Thomas M. Coombs Diary

Sep 1864 - Aug 1865

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[1864]

Sept.	27	Squire Lucas and Frank Lowe arrived with my release. Took the oath at 4 o'clock P.M., and left on the Water Boat for Wilmington, Del., Thence by train for Phil'd., thence at 11 P.M. train for Pittsburg. Arrived Sep. 28 at 4 P.M.
	29	1 A.M. train for Cinti., O. Left Frank at Centralia, O., going to Chicago. Squire and I arrived in Cinti. 6 P.M.
Oct.	1	Arrived in Georgetown, Cousin Ed's.
	2	At Cousin Ed's, visited by Cousin Eliza Finnell & Mrs. Beaty. Both have sons in the C.S.A. or in Prison. Mrs. Barclay called to see me.
	3	Same.
Tues.
Oct.	4	Lou and John, Squire and Martha came in the buggy from home. Happy meeting with Lou.
	5	Squire and Martha started home in the morning. Lou, Johnnie and I left at 1 P.M. and arrived at Christiansburg at 5 P.M. Met Sister Bee, Put & Jim Wilcoxson.
	7	& 8 At Sister's.
	9	& 10 Same.
	11	Pap, Leslie & Jo came.
	13	Lou, Johnnie, Pap, Leslie & Jo & Self came home in the spring wagon.
	17	Pap and I went to Lawrenceburg.
	18	-21 At home feeding hogs and gathering hickory nuts.
Nov.	18	Leslie received a letter from Tommie Singleton informing us of the death of Uncle Munroe Oakes. (Grandma Oakes died in 1863.) I went to Nicholasville on Monday, Nov. 21st, and met Uncle Tom Oaks with Uncle Uncle Munroe Oakes' will, which was recorded. The will divides all the property equally between Uncle Tom and mother's children. Took Lou and Johnnie to Jessamine with me, and Tommie Singleton came home with us on Wed., Nov. 30, '64.
Dec.	3	Tommie and I went to Jessamine, I to Nicholasville. Telegraphed to O.G. King, Newark, O., that I would come and clerk for him.
	4	Leslie and Julia Hackley came to Uncle Singleton's.
	5	Leslie and I went to Nicholasville to meet Bee or Put. They did not come, and we then went to Uncle Munroe's. I received a telegram from King informing me that my dispatch came too late.
	6	Sale of the property, whole value about $13,500.
	7	Put & I & Leslie came to Pap's.
	8	Put & I came to Christiansburg. Pap brought us to Lawrenceburg in the wagon.
	9	Jim Wilcoxson & I went up to Bagdad to see what detained the train. Guerillas at Lagrange. Cold, snowy day. I fear Lou & Leslie started to Grant.
	10	-12 At Christiansburg.
	13	To Georgetown. Cunningham and I went to Grant in buggy.
	14	To Georgetown with Leslie. Sent him home in buggy and I went in rain to Bee's.
	16	Jim Wilcoxson and I went to Louisville.
	17	-19 In Louisville looking for a situation.
	20	Jim Wilcox[son] came down and I went home with him.
	23	Jim, Put & I went to Louisville & returned. Spent Christmas with Sister Bee.
	29	Went to Louisville, thence by Gen'l. Buell to Cinti., arrived Dec. 30 and went out to Squire's.
1865
Jan.	9	Left Squire's came to Ludlow on horse. Came in buggy with Squire to Western Row ferry to Cinti. street cars, to Broadway. On board the Gen'l. Buell for Louisville.
	10	Arrived at Sister's.
	11	Arrived at Pap's.
	13	Came back to Sister Bee's.
	14	To Shelbyville with Pap, Put & Leslie.
	16	To Nicholasville with Put. Brown Young paid me $600 for each of five heirs — $3000.00.
	17	I staid last night at Uncle Singleton's. Julia Hackley there. Walked to Nicholasville. By rail to Lex. thence to C.B. [Christiansburg]
	18	Jim Wilcox[son] and I went to Louisville. Steamer Gen'l. Buell, Cinti.
	19	Arrived Cin'ti. Walked to Squire's. Squire gone to Grant. Returned in two or three days.
Feb.	1	In Cinti. every day or two looking for a situation.
	6	Answered adv. of Marshall & Bro.
	7	Engaged to Marshall & Bro. at $9.00 for one week. Went out to Squire's and met Frank, Lizzie & Rill.
	8	Came to city in buggy with Squire & Frank.
	8	Commenced clerking for Marshall & Bro. 56 West 5th St., Cinti. $9.00 for first week.
		Commenced board at Montague's, No. 80 W. 7th St., first meal supper, $5 per week.
	11	Saturday. To Covington and home in buggy with Frank and Tom Arthurs.
	13	Monday. All Squire's negroes left last night. Went to Covington with Moxley. Squire found all his negroes except Newt in Covington.
	18	Received of Marshall $18.93 in full. Home with Frank, Lizzie and Ada.
	20	To Cinti. with J.F. Sheriff. Went with him to Pike's Opera.
	21	At night with Sheriff to Palace Garden.
	22	Jo Caldwell and I bound ourselves to quit drink. The first one that takes a drink of intoxicating liquor pays the other a fine pr. boots and Oyster Supper for the house.
	25	Squire met me in Covington with buggy. Went home.
	27	Walked to City.
Mar.	4	Squire left horse for me at Hawkins Stable. Went home.
	6	Rode to toll gate and sent horse back by negro. Walked to city.
	11	Walked out and met negro and horse about Sanford's. Lizzie and Frank moved down to Squire's. Bone felon on finger.
	13	Too sick to do business. Staid at Squire's two weeks.
	27	Came to toll gate on horse, with Frank. Sent horses back. Commenced business again.
Apr.	1	Frank rented a house for us. Cottage between 5th & 6th on Main. Out to Squire's in wagon with Jno. Leathers.
	2	Moved a load of furniture to Covington.
	3	All moved. Squire & Rilla came with us in wagon. Worked all day cleaning house.
	5	-8 Went to store.
July		Salary " " $18 per week.
Aug.	21	At 7 A.M. Daughter born. Present Dr. Henderson & Mrs. Oder.
May		Salary raised to $16 per week.
	26	Left Marshall's to go into business for myself.

