 1843 in New York, and the couple had a one-year old daughter, Emily F. Electa was almost certainly the daughter of the daughter of David Rice and his wife Elizabeth Rardeen, who were living with the family in 1860. [11] In 1850 David Rice was located in Campbell, Steuben Co. NY with a daughter "Lecta A" and a family composition that matched that of the David Rice family in Elbridge in 1860. [12] A marriage announcement from the Skaneateles Democrat of 15 October 1857 appears to refer to the the wedding of William and Electa: "In this village, on the 7th inst., by J. H. Jewitt Justice, Mr. William McIntyre, of Elbridge, and Miss Eliza Ann Rice, of Onondaga." [13] Electa would have been about 15 or 16 years of age at the time of her marriage. Although the article refers to "Eliza" rather than "Electa," this is very likely a typographical error. In addition to Emily, the McIntyre family was soon blessed with another child, Alfred, born c. 1860. [14] William's military record from the time described him as 5'8", had fair hair, and grey eyes. [15]

The Civil War soon intervened to permanently disrupt their family life. On 19 August 1863 William was drafted. He failed to report as required, however, and was eventually arrested as a deserter on 22 February 1864 in Van Buren, a town to the northeast of Elbridge. On 3 May he was turned over to the military, taken to Elmira, and assigned to Company D of the 179th NY Infantry. His military service was not of long duration. William was with the 179th at the seige of Petersburg in Virginia in July, and was wounded in the rifle pits there. [16] He received a gunshot wound in the left arm near the elbow. [17] The examining surgeon in 1865 found him totally and permanently disabled, with no use of his left hand. [18] He was honorably discharged from the DeCamp General Hospital, David's Island, NY on 20 March 1865. [19]

While William was gone, Electa gave birth to their third child, William, in January 1865, roughly nine months after he was conscripted into the army. [20] Sometime later that year, Electa died in the village of Jordan, at about 24 years of age. [21] William, with three young children to care for, soon remarried to Ellen Griffin, eighteen, on 25 November 1866. The record of their marriage was transcribed from the docket of James G. Lewis, Justice of the Peace for Elbridge, and included in his pension file: "Married at the residence of Paul Sherman in the town of Elbridge on the 25th day of Nov. 1866 Wm McIntyre of Elbridge and Ellen Griffin of the Same place. Present as witnesses, Paul Sherman and Cemantha Sherman." [22] Samantha (McIntyre) Sherman was William's younger sister. Ellen Griffin was born in February 1848; her parents were born in Ireland. The 1900 census indicates that Ellen herself was born in New York, while the 1880 and 1870 censuses indicate Vermont. [23] Ellen was the daughter of Patrick Griffin, also a Civil War pensioner, who had lived in Elbridge since the close of the war. [24]

Ellen Griffin McIntyre's mark, 1926.

William's wound continued to plague him for the rest of his life. His 1876 deposition described his situation thus:

"He further declares that he is disabled in the following manner, to wit: has a Gun Shot wound through his left arm near the Elbow joint which he received in front of Petersburg Virginia in the year 1864, the wound breaks out and discharges as often as every two weeks and often breaks as often as once a week and pains him almost continually sometimes so that he is kept awake with it the whole night and not able to sleep at all, that he believes he would rather loose [sic] the arm entirely than to suffer what he is now compelled to suffer with this wound that he not only suffers the pain but he is disabled from his labor on account of it." [25]

Although at his discharge William was rated fully disabled, an 1884 surgeon's report made it clear that he continued to work at farm labor. He was thin and wiry, with hands hardened from work, and his wound always ached after labor and before a storm. Despite his description of his pains, he was no whiner, reporting that his rating as 12/18ths disabled was adequate. [26] The census records, too, consistently indicate that he was working: in 1870 it stated that he "works on farm" and in 1880 he was a "laborer. [27] In 1900 William was working as a day laborer. He was unemployed five months out of the year, probably due to the shortage of agricultural work during the winter. Nonetheless, he owned his own home free and clear of mortgage. Perhaps his children had helped him buy his own home: he and Ellen had produced an impressive twelve children, ten of whom were still living. [28]

William's war injuries continued to take their toll, along with the aches and pains of old age and the effects of a lifetime of hard physical labor. In 1907 he suffered from a large inguinal hernia in his left side, which frequently escaped, causing him severe pain and incapacitating him. His rheumatism also left him frequently unable to work, and the fistula in his wounded arm continued to periodically open and discharge. [29] He suffered additionally from failing eyesight. An examining physician noted that he was also senile, perhaps accounting for the notary's description of him as "densely ignorant." [30] He died on 15 October 1908 in Jordan, Onondaga Co. NY. [31] His funeral was held at the Baptist Church on 18 October 1908 and he was buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery in the town of Elbridge. [32] His death record states that he is buried in Weedsport, but a transcription of headstones from the Maple Grove Cemetery lists both William and his wife Ellen. [33]

Ellen died 24 years later, on 24 December 1932 at her home in Jordan, NY of acute bronchitis and chronic myocarditis leading to pulmonary edema. She was 84 years of age. She too, is buried in the Maple Grove Cemetery. [34]

William McIntyre and Electa A. Rice had the following children:
 

William McIntyre and Ellen had a large number of children. Establishing the identities, of those children is difficult, however, due to William's general vagueness on dates and perhaps on names as well. In 1898 William indicated that he had ten living children. The list he provided omitted the names of his two living children by Electa, so the ten children must have been intended to refer to Ellen's children. [44] On the 1900 census, it was reported that Ellen was the mother of twelve children, ten of them living. [45] In 1910 Ellen reported that she was the mother of 13 children, nine of whom were living. [46] The following is a tentative list of children for William and Ellen: