Allow me to introduce my Great GrandFather before we get to "me" = He Played With Younger and James Boys

Played With Younger and James Boys

Wisconsin man, 94, Recalls Thrills of Civil War Days in the border Country.

Marinette, Wis. – the James boys, before the Civil war, were quite respectable citizens, declares Andrew J. Smith, 94-year-old “mayor of Bagley Junction.” Mr. Smith, as a young man, spent many afternoons at pistol practice with the brothers who in later years became notorious out-laws.

Bagley Junction is a hamlet of two or three families about 16 miles west of here, and Mr. Smith has become “mayor” by virtue of being the oldest citizen there. He spends the summers at “the junction” in his small cottage on the Peshtigo river. “The james boys and the Younger brothers, who later became members of the same gang, were excellent shots,” says Mr. Smith. “I often beat them in our pistol practice, though, for I could stack five bullets in the bull’s eye at 15 to 40 yards. “The boys were all right and were law abiding until the war. Then they joined a guerrilla band, which was fighting against the North. What was of the band after the war became a gang of desperadoes.”

A Narrow Escape Mr. Smith lived several years on a little farm about 50 miles west of Hannibal, Mo., when that region was sparsely peopled. The sympathy of the community was overwhelmingly with the Confederacy when the Civil war broke out, and Mr. Smith’s loyalty to the North almost cost him his life at the hands of his neighbors. “I was the only person in the vicinity to refuse to sign the paper that was circulated, declaring allegiance to Gov. Jackson and the state of Missouri, which the governor was trying to throw to the side of the South,” Mr. Smith said. “From the day I refused to sign that paper I knew my life wasn’t safe, or the lives of my wife and baby. For several nights, I slept outside the door of my house with a shotgun and two pistols, determined to shoot as many as possible before they should kill me. “One day I learned that a posse was coming to take me away in the night and hang me. Heavily armed and riding a 2-year-old mule, I left my wife and baby boy, who ws just a year old, and started for Hannibal, where I knew there was a garrison of federal troops. I rode all night and covered nearly 50 miles. Posse of 30 was following me, and shortly after daybreak the road they were on converged with the one I was following. There was a bridge ahead, and they saw me as I rode out into the open to cross the span. The whole troop opened fire, but I was not his. A scouting party of Union soldiers from Hannibal happened to be in the vicinity and hearing the shots rode to the other side of the bridge. They retuned the fire of my pursuers and I was safe.”

Enlisted in Illinois Mr. Smith a few days later crossed the Mississippi into Pike country, Illinois, where he enlisted in the Co. D, 99th Illinois infantry, in which unit he remained throught the war. His regiment, of which he now is the only survivor, was with Gen. Grant all through the Vicksburg siege. Asked if he were wounded in any of his engagements, the aged veteran answered: “only slightly. I was wounded in the leg once, and another time a bullet cut the skin on my cheekbone. I had the breech shot off my gun at Vicksburg, but there were plenty of guns handy that were not in use.” Asked what happened to his wife and baby, Mr. Smith said, “I had given a neighbor $40 to take them over to Illinois. At the risk of being shot to death he smuggled them out of the neighborhood one night.” The son, who for many years was head of a Marinette county institution died about a year ago. Three other children were born to the couple, one of whom is living. Of four born after Mr. Smith’s second marriage, three are living.
Of Quaker ancestry, Mr. Smith is a native of Washington, Pa. For a time he attended a Quaker school. When still in his teens, he obtained work driving a 6-horse team hauling freight from Washington to Pittsburgh. “I worked at that six years, “ Mr. Smith recalls. “Then for three years I drove a stage coach east from Washington to Carlisle over the old National pike and the Williamsport pike. That was before there was a railroad through western Pennsylvania. I remember well when the Pennsylvania line was put through, went through the Johnstown tunnel on the first passenger train that was run over the road.”

To Marinette in ’71. Mr. Smith left Pennsylvania in 1857, going to Illinois. From there he went over into Missouri. He returned to Illinois following the war, and came to Marinette in 1871. Trees four feet in diameter stood in what is now the main part of this city, he says. The village consisted of two or three stores and saloons and a few homes. Fifty-two years ago Mr. Smith took up a homestead near her. The hardships particularly in the winter, were so great that he soon abandoned the farm and again lived in Marinette. For 29 years he was engaged as a lumber cruiser, traveling on foot over northern Wisconsin and Michigan appraising timber. “I can remember spending as much as fours weeks in the woods without seeing a white man, “ the old man recalls. “There were many bears and wolves, and the deer were so thick that one could have killed hundreds of them at certain seasons. This was a wonderful country then.” Although now almost blind, Mr. Smith is remarkably active for one of his years. He walks briskly over paths about his cottage. The rigors of the winters in recent years have driven Mr. Smith and his wife to spend the winter months with a daughter in Manitowoc. But each year, when spring comes, the doughty “mayor” insists o getting back to the north woods and his cottage at Bagley Junction.

Murph Note:

I hope this has given you a starting point regarding my Heritage and it only gets better from this point on.
I'm looking forward to helping grow and promote Steemit and anticipate there are many new friendships
to be made in the very near future.
James Morris Murphy