Dearborn County Donations for Soldiers’ Families – May 1863

The following article appeared in:
Aurora Commercial – 7 May 1863 – Page 2, Column 2

The Wood Movement last Saturday.

MR. EDITOR:–As your paper is a welcome guest among the soldiers in the different regiments that have men from this place, it is with pleasure that I take up my pen to let them know what the people are doing for their families. Saturday, the 2d May of May, was a great day for the families of our volunteers, and I think it my duty to give full credit to those who turned out so generously in affording them assistance. Our neighboring farmers having been informed that wood was a scarce article in this place, especially among the soldiers’ families, and could not be procured for love or money, the farmers of the Manchester pike opened the ball on Saturday week by bringing in ten loads of as good wood as was ever burned, for distribution among the soldiers’ families, as noticed in your paper last week. This stirred up the farmers living on the other roads leading into our city; and Mr. Joseph Becket and Capt. George Greer, in their respective neighborhoods made an arrangement for executing a similar movement last Saturday. Our citizens had got wind of the arrangement, and Lieut. Green’s squad of Kentucky Calvary, numbering 28 men, mounted and equipped, accompanied by the Aurora Brass Band, who had kindly volunteered their services for the occasion, repaired at 10 o’clock to the toll gate on the Dillsborough turnpike, to escort the procession into town. Arriving there we found forty-five wagons loaded with wood and provisions, the procession formed in the following order:

  • Marshalls—Capt. George Greer, S. S. Bussell, Jacob Radspinner, A. Epstein.
  • Aurora German Brass Band.
  • Lieut. Green’s squad of cavalry.
  • The wagons.

Thus formed, the procession started for town, and when near the Trester House was met by Capt. Phalin’s martial band, who fell in line, and the procession moved down Third street to Judiciary, up Judiciary to Second, and up Second to Schulze’s Hall, where the provisions were stored in a room donated by Mr. Schulze for the purpose. The wagons, with the 50 cords of wood, were driven to Wymond’s coal yard, where the wood was stored for distribution. The following are the names of the donors, with articles donated:

  • Elijah Greer, 1 cord wood, 1 sack meal, 75 lbs. meat
  • James Holmes, 1 cord wood, 100 lbs. meat
  • John Bush, 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. meat, 1/2 bu. apples
  • Capt. H. F. Wright, 1 cord wood, 1 sack meal
  • Henry C. Marshall, 1 cord wood
  • Nathan Wallace, 1 cord wood
  • John P. Tufts, 1 cord wood
  • Thos. Hubbartt, 1 cord wood, 1 sack potatoes
  • John Tufts, 1 cord wood
  • Robert Chance, 100 lbs. flour
  • Piercey Wheeler, 200 lbs. flour, 50 lbs. meat
  • Harrison Abbott, 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. meat
  • Charles Humes, 50 lbs. meat, 100 lbs. flour, 1 bush. apples
  • Thomas Ricketts, 1 cord wood, 100 lbs. flour, 50 lbs. meat
  • James Wills, 100 lbs. flour, 1 sack potatoes; also 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. flour, delivered at Chesterville.
  • Joseph Beckett, 1 cord wood, 1 bbl. flour
  • David Cole, 1 sack flour
  • Sylvester Huffman, 2 bush. potatoes
  • John P. Walker, 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. meat
  • Z. Barker, 1 cord wood, 2 1/2 bush. potatoes
  • John Tufts, 1 cord wood
  • Joseph Cornforth, 1 cord wood
  • Wilkerson Smith, 1 cord wood
  • R. C. Sawdon, 1 lot wood
  • Wm. Suters, 1 lot wood
  • Charles P. Gould, 1 cord wood, 2 bush. potatoes
  • Enoch Lindsay, 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. meal, 1 sack potatoes
  • B. P. Boardman, 1 cord wood, 2 bush. potatoes, 50 lbs. flour
  • James Clemens, 1 bush. potatoes
  • John Zeb, 1 cord wood
  • John Cornforth, 15 lbs. butter, 15 doz. eggs, 1 sack flour, 1 bush. apples
  • Benj. Brewington, 100 lbs. meat
  • Jas. Carbaugh, 50 lbs. meat
  • John Columbia, 1 cord wood
  • Samuel Smith, 1 cord wood
  • Job. Little, 1 cord wood
  • Isaac M. Davis, 1 cord wood
  • Wm. Casby, 1 cord wood
  • John Osleseber, 1 cord wood, 50 lbs. meat
  • Lewis Nichols, 50 lbs. meat
  • Hiram Barricklow, 1 cord wood
  • Merrick Hesdick, cash $1
  • Ezra Kamp, cash $1
  • Jacob Miller, 100 lbs. flour, 100 lbs. meal, 1 bush. potatoes
  • Simon Hempfield, 1 cord wood, 1 sack potatoes
  • Wm. Olcott, 1 cord wood, 1 sack flour, 1 sack potatoes
  • W. S. Bailey, cash $3
  • J. S. French, 1 cord wood
  • Wm. Morgan, 1 cord wood
  • Rudolph Meyer, 1 cord wood
  • John R. Cole, 1 cord wood, 50 lb. meat
  • Eleazer Cole, 1 cord wood
  • Samuel Cole, 1 cord wood
  • E. G. Herron, 1 cord wood

The donors number 56. several others who could not leave home last Saturday have promised to contribute their share. Since Saturday several ladies have informed me that they would have taken great pleasure in preparing and serving up a nice lunch for the donors if they had been informed in time. We hope that they will be prepared to give them a proper reception next time.

In the name of the soldiers’ families I heartily thank the farmers of this vicinity for their liberal and timely donations; and I assure them that our brave boys who are fighting in distant fields when they hear of the kind care that is taken of the families they have left behind them, will bear their hardships with cheerfulness, and feel as if the sacrifices they make for the general good are appreciated. We hope that instead of the letters they have sometimes received telling of hardships and filled with gloomy forebodings, they will hear “good news from home,” that their families are well provided for, and beyond the reach of want. Then we can feel that our soldiers will fight bravely and cheerfully, and that we, as well as they, have done our full duty.

A. EPSTEIN.