“Aunt Becky” Young – Civil War Heroine

“Aunt Becky” Young was well-known during the Civil War and her efforts to take care of soldiers led many of them to have such fond memories that when she died in in 1908 newspapers around the country, including the New York Times, carried the headline “”Aunt Becky” Dies” secure that their readers would know who they meant.

“Aunt Becky” was not her real name. She was born Sarah A. Graham in Ithaca, New York in 1830 and had been married to Abel O. Palmer before the war started, so she was known as Sarah Palmer during the Civil War. She served as a nurse during the war, but she resented being called Mother by the wounded men. One of the soldiers said she looked like his Aunt Becky and she figured that was better than mother and it stuck.

Her first husband, Abel O. Palmer, died early on in the Civil War and shortly thereafter “Aunt Becky” joined the service as an army nurse in 1862. She served in hospitals in Baltimore and Bladensburg and was put in charge of the hospital at Beltville. Later falling the battles, she established and ran an army hospital at Falls Church. She provided nursing service at Fredericksburg, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Chancellorville and Petersburg. She received personal commendations for her work from both General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln.

Aunt Becky reported this story to the Philadelphia Press and it was reprinted in the Jan. 13, 1900 Richmond Planet, now available on the Library of Congress website.

Aunt Becky reported that she had a group of wounded soldiers that she knew would die if she didn’t get them to Washington, D.C., but she couldn’t get exchanges for them that would allow them to travel. “So I went to up to the Quartermaster’s office to make a call and there were a lot of tickets of exchange lying on the desk. I shoved some off with my elbow, and when I got back I found that I had captured 14 of them. Without saying a word to anybody I pinned them on the worst cases and when the sick from other divisions were being carried down to the boats, I had one nurse carry these men down to meet them, and they were safely packed off.”

“Well, the next morning the doctor came around. ‘Where is Brother Jonathan?’ said he, asking for one of the patients.’ ‘Gone to Washington,’ the nurse told him.”

“‘By whose orders?’ he asked.”

“‘Aunt Becky’s,’ they said.”

“Then he came right down to me, and he was furious.”

“‘I’ll discharge you at once,’ he threatened. ‘I’d like to know on whose responsibility you sent those men off.’”

“‘On my own,’ I said, very quietly. ‘They’d have died if they stayed here.’”

“So he went straight to General Grant to complain of me, and he told how I had stolen the tickets for them and all.”

“General Grant laughed and said: ‘I’ve got nothing to say. Aunt Becky out ranks me!’”

“I didn’t get discharged, you may guess, laughed Aunt Becky, as she told this tale. “And listen,” she called, “those men who went to Washington all got well.”

After the War, “Aunt Becky” remarried in 1867 to Mr. D.C. Young and they moved to Des Moines, Iowa. In 1898 when the Spanish-American War broke out, “Aunt Becky” took the head of the Iowa Sanitary Commission for this new war. She served as its President, and chair of the purchasing and forwarding committees. Ten years later Aunt Becky passed away and was survived by her second husband for two more years.

She was laid to rest in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines. The GAR had erected a flag pole by her grave, but it had rusted and been forgotten. Just this year, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War led an effort to get a proper military stone for her grave and to replace the long rusty flagpole. They were dedicated on Veterans Day this year.

Read more about Aunt Becky and her monument here:

http://www.iowacivilwarmonuments.com/cgi-bin/gaarddetails.pl?1248728661~2

Buy a re-print of Aunt Becky’s book about her Civil War experiences here:

http://www.awb.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3943

My Mother’s Favorite Christmas Memory

I’m posting the following in honor of St. Nicholas Day. A local business was having a special that if you wrote up your favorite Christmas memory, you’d get 10 percent off on a special sale. My mother took up the challenge. Here is her most memorable Christmas experience.

My Christmas story starts at a Christmas Eve candle light service. Our minister told a story about how Jesus comes to visit him each year around Christmas and he never knows what form he will take. This year he heard footsteps in the sanctuary and found a man in the church who wanted a ride to Dubuque (a drive of roughly 2 hours one way). The man thought he would be fine if he could get to Dubuque. We all sat there waiting to hear what he did to help the man get to Dubuque thinking he’d given him a ride, called around and found someone headed that way, etc. So our minister came to the climax of the story and what he did to help the man was….tell him he could use the phone and that was it.  We sat there stunned.

