EWGS Meeting, Sep 11th, topic of Civil War

 

Don't know how to ZOOM? Click to our website, www.EWGSI.org, for directions. DO join us for this great September meeting!

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society June Meeting

 Army Medicine during the American Civil War 1861-1865    
Saturday, June 3
Army Medicine during the American Civil War 1861-1865  (EWGS Meetings)
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Spokane Public Library Auditorium, Downtown Spokane
Presenter: Mike Inmann

Mike Inman is a retired Firefighter living in Spokane with his wife MJ and has been reenacting for 26 years.  He does reenacting and living history including the frontier army of the 1880's focusing on Forts Sherman and Spokane as well as portraying a surgeon 1861-1865 with the Washington Civil War Association.  Mike has an extensive library for research to questions and some details of ancestors who fought in the Civil War.  Mike also has a vast array of equipment including original medical instruments that he displays and allows people to handle so they can get a hands on experience, for example, of what an actual Civil War period amputation saw feels like.  He not only reenacts throughout the Pacific Northwest but has attended many Civil War reenactments back east as well as participated in filming for Civil War oriented movies.  Mike strives to educate or as he likes to say, "de-Hollywood the American Civil War" as well as entertain through both a presentation and a question and answer period.

The program is designed to give both military and civilian medical history involving the armies of the Union and Confederacy.  But the presentation can go in any direction the audience wants such as drug use, medical procedures, nursing activity, field hospital organization, statistics, etc.

Go to "Download: Meeting Handout." to obtain the presenter's handout.

Cookies & Social Time: 12:30 PM.  Meeting starts at 1:00 PM
Download: Meeting Handout.

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society May Meeting

Saturday, May 6 They Wore Union Blue  (EWGS Meetings) 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm Spokane Public Library Auditorium, Downtown Spokane Presenter: Gordon Struve from Sons of Veterans of the Civil War   Gordy was initiated as a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) in December 2015. Through has genealogy research since retirement, he has obtained documented proof of his ancestral connection to six Civil War Union veterans; three of which are direct line and three are collateral. He is a Charter Life Member of the Fort Walla Walla Camp No. 3 SUVCW organization headquartered in Kennewick, Washington. This presentation will start with a brief historical review of the Civil War era and the anti-slavery issue that preceded the war. A chronology will take us to the formation of the Grand Army of the Republic which followed the war and then on to the creation of the SUVCW. A description of the modern day SUVCW organization will be presented including its mission to preserve the memory of soldiers who fought in the war and to support education of our school-aged children about elements of the war. The formal presentation will move on to linking with the SUVCW home page and database websites.   Cookies & Social Time: 12:30 PM.  Meeting starts at 1:00 PM Download: Presentation Outline

Dedicating the Stone for Marine George Murphy of the Civil War

Today was the dedication of the monument for Marine George Murphy of the Civil War. If you look close you will see a small square above the eagle, if your smart phone can read this it gives the website for the biography of George Murphy.

This all started about 20 years ago, John Witte did a book on the Civil War Veterans buried in Spokane County, and he tried to find information on all the veterans, but many he did not find. Fast forward to today and the internet provides much more information than was available when John did his book. EWGS wanted to put a list of Civil War veterans online and asked John for permission to use his book. 

Using the internet EWGS member Barbara Brazington found information on Marine George Murphy. John had only found one Marine buried in Spokane and the Marine Corps League had put a monument on the first Marine's grave. The government only authorized 4000 Marines in the Civil War and they had to enlist for 4 years, so it took till 1864 to get the whole 4000.

The ceremony started out with the Marine Color Guard, the National Anthum and the Marine Hymn.

T.J.Morgan of the Marine League was the master of ceremony.

T.J. Morgan introduced Barbara Brazington and she told of the life of George Murphy. George was born in Limerick, Ireland about 1842, came to New York about 1858. He enlisted in the Marine Corps 6 February 1862 and did his basic training in Brooklyn, New York. He was then assigned to the USS Fort Henry a steam driven sidewheeled, ferryboat from New York that had been converted to a gunboat, and was ordered to the west coast of Florida as part of the blockade of the Confederate states.

Here is Barbara Brazington telling the story of her George Murphy.

After the war George moved to California and obtained his citizenship. George opened a stationery store in the Dalles, Oregon and returned to California to marry Isabelle Burns. They then moved to Sprague, Washington where George and his brother-in-law J.J. Burns opened a stationery and sundries store. Unfortunately that store was destroyed in the 1895 fire at Sprague, so George and Isabelle moved to Spokane, Washington. George worked as a clerk for the IXL Clothing Store, became a jailer at the county courthouse, and finally as a constable in  Judge Stocker's court. George collapsed while on the job and was sent to the veterans home at Retsil, Washington where he died about a year later. His body was sent back to Spokane and he is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.  His wife Isabelle (1853-1934) is buried next to him. Those records from Retsil are online today at the Washington State Digital Archives. Barbara wanted to get George a military stone, but the red tape made that impossible so she contacted T.J. Morgan of the Melvin M. Smith Detachment #586 of the Marine Corps League to see if he could get a military stone.

