John Adam Abe.....Family Man - (part 1) 10-018

John Adam Abe

    The war is officially over for John Adam. With his (34)parole from the 11th Virginia Cavalry on April 20, 1865, I'm sure that Adam was like any other soldier and only had thoughts of getting home. It would be familiar and comfortable surroundings. Someplace stable to set his roots back in the ground instead of constantly being on the move and not knowing what the next day would bring or if it would be his last.
     The most likely route for John Adam to take would be to go west from New Market and then north and northwest up the valley to Moorefield and Romney into Short Gap. Just a few days on horseback and he would be home. A good plan, but we all know plans don't always work out as we expect.
     From records found I think we can piece together the most likely scenario of events in his life.
     The first census record for Adam after the war is the (69)1870 Census for Allegany County, MD. Here Adam Abe is married to a woman named Margaret and they have a one year old daughter, "Lacey". Also living in the household is another man Hiram "Folck". Both Adam and Hiram are listed as a "railroad repair hand". The census record is dated July 16, 1870.

John Adam and Margaret (Fulk) Abe

(child is unknown)

     Who was this Margaret? The first record I have found to identify her is her daughter Lacy Ann's death certificate. There it lists her mother as Margaret Fulk, born in Rockingham County, VA.
     Margaret Fulk was the daughter of Isaac and Melvina (Cherryhomes) Fulk. She was born about (78)July 22, 1843 in Rockingham County, Virginia. Her birth was calculated from information found on her her headstone. The (79)1860 Census for Rockingham County, VA says that the family was living in "District 1, Harrisonburg Post Office". Members in this household are Isaac and Melvina along with children, Catherine, Margaret, William, Ellen, Hiram, John and Asher. The (80)1870 Census lists the area as "Brock's Gap Township, Harrisonburg, VA Post Office". Here it lists Isaac, Melvina, John and Samuel. The (81)1880 Census lists the area as "Plains District" with Isaac, Melvina, John R. and Samuel A. living there.
     Central voting places for Brock's Township were at the town of Fulk's Mill and Wittig's Store. They were located on or near both ends of what's known today as Brocks Gap Road. Wittig's Store was located in Dovesville, VA (now known as Bergton, VA).This road was the central passage east and west across the area.
      In the Mineral County Birth Records we find on (82)September 16, 1867 a child, Martha Ellen is born to John Adam and Margaret Abe. In the Mineral County Death Records, this same child dies on (83)May 25, 1868 of "Fits" (seizures). It is uncertain where the child was buried. (UPDATE: This first child is believed buried in the Abe Cemetery where he and his second wife are buried.) Three other known children are born to them; Lacy Ann, Isaac Franklin and Amanda Melvina.
     On April 17, 2010, I made a trip to Rockingham County, Virginia in search of where Margaret was buried. I stopped by the Brock's Gap Heritage Days exhibit at the Fulks Mill Elementary School. From there I was directed to the cemetery a couple miles west. The cemetery sits behind a house along Brock's Gap Road. The (78)Fulk-Fawley Cemetery has many graves marked only by field stones with no markings. There I found Margaret's headstone, the only "original" commercial headstone in the cemetery. The exact location of the grave could not be determined. The headstone and foot stone were broken off and leaning against a tree. The stone read "Margaret G. wife of Adam Abe". This really was the area of Virginia that Margaret was from.
     So how did a man from Mineral County meet up with and marry a woman from Rockingham County Virginia about 75 miles away. Keep in mind this was the middle 1860's where there was limited modes of transportation; horse, stagecoach and railroad.
     I am inclined to believe that John Adam met up with Margaret on the way home from New Market, VA after his (34)release from the Civil War on April 20, 1865. Maybe fate would have it that he stopped off at a farm house the very first night and it just happened to be where Margaret lived. The area he would have traveled would fit, as well as the time period. Brock's Gap Road would be the closest and most likely road to travel to the valley west of the Appalachian Mountains which would lead him north to home in what is now Mineral County, WV. The time period is correct with a window of about eight months between his release from military service and the approximate time of his marriage. This would leave nine months till the birth of their first child, Martha Ellen, if Margaret conceived right away. The window would be smaller if she didn't.  All four known children were born in Mineral County, WV so they either lived in Mineral County or close by. With the (69)1870 Census showing them living in Cumberland, Allegany County, MD it is possible that Margaret could have been taken to the Abe Farm when she neared the time to give birth. The farm was about 9-10 miles away.

