Union Civil War Enlistments from Ipava (Fulton ... - Illinois Ancestors

Charles S. Atherton, Henry County, Iowa, 1923:
I know of the claimant as the wife and widow of my late brother, James F.
Atherton. He was the oldest of the family. His full name was James Fletcher
Atherton. He must have been 15 to 18 years older than I. I barely remember him.
He was a big man and I remember his coming home on furlough and I was
somewhat afraid of him. He never came home after the war and I never saw him,
to my recollection, but the time he came home from the army on furlough. We
lived at Ipava, Ill at the time he enlisted but later moved to Bernadotte. Father
and my brother, Finley B., were also in the army but I think not in the same
regiment with James F.
James F. Atherton did not return north after his discharge from army but some of
the family was in correspondence with him all the time. I think he fell in love with
his first wife while he was in the army and when he was discharged he remained
there and married her. I am not sure but I believe her name was Cyntha. . . . He
and Cyntha were married some place in Mississippi. Some place but in what
place I do not know. They had two children, and both the children and Cyntha
died of yellow fever, as he wrote to us. I do not know the name of the place where
they died but part of the time he lived with the first wife he got mail at Jackson,
Miss. I think he did a little farming and preaching, I think a Methodist preacher.
I was in Arkansas from about 1878 to 1880 and during that time I corresponded
with him pretty regularly. Now, I am not sure but Cyntha was the second wife.
He was married twice before he married this claimant. I do not think there was
any child by the second wife. He did not write to me of the death of the second
wife, but he did write of her death to our sister, Martha, now dead. . . . he wrote
to my son Carl Atherton, Mediapolis, Ia., and told of his marriage to this
claimant, Maggie, surname not known. He did write to me that they had a child
that was named for me, Charles. . . . I do remember his writing that the first wife
and the two children died of yellow fever and all were buried in one grave.”
Finley B. Atherton, Van Wert (Decatur) Iowa, 1923:
“James Fletcher Atherton, the soldier in the case, was about four years older
than I. We were both born in Ohio and came to Fulton County, Ill, three miles
and a half from Vermont, when I was 8 years old and we lived in the vicinity, but
closer to Ipava, to the time he enlisted. The fourth day of April, 1861, I took
James F. Atherton to Vermont, Ill. to enlist. He enlisted before there was any
fighting going on. The first time he enlisted for three months, then enlisted for
three years and again re-enlisted and I think he served in the same organization
all the time, but I never saw him after the time I took him to Vermont, Ill as I have
stated to you. I corresponded with him until the time of President Hayes’ election
and then he made me a little “huffy” and I never corresponded with him since but
one time, about 8 years ago when he wrote here and asked me to make out an
affidavit for him and I did so and that is the last I heard from him. He wrote me
from Natchez, Miss. . . .”
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