1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 609
He was not so well prepared for the trip as Duluth was 200 years before,
yet he concluded to face the perils. * * * After a perilous * * * trip
he reached his old home.
Jefferson enlisted, and within a year had given up his life, his
wife dying- soon afterwards. However, the little girl, who by the way
was the first white child born within the original village of Duluth,
lived to reach maturity and a happy marital state. Yet, their parents
entered upon their patriotic purpose in '61 with a firm resolution and
devotion to country. Many others left Duluth and the Head of the
Lakes in much the same unostentatious way during the dark years
of the early 'GOs. No draft was demanded of Duluth until the war
was far spent, and then it was disclosed that Duluth had practically
fulfilled her moral liability by the call of the heart. Her sons had
already gone into the thick of the struggle, fearlessly and by their
own election ; they had volunteered, many of them in the first year.
Doras Martin's case is another instance of grim determination
to fight for his country, no matter what obstacles came to prevent it.
He was well over sixty years old, had no money, but he borrowed
$25 to go to St. Paul to enlist. There he was rejected, his gray hair
and whiskers belieing his statement of age. But he dyed his hair, and
crossed into Wisconsin, where he was admitted into the 30th Wisconsin
Regiment as a man of forty years. He served until June 15,
1865, then being discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, for physical
disability.
He returned to Duluth, proud of his military record, and proud
of his uniform, as every war veteran has a right to be. So proud
indeed of it that he had resolved to die in the national uniform.
And as he was then "nearing seventy years," and had many premonitions
of death, he was wont, it is said, to dress often in his
regimentals. One morning, in 1867, he was found motionless, seated
in his chair near the open door of his cottage, in full uniform, even
to his hat. He was dead. But the sturdy old patriot, quadroon
though he was supposed to be, was reverently given the last rites of a
soldier of tlie nation. Dressed in "Blue," the uniform of honor, he
was given full military honors, and buried in Franklin Square, Minnesota
Point. Later his body was removed to the Soldiers' Rest, in
Forest Hill Cemetery, his grave being No. 7, of Tier No. 1.
Judge Carey writes as follows regarding the part taken by
St. Louis County in the Civil war:
In 1861, when the southern states rebelled, and the Civil war in all of
its sad and sorrowful features had become an accomplished fact, the Head of
the Lakes had not recovered from the (money) panic and depression of 1857.
During the summer of 1861, many of those that yet remained departed, some
with the patriotic spirit to enlist in the Union army, some went to St. Paul,
others to their homes in other states, and others to their old homes in Canada
(not being citizens). * * *
In 1860 the total population of St. Louis County was given as 406. * * *
In 1862, the total enrollment of ablebodied men in St. Louis County subject
to draft was only 46. * * * This shows a remarkal)le thinning out in two
years. There was no call for .a draft of recruits for the army until 1864; in
that year there were three calls—on February 1, March 14 and July 2. There
were required from St. Louis County under the three calls a total of 23, and
a total credit of 21, as furnished up to October 31, 1864. * * * Sixteen
were volunteers, and live received bounties of pul)lic money voted by the
county commissioners. During the six months in which those draft calls
were made active steps were taken by interested citizens through the adjutantgeneral
of the state and all other available sources, to obtain credit for all the
volunteers from St. Louis County that had been enlisted since the beginning
of the war, whether they enlisted in Minnesota, or in any other state; and in