Margaret (Fulk) Abe Headstone

(See below for headstone information)

     It hasn't been determined when he started working on the railroad. What's interesting is that Margaret's younger brother Hiram is living with them and working on the railroad in (69)1870. Did he start work on the railroad around the time he married Margaret or did Adam bury the first child in the Rockingham County Cemetery and connect up with Hiram and the railroad then? (UPDATE: This first child is believed buried in the Abe Cemetery where he and his second wife are buried.) If he was always a railroad "repair hand", this would also explain his movement from Rockingham County, VA to Cumberland, MD. He would be following the tracks doing repairs as needed.
     Cousin, Ronald "Shot" Abe, uncovered information in Martinsburg, Berkley, WV that shows John Adam built a very small house there. It is most likely the family only lived here a very short time with all children being born in Mineral County, WV. The marriage record for John Adam and Margaret's daughter, Amanda Melvina, lists her birth place as Berkley County, West Virginia so this would put the family there about 1872.

Martinsburg, WV House

     Almost nothing is known about Adam and Margaret after 1870. The (13)1982 "Abe Family Heritage" says that Margaret died giving birth to their last child. The last recorded child for them was Amanda Melvina, born in 1871. No death record has been found but Margaret's headstone says she died on July 10, 1874. If she did die in childbirth there may now be two children buried with her in Rockingham County, VA. No record of the death of this second child has been found. Maybe because of complications in childbirth, the child was never born.
     (78)Margaret's headstone reads as follows:

Margaret G.
wife of
Adam Abe
daughter of
Isaac Fulk
Died
Aug. 11, 1874
Aged
31 years and 20 days

Footstone: M.G.A.

     After the death of Margaret, Adam is found living in Mineral County, West Virginia.

     .........Parts 2 and 3 to follow..........

John Adam Abe Goes To War 10-017

     It's uncertain if he made it home for Christmas or even for New Years Day but John Adam was a free man again. After nearly 4 months at the Camp Chase Prison Camp I'm sure he wasted little time heading back to the home place. It would be good to settle back in to the regular family routine on the farm. A time to ponder what happened and what was ahead.
     Prisoners were usually transported to the closest point near their home that was accessible by train or boat. With Camp Chase located at Columbus, Ohio it would be pretty easy to put him on a train to Cumberland, MD. Rail traffic went west from Cumberland through southern Ohio to Cincinnati and also north from Cumberland to Pittsburg, PA and then west to around Columbus and then southwest to Cincinnati.
     I wonder what went through his mind when he found out that older brother Philip had enlisted with the Confederate Cavalry. How did his parents and the rest of the family feel about the whole Civil War situation since his arrest? More importantly, what feelings were now bottled up within his own mind?
     We don't know of any events that took place after his release on (73)December 22, 1862 to December 31, 1863 but on (34)January 1, 1864 Adam started the new year off by enlisting in the 11th Virginia Cavalry at Mt. Jackson, VA. He arrived with his own horse and may have been lucky enough to ride him his whole military service. The records listed below don't show him as losing one in battle. This was the same military division that Philip had enlisted in on October 15, 1862.

(34)(11th Virginia Cavalry, 2nd Edition, 1989, by Richard L. Armstrong -

The Virginia Regimental Histories Series lists the following military information)

      John Adam Abee - Pvt., Co. D. b.c. 1845. Prior service, Co. C, 77th Va. Militia. Arrested as a citizen, for aiding the rebels, 8/8/62. Desc. 8/8/62: age 17 1/2, 5’8”, dark comp., dark hair and black eyes, a farmer residing in Hampshire Co., W. Va. Enl. Mt. Jackson, 1/1/64. Had his own Horse. Present 1/1/64-4/30/64. Paroled, New Market, 4/20/65. Desc.: age 20 5’8”, dark comp., dark hair and gray eyes. Brother to Frederick and Michael Abe. NFR. (pg. 117)
     Pvt. Co. D. Correct spelling of name is Abe. b.c. 1845. Age 15, Patterson Depot, Hampshire Co., W. Va. 1860 census. Brother of Philip Abe. (pg. 211)


     He served with the cavalry group until April 20, 1865 when he was paroled at New Market, VA at about the age of about 19 or 20. Now all he had to do was to travel about 75 miles to get back home.