After the service, our family often talked about what else the minister could of and should of done, whether it was Jesus or not.  (This was probably the most talked about Xmas Eve service ever.) The next year, at the Xmas Eve Service we waited to hear how Jesus visited him this year. Nothing was said in the sermon. Upon leaving the church we asked our minister how did Jesus visit you this year. He looked at us as if we were clinically insane. Even though we explained, about this sermon last year,  he seemed to have no memory of saying anything about it last year.  We were appalled.

Then several years later, on Christmas Eve we were all sitting around the table in the sunroom when this big black cat came to the door and using its paw, knocked on the door loudly, like a person would knock. I said, I am not taking any chances – it might be Jesus. I fed the cat. The rest of the family thought it was more likely Lucifer since it was black with human characteristics. We have decided you never know what form Jesus will take, and we’re not taking any chances.

Council Bluffs and the Transcontinental Railroad

Gen. Dodge House

When I visited Council Bluffs for the first time I was really surprised by how many railroad connected sites there are around town. Council Bluffs was chosen by Abraham Lincoln himself to be the starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad.

At the top of the city is the General Grenville Dodge House. The house was quite elaborate and  showing how well Dodge did becoming a self-made man with the army, the railroad, and his various investment businesses around town. Dodge first came to Council Bluffs when he was 21 and it was his base of

Dodge in Close Up

operations for the rest of his life. A powerful general in the army during the Civil War, Dodge was chosen as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad. His engineering and leadership skills led him to almost single handily drive the construction of the eastern part of the Transcontinental Railroad. His role was so pivotal that he appears in the famous photo of driving the golden spike. He is just to the right of the center of the photo, reaching across to shake hands. Our tour of his home showed not only the opulence and ingenious up to date devices, but also the hands on programs that they have developed for school groups to give them a better idea of life at the time.

The Grenville Dodge House is located high on a hill in Council Bluffs. It was built in 1869 for a cost of $35,000. It had all the comforts and extravagances that you could get at the time and was designed by William W. Boyington, who also did Terrace Hill (now Iowa’s Governor’s Mansion) and the Gothic Water Tower in Chicago.

Of special interest was the temporary exhibit in the cellar on Lincoln’s connection to Dodge. When Lincoln came through Council Bluffs in the 1850s, Dodge was pointed out to him as the person who knew the most about railroads and Lincoln met him on a hotel porch and drew much information out of him about railroads in general and Transcontinental route in particular. Later, when he was ready to turn his attention to the issue as President, Lincoln remembered Dodge and called him to the White House for his input. This year is the Lincoln Bicentennial and we came across several special exhibits about Lincoln’s connection to Council Bluffs in this Lincoln Bicentennial Year.

Union Pacific Repair Center

Union Pacific Car Interior

The class I took this summer got to visit the Union Pacific Repair Center where we got the great experience to tour the VIP Coaches. These are classic coaches that have been restored and redesigned inside and out. These are gorgeous cars given incredible care. They can go up to 110 miles per hour. Their major competitor in Canada has cars that are restored inside, but can only go 30 miles an hour because they aren’t as solidly restored mechanically.

These special cars are for the use of Union Pacific executives and for special events. For example, they used these trains to create a temporary hotel for V.I.P.s at the Olympics in Salt Lake City (they built a temporary siding in a parking lot to park the train in) and to

Observation Car

create a special train ride for former President Bush’s 80^th birthday celebration. The cars are not available for rent, but are used as perks for Union Pacific executives and customers. My favorites were the car with a glass end and theater seats to watch the line and the other observation cars. If only all rail travel was like this.

Fairview Cemetery

Dodge Angel Statue

The next sites were close together near the Fairview Cemetery on Lafayette and North Second Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is the same cemetery that has Amelia Bloomer’s grave. When she was starting to enter her final decline, Ruth Ann Dodge (Mrs. Grenville) had a vision of an angel offering her the elixir of life.  After her death, her daughters commissioned Daniel Chester French (of Lincoln Memorial fame) to create a statue of a black angel in honor of the vision. It was put on one edge of Fairview Cemetery, although Mrs. Dodge was interned in a different cemetery. (Why they didn’t put it near her grave? I have no idea.)