Notes:

James Frank Lowe (1828-1890) was Squire Lucas's son-in-law, having married his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, on 16 Jan 1861. Like Squire and Tom, he was in the drygoods trade. He later served as Sheriff of Kenton County. Return.

This time, Tom travelled directly across southern Ohio, on the broad-guage Marietta & Cincinnati RR. Return.

Edward Lucas; see above. Return.

The 1860 Census found Mrs E. C. Finnell and Mrs. S. E. Beaty as close neighbors of Ed Lucas in Georgetown. The Finnell family included a son, Benjamin W., who joined Co A, 9th Cavalry, 27 Aug 1861 and transferred to Co H, 2nd Infantry on 17 Jul 1862. He was captured at a date and place unknown. See AG Report 1: 72; 2: 6. The Beaty (or Beatty) boys, John and George, also served in Co A, 9th Cavalry, and were captured on the Ohio raid. AG Report 2: 6. Eliza Finnell's connection to Tom is unknown. Return.

Mrs. Barclay and her son(s), not otherwise identified, may have been kin to the Singletons, some of whom had married into that family. Several Berkleys are listed in Companies G & H of the 8th Cavalry. AG Report 1: 740, 742. Return.

Christiansburg is a crossroads in northern Shelby County. Return.

Beatrice Coombs (1841-1929) had raised her younger siblings after her mother's death in 1858. She had married Israel Putnam Wilcoxson (1832-1894) in Nov 1860. Return.

James Wilcoxson (1830-1903) was Put's elder brother. Return.

John Leslie Coombs (1848-1891) and Joseph Bontura Coombs (1857-1951), Tom's youngest brothers. Leslie married Lou's younger sister, Queen Victoria Lucas (1847-1912) in 1874. Return.

Lawrenceburg is the County seat of Anderson, about 5 miles from John Coombs' farm on Fox Creek. Return.

Thomasin Ann Singleton (1844- —) the youngest daughter of Tom's aunt Maria and Elijah Singleton. Return.

Monroe Oakes (1825?-1864) had died on the 6th. He was a bachelor who farmed the home place near Keene, west of Nicholasville. He did not long outlive his mother, Katherine Cook Oakes (1773-1863), who had migrated from Virginia half a century before with her husband, Thomas Oakes, Sr. Return.

His elder brother, Thomas Oakes (1818-1883), had moved to Logan County, Kentucky. Their sister Margaret had moved to Ray County, Missouri, in the 1840s with her husband, Philip G. Smith. Margaret may have predeceased her brother. Return.

O. G. King not identified. Return.

Perhaps Tom's second cousin, Julia Ann Hackley, daughter of Darius Hackley and Frances Penny, who had been neighbors of the Coombs family in Anderson County. Return.

Bagdad, a few miles from Christiansburg in Shelby County, was also a stop on the Louisville-Frankfort rail line. Return.

The activities of irregulars, some of whom were by this time indistinguishable from bandits, could still paralyze nervous officials. Return.

Lagrange is a few stops up the line in Oldham County, northwest of Shelby. Return.

In 1870 David Cunningham, a 38-year-old miller, lived with is family a few doors from Tom and Lou in Williamstown. It seems unlikely that he had any connection with Tom's fellow prisoners of war. Return.