T.J. contacted several monument companies in Spokane and Ron Bohman of Genesis Granite Inc., offered to do a stone for free for George Murphy.

John Witte is gentleman on the left and the three others are Barbara Brazington of EWGS, T.J. Morgan from the Marine Corps League, and Ron Bohman of Genesis Granite Inc.

Our TV station KHQ was there interviewing T.J. Morgan. Lindsey Nadrich was asking T.J. about the dedication of the stone for George Murphy.

Did you know: Spokane County Library Offers Civil War Information?

Marking the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the North Spokane County Library is presenting a long series of free programs pertaining to this topic.  Mark your calendars so as not to miss the remaining programs (the first 3 will be given by Dr. David Conlin, Associate Professor of History, EWU):

Wednesday, Dec 7th, 7:00...... "The Secession Crisis."  Why did Abraham Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 cause the seven Southern states to secede??



Sunday, January 15th,  2:00 .....  "Strategy & Politics in the Civil War."  Dr. Conlon will show how politics on the local, national and international levels influenced strategy for both sides during the Civil War.

Saturday, March 10th,  2:00 ..... "Slavery in the Civil War:  From Contrabands to the 13th Amendment."  How slaves and the institution of slavery played important roles in the politics of the Civil War.

Wednesday, May 16th,  7:00 .....  "The Unending Civil War."  How Americans in the North and the South have been fighting over the Civil War to this day.

Then there will be family events:

Saturday, November 12th, 2:00............  "The Civil War Reenactment Group Presentation." Members of the local Civil War Reenactment Group will come with their gear and their stories.

Wednesday, February 8th, 6:30 .....  "Civil War Genealogy."  Our own Miriam Robbins (a direct descendant of 8 veterans!!) will demonstrate how to find and use a variety of primary documents and online resources to research the lives of your Union and Confederate forebears.

Saturday, April 21, 2:00 .....  "Angus Scott Pipe Band's Kenyon Fields: Civil War Music."  In historic military costume, Kenyon will play Civil War drum and fife music and provide readings from the Civil War.

Now I don't know about you, but these programs sound fabulous to me! And I will be marking my calendar and planning to attend!

Civil War Follow-up for EWGS

On Saturday, Oct 1st, at our annual Fall Workshop, Dr. George Schweitzer came from Tennessee to teach us all about the Civil War............ the causes, the depth of feeling on both the Union and Confederate sides, and then spent an hour teaching us how to research our Civil War ancestors. With this being the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (1861-1865) you will find that EWGS will be offering programs and emphasis on Civil War research.  (And please don't whine that YOU do not have any Civil War ancestors..... help your neighbor! your son-in-law! your cousin! Bet they do.)

Internet Genealogy  magazine for Oct/Nov 2011, page 6, had a nice, concise, blurb about Footnote.com's trasformatio to Fold3.  "Footnote.com, a preer destination for discovering family history records, recently announced it will now focus primarily on offering the finest and most comprehesive collection of U.S. Military records available on the Internet. And why not? The records that they are making available come from our U.S. archives.

Fold3 is a "subsidiary" of Ancestry.com and currently offers a free basic membership...... give them a try! And, by-the-by, the name Fold 3 derives from "the third fold in a traditional military flag folding ceremony.........." 

EWGS/SPL subscribes to Internet Genealogy and you can view this issue in the Genealogy Section of the downtow Spokane Public Library. Go down on a Tuesday whe EWGS helpers are volunteering.

ONE MORE THING:  At the workshop, somebody mentioned this new (new-to-me?) website:
www.civilwarprisons.com . There were some 150,000 Civil War prisons and this website is proposing to find and post names from all of them . Currently, only Andersonville, Cahaba and those from the Sultana Disaster are posted there. But might put this in your list of favorites and check back????

Dr. George Schweitzer coming to teach us about the Civil War on October 1st!!

The above group shows some of the many faces of Dr. George Schweitzer (except for the right hand.... think that is his daughter). This brilliant teacher is coming to EWGS on Saturday, October 1st, to teach us about the causes and reasons for the Civil War and how it really was from the northern and the southern viewpoint. I certainly do hope that you are planning to attend.......... click to the EWGS website (www.ewgsi.org) and access the registration flyer there. See you there!