Just past the other end of the cemetery, near a striking overlook is the large stone that is Lincoln’s Council Bluffs memorial.

Council Bluffs Lincoln Memorial

The marker is to memorialize all of Abraham Lincoln’s various connections with the city and the railroad. The area around it has be re-done several times and at some point an eternal flame, whose shaft is still part of the site, was allowed to go out. That’s always a sad thought. People are always so proud to start those eternal flames, but just how eternal are they?

Update on Wind Turbines

After my last post about the wind turbines (or Giant Windmills), I was shown  this page which shows photos of a tour of the wind turbine factory here in Cedar Rapids that Kirkwood’s Ecology Committee took. I agree they give you a better perspective on the size of these giants. Take a look for yourself and thanks to Genny Yarne who took and posted the photos.

http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=23490

Black Squirrels

Black Squirrel of Council Bluffs

One of my favorite stops in Council Bluffs was the recently redone Bayliss Park. Bayliss Park is surrounded by Railroad sites and businesses that used to do business with the railroad. The official Union Pacific Museum is housed in the former Carnegie Library Building which runs along one side of the park. This Union Pacific Museum  is the most interesting railroad site today.

Council Bluffs is known for its famous black squirrels. I’ve included a photo of the real thing and the giant statues of black squirrels that surround the fountain in Bayliss Park.

Black Squirrel Statues

Hitchcock House and the UGRR

Hitchcock House

Another stop with the class I took this summer was the Hitchcock House, one of the most heavily promoted Underground Railroad sites in Iowa. It was the home of abolitionist and friend of John Brown, Rev. George Hitchcock. It’s located outside Lewis, Iowa and was the next major stop on the UGRR after Tabor, IA. The house was made of native sandstone walls. It had been in bad shape before it was restored. In the cellar is a fireplace that John Brown is known to have preached in front of and one of the best

John Brown Preached Here

documented actual secret rooms in the state. It was near many draws going to the river and provided both secret routes to get in and out and clear views from the house looking out over the rise. As a museum, unfortunately, they are on the Quilt Code bandwagon which makes you doubt the historical rigor applied to the research behind a lot of what they say, but the John Brown connection is solid and as secret rooms go this one is an actual room and they have oral histories from people who lived in the house while it was occupied describing how it was hidden.

http://www.hitchcockhouse.org

Giant Golden Spike

Giant Golden Spike

The popular culture interest in the Union Pacific probably hit its peak in 1939 when the movie Union Pacific came out, starring Barbara Stanwyck.  Paramount Studios decided to get extra publicity by hosting events in Omaha as part of the national premier celebration of the movie. These events were all held in Omaha. Council Bluffs resented this as THEY were the official starting place of the Transcontinental Railroad so they set out to grab an event and some publicity of their own. Quickly they put together a giant cement golden spike and brought the stars of the movie over in a special train to dedicate it. It is still there in a small park today right by the track and regularly re-painted gold. It’s interesting what giant cement statues people have created across the country. Here’s another one to add to the list.

Durham Western Heritage Museum

Durham Western Museum

Durham Western Heritage Museum is in the restored Union station in Omaha, Nebraska directly across from Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was unique as a train station because it was opened in 1931 and was done in an art deco style inside and out. The peak years of use were between 1942 and 1945 when 10,000 passengers went through the building a year. By the 1960s, passenger service was down to one train a day. The final passenger train went through on April 30, 1971 and at that point Union Pacific wanted to tear the station down, but a groundswell of local support saved the building and turned it into a museum.

Statue in Main Hall of Durham Western Museum

The main floor is restored as closely as possible to the original design and layout and still be functional as a museum. Of special interest are the cast figures who represent travelers scattered around the main floor AND the working soda fountain. I love cherry phosphates.

Cherry Phosphate at Soda Fountain

The bottom floor had displays on the history of Union Pacific, the history of the Omaha World’s Fair, and other parts of Omaha life. I really think this was about the best museum we went to during my class. I highly recommend it both as a great example of art deco architecture and as a museum.

http://www.durhammuseum.org