In my 62nd Rensselaer high school reunion last week, I saw again some of the benefits of living in a small, rural community.
The concept of duty to others. one’s community and the country is often experienced early in life. While there are many organizational and institutional practices that present this concept, I believe personal example is often the most powerful teacher.
Duty to country in times of war is one of our most hallowed civic commitments. Growing up, the draft made this a potential obligation for all. Military service was widely recognized. In the Jasper County historical record from 1900-1985 there is a brief description of the First Presbyterian Church. The article points out that the first post WW II minister called was a former Navy Chaplain. One of his initial acts was to make a list of the forty-three members who had served in WW II.
That seemed like a large number. However the local library found the Jasper County Veteran’s office had a list of 1,295 men for WWII that had the DD214 (discharge from active duty) form on file. The Service Record Book of Men and Women of Rensselaer, Indiana and Community maintained by the local American Legion Auxiliary Dewey Biggs Unit, shows a total of 1,814 who were on active duty.
Jasper County’s last Survivor of the Civil War
I believe that personal example whether a family member, mentor or public individual has a great influence for how one considers duty to country especially in times of conflict.
An example of this service calling is the life of George Morgan, who died on April 16, 1945. His obituary called him the Last Survivor of the Civil War. According to records 935 men from Jasper County enlisted for the Union, from a population of 5,000.
And when comparing the proportions of men able to fight, Indiana contributed more soldiers than any other state to the Union.[14]
Following are excerpts from Morgan’s obituary by Lefty Clark the editor of the local daily, the Rensselaer Republican and republished in Vintage Views.
George Morgan, who left Rensselaer that sunny August 11, 1862, as a lad of 14 and one half years to lend his bit toward the preservation of a nation torn by internal strife died at the home of his daughter at an early hour Sunday April 15. . .
One day little George, not yet possessed of the beard that distinguishes the man, made his way to a recruiting office and by a little hedging and evasion of questions, and self-admitted fibbing managed to make the recruiting officer believe that he was ready and well able to assume the burdens of a soldier. George Morgan at the skimpy age of 14 and one half years was now a man and a soldier at that. He had a uniform to prove it to his parents when he returned from hi stealthy visit to the “recruiting man.” It is not chronicled that any gret storm of disapproval came from the parents. . .
Time’s haze prevents a complete description of his military career, but the unit was not too long in Laporte. It was sent into the Tennessee Campaign wafter some duty in Kentucky. “Grandpa” was a participant in the Battle of Chickamauga where the Union toll was heavy but its ranks victorious. Following that there came many minor skirmishes for Little George Morgan and his comrades nd weeks of guerilla warfare with the sniping breaking out sporadically.
And so it went through the years of 862, 1863 and 1864 andinto the final months of the war. The kid of fourteen and one half years not approaching 17 was keeping right up with the rest of the veteran trooper as the triumphant 87th regiment joined Sherman’s March to the sea. It was at a military center near Washington D.C. that Mr. Morgan received his discharge papers on June 10 following the cessation of hostilities. . .”Grandpa legged it for home via a box car assigned for the transportation of troops. He finallyed arrived in Indianapolis after a laborious journey and from there rode the “covered cars” to Bradford after which he staged-coached to Rensselaer.
The first thing he did after reaching Rensselaer he would say, “I struck right out for home across the fields, at a dog trot, and did not stop till I reached the house.” He said he started shouting when within range of the house, but his booming call brought no answer. The house was empty so he started for the field. He discovered his mother picking strawberries. “I got me a great big bowl of freshly picked berries, stopped at the milk house and got a pitcher of cream, helped myself out of one of the containers of the sugar bag and went to work.”
The county’s last Civil War Veteran now came to town to find himself a job of work. In those formative industrial years, he was a blacksmith’s apprentice and then a full-fledged blacksmith. However, his is bet known fas an artisan who worked at wood working, carriage making and carpentry. And there was a long period that he was a millwright at what ws the Babcock Hopkins elevator in Rensselaer. . .
Mr. Morgan married Mary J. Morris of Rensselaer on July 27, 1870. . .
It is interesting to note that Mr. Morgan once saw the immortal Abraham Lincoln wen the troops were reviewed by President Lincoln near Washington D.C. it is also interesting to note that Mr. Morgan died on the day that Franklin D. Roosevelt was being buried. He participated in all presidential elections from 1872 on. He cast his first such ballotin 1872 for Ulysses S. Grant, his commander during the Civil War.
Mr. Morgan was the sort of the personal property of every RensselaerIan. He became known as “Grandpa.” All loved him. . . A kind man, a courageous man, s msn colored with the romantic days of the wilderness and with the present day. He was idolized and cherished as the last representative of the treasured race of man-the Civil War soldiery. . .
One Person’s Life of Duty
So honored was “Grandpa” Morgan that the local newspaper would publish periodic updates on events in his life. A July 1, 1890 a front page article reported that he had been granted a pension. The story noted that he was the youngest of the three Morgan brothers to volunteer and concludes with this statement: “Although so young he was a thoroughly good soldier and never shirked his full sized share of the hardships and fighting. He well deserves the pension he gets, and a good deal more.”
On February 14, 1945, the Rensselaer Republican’s front page story was headlined, Time Marches On, So Does Grandpa. It was Morgan’s 97th birthday.
Morgan’s life of duty: A person of 14 who volunteered for war, raised a family. worked in the community and voted in every presidential election from Grant to FDR.
In Rensselaer we saw and experienced first hand, daily, persons who lived responsively for their families, community and country. It is these examples we all knew and helped shape who we would become—with our own personal sense of duty.