JOHN ROGMAN
John Rogman was born in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in northern Germany on November 5, 1843. He “arrived in the United States of America April 1861 and located at Garnavillo.” That was the same month that Southern guns fired on Fort Sumter. Despite the perilous time of his arrival, the Clayton County Journal wasn’t concerned “because it is not worth while. There are men enough in Pennsylvania alone to subdue South Carolina without the aid of Iowa volunteers.”
During his first year in the county John worked on the farm of Frederick Reuter but, in the spring of 1862, he moved to National where he worked for Oliver Crary. By then, the Civil War was a year old and it escalated throughout the summer. In the fall, President Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteers to augment the thousands who had already enlisted. Governor Kirkwood was confident that Iowa would meet its quota, but enlistments started slowly as many were busy with the fall harvest and Northern enthusiasm that anticipated a quick end to the war had faded. Enlistments accelerated when more favorable federal and local bounties provided a financial incentive that let soldiers better care for families they would be leaving behind. On August 10, 1862, giving his residence as National, John was in McGregor when he was enrolled by attorney William Crooke in what would be Company B of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry.
The regiment was mustered into service at Dubuque on September 9th and left for war on the 16th. Crowded on board the Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside, they went down the Mississippi and, after a brief layover at Rock Island and a transfer to the Hawkeye State at Keokuk, arrived in St. Louis on the 20th. The next night they traveled by rail to Rolla. For almost seven more months their service would remain in Missouri - Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville, back to Houston, south to West Plains and then northeast through Thomasville and Ironton and into the small French town of Ste. Genevieve. From there they were taken downstream to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing an army to capture Vicksburg. The regiment was assigned to a corps led by General John McClernand and, on April 12th, started south on the west side of the river. After walking along small roads, wading through swamps with muskets held high and sometimes being transported across bayous, those still able for duty crossed to the east bank on April 30, 1863.
They went ashore at the small Bruinsburg landing and started inland with the 21st Iowa Infantry as the point regiment at the head of the entire Union army. Led by a former slave, they walked slowly inland until fired on about midnight. Due to darkness, the firing was brief but on May 1st John Rogman participated with the regiment in the one-day Battle of Port Gibson. He was present on the 16th when they were held in reserve during the battle at Champion’s Hill and participated on May 17th when the 21st and 23rd Iowa Infantries led an assault that routed the enemy at the Big Black River. He then participated in a May 22nd assault on the railroad redoubt at Vicksburg.
During the ensuing siege, men kept heads low behind hills and breastworks during the day and, when not on duty, tried to rest in a hollow at the base of a steep hill behind the line. It was mid-June, John said, when “I along with some others was detailed to carry cartridge boxes from Army wagon in a hollow to camp up on the side of the hill. It was after it had been raining. The ground being slippery I fell and the cartridge box fell on me.” It fell “on my stomach & fore parts causing a rupture of the right side of the testicles.” John didn’t want to go to a hospital but, in early August was granted a thirty-day furlough and returned to Clayton Center. He rejoined the regiment on September 14, 1863, at Brashear City, Louisiana.
He remained on duty during the balance of its service in Louisiana followed by almost six months along the gulf coast of Texas. After returning to Louisiana in June, 1864, John became ill. For a month starting on August 21st he received continuous treatment for diarrhea (an ailment that killed at least sixty-four of his comrades) followed by fever and hospitalization at Morganza and New Orleans. In the spring of 1865 he accompanied the regiment to Dauphin Island in Alabama but a month after arrival was hospitalized at Fort Gaines. With the war nearing an end, John was mustered out on June 15, 1865, a month before the regiment’s other original enlistees.
After returning to Garnavillo, he worked as a farmer and then, still with health problems, for Schroeder & Kuenzel at Valley Mills “at $13.00 per month. mens wages then was $25.00 per month. they considered me only half a hand.” He then moved to Clayton Center and, in exchange for board, worked for an uncle, Joe Bahlke. That was followed by moves to National, back to Clayton Center and then to Elkader where he lived with a brother-in-law, Fritz Tiede, and then with John Becker, a soon-to-be brother-in-law. John said he then “bought a Stable Horse with money I saved while in the army and took care of the horse for about two years.”
On March 7, 1868, twenty-four-year-old John was married to nineteen-year-old Wilhelmina “Minnie” Becker in Garnavillo by Fr. Rentzch, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Minnie, like John, had emigrated from the Mecklenburg-Schwerin area of Germany. After their marriage, John “rented a small farm from Wm Koss” but, due to his rupture, had to “hire the heavey work done.” He “then bought a small brush farm near Clayton, Clayton Co. Ia. and moved onto it in the fall of 1869 and remained there up to the fall of 1880.” Advised to go west for his health, he moved 400 miles to Otoe County, Nebraska, and then to the town of Orchard in Antelope County.
On March 17, 1884, he applied for an invalid pension. In “sound physical health” when he enlisted, John said he was now “at times disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor by reason of his injuries” and recurring health problems. A pension surgeon agreed that John was at least half disabled, but the government wanted more evidence that it said was not forthcoming. The process went on for months and then years as John signed more affidavits, changed attorneys, and secured supportive affidavits from two neighbors and from former comrades David Drummond and William Lyons, but finally, on July 2, 1891, he was awarded $12.00 per month retroactive to when his application had been received seven years earlier. With affidavits from two more comrades, Othmar Kapler and surgeon William Orr, he applied for an increase that was granted at $18.00 monthly.
As he got older and continued with farm work, his health worsened. A doctor testified that John had a “double inguinal hernia. Left can be retained by Truss and Right side is almost impossible to Retain.” When the laws changed to permit age-based pensions, John was quick to apply but there was a problem. On the application he signed in 1884, he failed to notice that the person writing it had given 1844 as John’s birth year. As a result, the government said he’d have to wait another year before applying. John said it was a clerical error and submitted what he thought was good evidence, including what a witness said was an accurate transcription from John’s baptism record on which a German pastor had given the birth year as 1843. The government wasn’t convinced, but the pension was eventually increased several times and John was receiving $72.00 when he died on May 13, 1922. He is buried in Pleasant View Cemetery in Orchard.
The following month, signing as “Minnie,” John’s widow applied for a pension, giving the date and place of their marriage and saying they had continued to live together as husband and wife until his death. Two Nebraska witnesses who had known them for many years also said Minnie and John had lived as husband and wife, but that wasn’t good enough for examiners who noted that the witnesses hadn’t known John and Minnie long enough to know if they had married. In October a more receptive Deputy Commissioner commented that “German Lutherans are not noted for loose morals” and a pension was granted. Minnie died on December 14, 1927, and is buried in Pleasant View Cemetery where her stone gives her name as “Mina.”
John and Minnie had three children, all boys. F. William Rogman was born on January 27, 1869, and died on August 5, 1893, at twenty-four years of age. Edward Rogman was born on April 28, 1876, and was only eight years old when he died on June 20, 1884. The middle boy, John Rogman Jr., was born on May 22, 1874, and was still living in 1922, but the date of his death is unknown.
~History compiled & permission given to post by researcher, Carl Ingwalson, San Diego
Married: 07 Mar 1868
John Rogman - Born: 05 Nov 1843; Died: 13 May 1922
Wilhelmina "Minnie" Becker Rogman - Born: 1848; Died: 14 Dec 1927
Sons of John and Minnie Rogman
1. F. William Rogman– born: 27 Jan 1869; died: 05 Aug 1893
2. John Rogman, Jr.- born: 22 May 1874; died: ? after 1922
3. Edward Rogman- 28 Apr 1876; died 20 Jun 1884