     UPDATE:  (115)New John Adam Abe 11th Va. Cavalry Records and (116) P.O.W. records are now posted for your viewing.  These records add to but do not change anything already published.

John Adam Abe.....Citizen P.O.W. 10-016

     John Adam Abe was the second child born to Nicholas and Lacy Ann (Long) Abe. His birth was about 1844 on the Abe Farm on the Old Furnace Road. No exact date has been found but the (70)1900 Census for Hampshire County, WV lists his birth as December 1944. I'm sure he grew up, as most young men of that time did, working the chores of farm life until the start of the American Civil War.
     The first shots of the Civil War were fired on January 10, 1861 when South Carolinians on Morris Island fired on the Union ship "Star of the West" as it attempted to reinforce Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.
     Adam's brother, Philip, became the first member of the family to enlist on (34)October 15, 1862 at Green Springs, VA at the age of 19 years and 5 months. It is very likely an incident that took place two months prior that had an influence on his decision to do so.
      The circumstances that led up to the incident would be only a matter of speculation so we won't stray too far down that path. On (73)August 8, 1862 Union Soldiers, of the Potomac Home Guard,  stationed in Cumberland, MD, crossed the Potomac River and marched down the Old Furnace Road to the Abe Farm. There they placed John Adam Abe under arrest. Why not Philip, his older brother, or younger brother Frederick? Why not his father Nicholas? Along with Adam Abe, five other persons were taken into custody the same day. They were John Long and his sons Noah and Nelson and also Jerome McKenzie (McKinzie or McKinsey) and his son Jonathan Oliver. Again there are more questions. What could the members of three different families have done to cause their arrest by the military? The only indication of the charges is in (34)"The Virginia Regimental Histories Series" book "11th Virginia Cavalry" 2nd Edition by Richard L. Anderson and published in 1989 which says that he was arrested for "aiding the rebels". It still doesn't specifically say what they did.

     We do know that John Long and his sons were a half uncle and half cousins to Adam Abe. They are children and grandchildren of Adam's maternal grandfather and his first wife. The McKenzie father and son also lived close by at (76)"Dwelling #1449" in the 1850 Census. The Abe Farm was at (3)"Dwelling #1474". The John Long residence was at (77)"Dwelling #1485". It is conceivable to say that whatever took place to cause his arrest that all six of them were there together, maybe in Cumberland, MD. Did they say something against the Union? Were they defending the South? Cumberland was a mixture of sympathizers for both sides but the Union held the city. Did someone else turn them in and if so who was it? More questions for us to ponder.

     (73)No matter what happened six men and boys were taken as Prisoner Of War by the 2nd Regiment, Maryland Infantry, Potomac Home Brigade (stationed at Cumberland, Maryland) and transferred to Wheeling (still VA at this time). From there they were moved to a prison camp in Camp Chase, Ohio. John Adam was transferred there on August 20, 1862 as Prisoner #764. A incarceration record for Camp Chase prison describes him as "Adam Abe, age 17 1/2, 5'8" tall, Black eyes, Dark hair and Dark complexion - A citizen of Hampshire County, VA, Captured on August 8, 1862. Received from Wheeling, VA by order of Major Joseph Darr - Provost Marshal". His release record, dated December 22, 1862 says his condition of release was to take the "Oath of Allegiance" to the Union and report to Major Darr. I guess Major Darr gave him a final set of warnings and what was required of him after release. When he is released, John Adam Abe has spent nearly 5 months as a P.O.W. 

    UPDATE: Newly found (116) John Adam Abe P.O.W. Records are now published for your viewing. See also the post "They Abandoned the 77th Virginia Militia 11-004". This posting gives a little more information on why John Adam was taken as a P.O.W. These records add to but do not change anything already published. 

     UPDATE: A signed (116)statement, by John Adam, on December 23, 1862 states that for his condition of release he would within 15 days of the date, file a $1000.00 bond with the Clerk of Court in Hampshire County, WV. This would have been in Romney, WV. This bond would be the guarantee that he would not fight for the Confederacy during the time of his probation. A large bond like this would most likely have to be backed by the family farm as collateral. This would explain why John Adam waited a whole year before he joined his brother, Philip, in the 11th Virginia Cavalry. If he violated his probation, the family would risk losing the farm. He also, within the 15 day time period, would have to repay the cost of his transportation from the P.O.W. camp in Wheeling, WV to Cumberland, MD.