PIERCE COUNTY NEBRASKA CIVIL WAR DATABASE – V

VAN HORN JAMES H.; Osmond

B: 21 January 1845 Burlington, Wisconsin D: 2 September 1936 Norfolk,

Nebraska Burial: Prospect Hill Cemetery; Norfolk, Nebraska

Wisconsin 48^th Infantry Company B - Private

Enlistment Date: 14 February 1865 Spring Prairie, Wisconsin

Mustered Out: 19 February 1866

Sources: 1893 Nebraska Veterans Census

Sons of Union Veterans Database

Pierce County Call; Pierce, Nebraska; 10 September 1936

Veteran Taken At The Age of 91

J. H. Van Horn, Civil War Veteran and Former Resident of This County Dead

J. H. Van Horn, a civil war veteran and pioneer resident of Pierce county, died at his home in Norfolk last Wednesday evening at the age of 91years.

Mr. Van Horn worked on the Butterfield ranch near Osmond and also in the construction of the old Yankton and Norfolk railroad in the early nineties. He always attended the G. A. R. reunions here and was well known. His death leaves but one survivor of the conflict of the Blue and Gray in Norfolk – L. B. Musselman.

Mr. Van Horn had been in failing health for several months. When he cashed his pension check recently, he remarked it would probably be the last one he would ever cash.

He was born Jan. 21, 1845, a short distance from the junction of Honey creek and Sugar creek in Wisconsin. His birthplace, near Burlington, is also near the early day oak plank road between Jamestown and Milwaukee.

He enlisted in the Union army when a youth. His father, Charles L. Van Horn, also fought in the Union army. Mr. Van Horn prized among his collections two discharges his father received from the Third Wisconsin cavalry. He also treasured a letter his father wrote while in Benton Barracks, St. Louis, while in the army.

After the Civil war, Mr. Van Horn served in the army and while at Fort Dodge, Kan., he saw Kit Carson, famous Indian scout.

On April 1, 1874, he stopped at a State street restaurant in Chicago. The girl who waited on him became his bride six weeks later, and they were married for fifty-nine years, death calling Mrs. Van Horn about three years ago.

Mr. and Mrs. Van Horn moved to Nebraska in 1884, locating first at Blair. Two years later they moved to Norfolk, where they resided a short time before going to Creighton, where the Civil war veteran had charge of the roundhouse. He was on duty there on Jan. 12, 188, the day of Nebraska’s historical blizzard.

The following fall he was transferred by the railroad to Verdigre, where he worked in the roundhouse at nights and the brickyard in the day time. This double duty, he often said, “caused me to get fired.”

He then went to work on the Butterfield ranch near Osmond and later for a year worked with the old Norfolk-Yankton railroad survey gang north of Pierce. Soon after he had moved to Plainview, he was solicited by the Northwestern railway to come back to work, which he did in Norfolk as headlight inspector.

Later he became depot master, and left the railway service when he became 70 years of age. He then became custodian of the Norfolk public library and worked there for fifteen years and two months. A short time after he left that work he and his wife moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, but returned to Norfolk a few years ago.

Last year he attended the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Michigan, and had planned to go to this year’s session.

Funeral services with military rites by the American Legion were conducted Friday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock at the Wolt-Berge chapel by the Rev. E. Merle Adams, First Congregational church minister. Burial will be made in Prospect Hill cemetery.

Surviving are two sons, A. C. and Henry, both of Norfolk. He was preceded in death by his wife and one daughter.

VEST, WILLIAM H.; Plainview

Illinois 17^th Cavalry Company F

Enlistment Date: 08 January 1864 Hopkins, Illinois

Mustered Out: 18 December 1865

Sources: 1890 Veterans Census

1893 Nebraska Veterans Census

VINSON (Vincent), George;

B: June 1843 or 1840 England D: 10 November 1923 Lake Worth, Florida; Burial: Prospect View Cemetery; Pierce, Nebraska

Illinois 46^th Infantry Company B - Private

Enlistment Date: 10 September 1861 Rock Grove, Illinois

Sources: 1890 Veterans Census

Cemetery Records

Sons of Union Veterans Database

Pierce County Call; Pierce, Nebraska; 15 November 1923; page 1

Old Solider Answers Last Roll Call

George Vinson Dies at Lake Worth, Florida, Shortly After Arrival From Pierce

George Vinson, who spent the past summer in these parts visiting his children, died at his winter home at Lake Worth, Florida, last Saturday, at four o’clock.

Word was telephone from a daughter, Mrs. Ed Jones, of Norfolk, to Frank Pilger of this place.

Mr. Vinson, it is said, passed away shortly after his arrival from Pierce – he and Mrs. Vinson having left for their winter home about three weeks ago – going by the way of Kansas City where they visited relatives enroute.

The remains accompanied by the faithful wife left Lake Worth, Wednesday and are expected to arrive in Pierce Saturday. Funeral services will be held at the Methodist church Sunday afternoon.

George Vinson was one of the old settler of Pierce county. He was born in 1842 in the village Mervinstaw, county Cornwall, England, and was the youngest child of a family of eight children. When he was eight years of age his father died, and the mother then brought the eight children to the United Sates. They started from Plymouth on a sail boat for Quebec, Canada, and arrived there after being on the water six week. After landing at Quebec they went to the Montreal and from there to Winnebago county, Illinois. After a few years they moved to Freeport, Illinois.. In the meantime the mother married J. C. Burge.

While residing here Mr. Vinson at the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, enlisted in Company B, one of the five companies from Freeport, in the Forty-sixth Illinois Volunteers. During the battle of Jackson, Mississippi, Mr. Vinson was seriously wounded and sent to the hospital.

He fought in the Union army under General U. S. Grant at the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh, where he sustained a bayonet wound in the arm. He participated in the siege of Corinth and in the engagement down the Mississippi river. While at Holley Springs the army was cut off from food supplies and the soldiers had a good chance of relish “hard tack” and “mules corn,” as maize was then called, as he would a piece of cake. Mr. Vinson also engaged in the battles of Memphis, Tennessee, and from there to La Grange, then Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi. At the latter place he was shot in the jaw from which he carried a scar to the time of his death. After this his regiment went to Fort Blackley, at New Orleans.

Mr. Vinson had two brothers in the Civil War. One of them John, was killed by Morgan’s raiders.

At the close of the war Mr. Vinson returned to Illinois. In 1866 he moved to Iowa, where he followed the occupation of farming in Benton and Mario counties. After this he moved to Madison county, Nebraska, where he lived two years—coming to Pierce county in 1886, where he homesteaded on section twenty-one township twenty-six, range four.

Mr. Vinson was united in marriage in 1865 to Miss Sarah Simmons of Maryland. To this union nine children were born, viz: Maggie, Charles, Anna, Eliza, Emma, John, George T., Cora and Maude.

The Call editor knew Mr. Vinson quite intimately. We used to enjoy hearing him relate his war experiences and those of the early days in Pierce county. He was always a true blue Republican and believed in the principles of Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and McKinley.

It was always a pleasure that we greeted him when he was back in these parts for the summer and it was with deep regret that we learned of his death.

The bereaved wife and children have our sincerest sympathy.