A wooden sternwheeler of 515 tons, the General Buell had been built in 1862 at Jeffersonville, Indiana, across from its home port of Louisville. It was lost ten years later. Lytle, 79. Return.

Ludlow a small town on the Ohio, below Covington. Return.

Brown Young (1823- —) was a Jessamine County physician. Perrin, History of Kentucky, Edition 7: 867. Return.

Until after the war, the Kentucky Central Railroad reached only as far as Nicholasville. Later construction finally crossed the Kentucky River at High Bridge and gave Cincinnati a direct line to the South. Return.

The three Marshall brothers, George, T.H., and James, ran a dry goods store in the Queen City. Williams 1861 Directory. Return.

Frank and Elizabeth (Lucas) Lowe. Return.

Her little sister, Prudence Marilla Lucas (1849-1889). She later (1874) married Oscar Barbee. Return.

Thomas Montague's boarding house is listed at that address in Williams' 1866 Directory. Return.

Frank is probably Frank Lowe, though he may be Tom's fellow POW from Fort Delaware, Frank Arthur, in which case Tom Arthur is likely a brother. However, Williams' 1866 Cincinnati Directory does list a Thomas Arthurs, a molder working at 222 E Front Street, but since most of Tom's friends seem to have worn white collars, rather than blue, he was not likely the person cited. Return.

By this time, the "peculiar institution" of slavery was collapsing in Kentucky. Although the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the United States, had been sent by Congress to the States for their approval the first of February, ratification was not completed until December 6, and the enabling legislation did not go into effect until the 18th, a week before Christmas.

It must be noted that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 had no legal effect in Kentucky, since it applied only to states or areas in rebellion, and the Bluegrass State, for all the efforts of Tom and his comrades, had remained officially loyal to the Union. Return.

In 1866 W. A. Moxley was a partner in a livery stable in Covington at the corner of Pike and Russell. Return.

Newt not identified. Return.

Adaline Estella Lucas (1842-1877), Lou's younger sister. In February of 1866 she married James P. Webb (1826- —), a lieutenant in Tom's company, who had been captured on the Great Raid. Like his father-in-law, Squire Lucas, he served as Sheriff of Grant County. A sketch is in Perrin, History, Ed. 7: 907. Return.

Tom's employer in Williamstown before the war. See above. Return.

Pike's Opera was on the south side of 4th street between Vine and Market. Williams 1861 Directory. Return.

The Palace Garden appears in neither the 1861 nor 1866 directories, though a Palace Varieties appears in 1868. Return.

Joseph J. Caldwell, a clerk who lived on West 7th, appears in the 1866 Directory. Return.

The Temperance movement, like other drives to uplift the morality and conduct of weak-willed mankind, had gained adherents during the war. Sometimes entire regiments "took the pledge" en masse. Return.

Probably the stable at the Drovers Inn, operated by William M. Hawkins. See above, 16 Jan 1863. Return.

Sanford's was a way-stop on the Lexington Pike on the outskirts of Covington. Return.

Bone felon, a painful, purulent infection at the end of a finger in the area surrounding the nail. In the days before anitbiotics, even minor infections could be life-threatening. Return.

Frank and Lizzie are listed at that location in the 1866 Directory. Return.

John Leathers (1842-1910) was the son of Capt. John W. Leathers, who had been arrested by Federal authorities for Southern sympathies in 1864. See Leonard Stephens to Williams Stephens, 16 Aug 1864, Stephens Letters, 65. A sketch of the younger Leathers appears in Perrin,History, Ed. 7, 833-834. He had married Kate Rich in October 1863, but they remained on his father's dairy farm. "Capt. Leathers" residence is identified on an 1864 Civil War map, on the Lexington Pike, a quarter mile north of the Five Mile House. Defenses of Cincinnati & Covington, Official Atlas, Plate 103. Return.

Tom had put the war behind him. He wrote not a word on the collapse of the Confederacy, nor of Lee's surrender at Appomatox. Even Lincoln's assassination went unremarked.Return.

The daughter, Mary Lee Coombs (1865-1935) was to marry a cousin, John Lucas. Return.

Dr. William W. Henderson (1822-1881) had an office on Madison between 5th and 6th. He and his first wife, Susan Hockaday Parrish, were living in Crittenden in northern Grant County in 1850, about half way between Williamstown and Covington. She had died in 1864. A sketch of the doctor appears in Armstrong's Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky (Cincinnati: J. M. Armstrong, 1878) 40. Return.

Mrs. Oder might be Margaret, the wife of Reuben Oder, who had a boarding house three blocks up Main from Tom and Lou's, according to the 1866 Directory. As the mother of ten, per the 1870 census, she would have been well-versed in childbirth. Return.

Tom and Lou returned to Williamstown, where the family was found in 1870 and 1880. Return.