John Howe Hayes is one of about 50 Civil War veterans buried in the GAR Circle at Oakland Cemetery.

Whenever I’ve written about a specific Civil War company, I like to go down the muster rolls and learn what I can about some of the individual men that made up that company.

With Baldwin’s Company, there are between 80 and 85 men who served as privates in the company. Their nine months of service wouldn’t have been particularly exciting, unless you can find excitement in basic garrison duty in Washington and Harrisburg.

For some of the men, this probably represented an expedition and adventure unlike any other they would experience in their lives.

For many, it was also clearly a highlight of their life as evidenced by what they had put on their gravestones.

Over 2,000 men from Warren County (when the population was less than 20,000) joined up at some capacity and many of those men went on to live perfectly normal lives. That means, unfortunately, that there’s not a lot out there to go on.

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton Bradford Darling served in Baldwin’s Company and lived in Warren after his service. He was once cited for transporting too much nitroglycerin - a highly explosive substance - through the city.

But here’s what I’ve found for six of those men.

JOHN A. AKINS

Like many of the men in Baldwin’s Company, their service with Baldwin wasn’t the only time they donned a blue uniform.

Akins shows up in a cavalry outfit and it’s that unit that made the cut for his gravestone at Youngsville Cemetery.

One account notes that after the war he owned a 150-acre homestead while newspaper accounts note that he once led what we now know as the Rouse Home and contemplated a run for county commissioner.

John A. Akins’ grave at Youngsville Cemetery.

From the Warren Mail on May 11, 1887: Sometime ago Mr. Samuel Garfield resigned his position as Superintendent of the Rouse Hospital to accept the position of Steward at the North Warren Asylum. There has been several applicants for the position vacated by Mr. Garfield and Monday the matter was settled by the appointment of John Akin, of Brokenstraw tp., to the Superintendency. Mr. Akin is a gentleman who is well spoke of by all who know him and is well qualified for the place. He was much talked of a short time ago as a candidate for County Commissioner on the Republican side but withdrew in favor of John A. Spetz. We congratulate Mr. Akin on his appointment to so responsible an office.”

He died in Nov. 1916 and the Warren Evening Times reported that the “church was thronged with friends who came to pay their last respects to the man they loved so well. Floral tributes were displayed in profusion.”

A Rev. J.A. Lyons officiated “and paid deserved compliment to the memory of his subject.”

BRADFORD

DARLING

So I was able to find an obituary (dated Feb. 25, 1909) that says Darling lived in “North Clarendon” and died at the age of 58. Like Akins, he also re-enlisted and served in the 121st Pennsylvania or the 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry depending on the source.

An 1864 nugget listed local soldiers sick and in hospital and he’s listed there among a group of six from Co. K., 12th Pa.

RADFORD

UNIVERSITY

Before I share my favorite article that I found about any of these men, I need to do a little explaining about how oil wells worked in the 1800s.

When an oil well “becomes sluggish,” according to information from Radford University, “the well is often ‘snot.’ By this term is meant the discharging of a blast of nitroglycerin in the bottom of the well.”

While nitro has practical applications these days for cardiac treatment, liquid nitroglycerin is highly unstable.

That brings us to the June 5, 1895, Warren Mail’s headline “MUST STOP.”

“Burgess Wiggins is determined to ‘go for’ the dare-devils who haul glycerine through the streets of Warren and to stop the dangerous business if possible,” the Mail reported. “To this end he has brought suit for violating a borough ordinance against L.K. Green, the driver arrested by officer Seafert, one night over a week ago, and also against Bradford Darling, Ed. Francis and Warner Rowley engaged in the same business, the trial to take place today… before Justice Perry.”

The risk was known to the community but the evident economic prospects didn’t slow down the transport.

The Mail understood the risk, too: “They usually haul 720 quarts of the blow-up stuff in a load, enough to send part of Warren into the next world very easily.”

JOHN HOWE HAYES

I don’t know much about Hayes, other than he died in his mid-80s in 1914.

He is buried at the GAR Circle at Oakland Cemetery along with about 50 of his fellow Civil War veterans. The fact that those men chose (or their families chose) to be buried there – rather than with family – speaks, in my mind, to the significance that they attached to their service.

JAMES HENRY

LOBDELL

Dates stood out here. Baldwin’s Company was mustered out on June 5, 1863 and Lobdell died the next day. He was in his early 20s and is buried at Sanford Cemetery.

AMOS PECK

Newspaper articles on Peck give us several examples of 19th century writing with flourish.

Peck returned home after his service with Baldwin and was drafted again in March 1865. The war ended just weeks later and it doesn’t appear that he re-entered the service.

Peck shows up in the papers of the local pages often – traveling for businesses (even if just from Chandlers Valley to Irvine) or for the social calls that he and his wife made on the weekend. Significant column inches were dedicated to such things in those days.

This claim also made the paper: “Amos Peck of Chandler’s Valley, has, what is to him a very valuable relic. It is a clock which he claims is over 100 years old, every part.”

He died in Dec. 1918.

“The death of Amos Peck, aged 75 years, occurred this morning at the family home on Jackson Run. Mr. Peck, an honored soldier of the Civil War, has answered the last call for ‘taps,'” one account explained. From another: “Another G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic, the largest post-war veteran’s social club) man has answered his last roll call.”

ERASTUS WHALEY

He went on to enter the clergy and lived near East Branch.

According to a Venango newspaper article published after he died, the Rev. Whatley “was well and favorably known in this vicinity and has been a sufferer for several months before death claimed him.”