was born in February of
1822, near New Salem, Ohio in Thorn Township, Perry County.
His Father was George Stinchcomb Jr., born July 14, 1793. The son of George Stinchcomb
Sr., and grandson of William Stinchcomb, who was a lieutenant and paymaster
in the Maryland Militia during the American Revolution. William had four other
brothers who had served in the Continental Army with him. Another older
brother, Norman, had served during the French and Indian War.
His Mother was Ann Wiseman, the daughter of the Rev. John Wiseman and his wife Sarah Green. Rev. John Wiseman as a young man had served his country in the
Continental Line, and Berks Co.,
Pennsylvania Militia during The American Revolutionary War. He served with Gen.
George Washington during the long, cold, and bitter winter at Valley Forge. He also served at
Monmouth, Cherry Valley, Stony Point, and Yorktown. John
Wiseman later became a Methodist Episcopal Minister, and Farmer.
(Wiseman Family
Assoc.)
James’s family lived very close to the County Line, and he was able to roam freely through Walnut Township, in Fairfield County, and Thorn Township in Perry County.
His Grandfather George Stinchcomb Sr., and his Uncles James and John Stinchcomb, His Aunt Catherine, and her Husband, Henry Valentine, all moved to Seneca County when he was six years old, leaving him with only his mother’s Wiseman relatives living all around him. He attended Church at the New Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, where his other Grandfather, the Rev. John Wiseman was a minister. John Wiseman was also a farmer. His Grandfather Wiseman died in 1842 when James was Twenty years old.
James read and studied Law with Philadelph Van Trump, and Henry Stanberry in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, in order to become an Attorney.
On August 10, 1847, James W. Stinchcomb married Sophronia L. Shaw, the daughter of Salmon Shaw, and Minerva Eastman of Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio.
James and Sophronia, have five children born in Lancaster, Ohio, four of which survived to adulthood. William Allen, George Franklin (named for his Father’s brother), Douglas Aaron, Sarah Elizabeth “Lizzie”, and Jennie Stinchcomb. (His daughter Jennie evidently died young, as she is not found in any records after 1865.)
In 1854, he was a citizen of Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio. He had some years previously studied law with Henry Stanberry and Philadelph Van Trump, In 1857 he formed a partnership with R. M. Clarke.
Mr.’s Stinchcomb, Van Trump, and Clarke’s Law Library burned up in a disastrous fire in Lancaster in 1857.
James W. Stinchcomb was Prosecuting Attorney of Fairfield County, Ohio, from 1856 to 1860. James’s brother-in-law, Virgil E. Shaw had been the previous Prosecuting Attorney for Fairfield County from 1854 to 1856, and would become Judge of the Probate Court for Fairfield County.
James was a member of
the of the Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio in 1847.
James’s
Father-in-law, Salmon Shaw, and his brother-in-law, Virgil E. Shaw, were also
members of the F &AM in Lancaster, Ohio. James’s father, George Stinchcomb
Jr. was a member of the New Salem lodge F&AM.
In July,1860, in the Federal Census for Fairfield County, Ohio, James appears to be a prosperous Attorney, living in Lancaster. The value of his real estate is $1000.00, and he is supporting a large household consisting of, His wife Sophronia, five children, Sophronia’s sister Marietta E. Shaw, and a domestic servant named Sallie, age 18.
James and Family are living on Wheeling St. in Lancaster. Their house sits on a lot that was part of his Father-in-law, Salmon Shaw’s property before he died in 1854. Salmon Shaw had bought the property from Joseph Work on April 30, 1827. James and Sophronia pay Seventy eight Dollars to each of Sophronia’s brothers and sisters to obtain a quit-claim deed to the property. In addition James and Sophronia agree to pay Salmon Shaw’s widow Minerva Shaw an annual sum of money (not specified) to obtain her quit-claim on her Dower rights to the property. These quit-claim Deeds are dated March 28, 1857.
James is living next to John M. Connel, who will one day be his Commanding Officer, Colonel John M. Connel of the 17th OVI (Three year enlistment), in which James is the Captain of Company B. John M. Connel is also an Attorney in Lancaster.
James W. Stinchcomb enlisted in Company A, 1st Ohio regiment. When this regiment reached Columbus, Ohio, James and two other men were sent back to Lancaster to help raise the second Lancaster Company to enlist, which became the nucleus of the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment.
James served in the 17th OVI during the war, from April 1861 to August 15, 1861 as Captain of Co. I (Three months enlistment) James participated in the campaign in Western Virginia, first serving as commander of the detachment guarding troop trains, and secondly serving as Commander of garrison at Ravenswood, Virginia from June 29, 1861 to July 13, 1861.
He served From August
16, 1861 to December 15, 1864 as Captain of Co. B, and from December 15, 1863
to May 4, 1864 as Major, in command of the Regiment in the absence of Lt. Col.
Durbin Ward, (Three years enlistment) He participated in the numerous campaigns of
the 17th OVI from April 1861 to May 1864, including the Siege of Corinth, the
Tullahoma campaign, Stone’s River, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, and Chickamauga. James was
wounded at Stone River (see below), and again at Murfreesboro.
War of the Rebellion:
series1, vol20, pt.1, chapter XXXII page 441.
Report of Col. Moses B. Walker, Thirty First Ohio Infantry, commanding First Brigade, Third Division. January 11, 1863;
(exerpt from above
mentioned report)
“About 7:30 in
the evening I was again ordered by Gen. Sheridan to make a reconnaissance in
front. For this purpose I detailed two companies from each of the Ohio
regiments under my command, and placed them under the command of Lieutenant
Colonel Choate of the 38th Ohio, assisted by Lieutenant Col. Davis
of the Eighty-second Indiana volunteers, and Captain Stinchcomb of the
Seventeenth Ohio Volunteers. This force had not advanced above a quarter of a
mile to the front before they were fired upon by the enemy. A brisk skirmish
ensued, which was kept up for about half an hour.”
* nominal list of casualties in this advance reports 11 men wounded, viz: Eighty second Indiana, 4 ; Seventeenth Ohio, 1 ; and Thirty First Ohio, 6.
* Nominal list of casualties in this affair reports Capt. James W. Stinchcomb, Seventeenth Ohio, and Lieut. Thomas B. Hanna and 4 men of the Thirty Eighth Ohio wounded.
Notes for War Duty;
December 25, 1861, Captain Stinchcomb, Company B., made a turkey feast for his company, they had 29 turkeys and 28 Chickens.
July 4, 1862, Captain Stinchcomb, Company B., read the Declaration of Independence, made a speech and treated his Company to Lemonade “with a Fly in it”.
August 30, 1862 The Regimental Brass band was discharged at Winchester, Tennessee today, and Captain Stinchcomb treated his Company, this being the first anniversary of their enlistment.
August 8, 1863, Captains Stinchcomb and Ogden, Lieutenant Thatcher and Sergeants Strode, Bird, Van Horn, Foster, Titler, and Private Call, started for Ohio, to get conscripts to fill our Regiment to the maximum number allowed by law.
April 13, 1864, Major Stinchcomb had been in command of the Regiment until today, when Col. Ward arrived after an absence of over six months, on account of wounds received at Chickamauga.
May 4, 1864, Major Stinchcomb’s resignation as accepted was received today.
May 5, 1864, Major Stinchcomb left for Ohio.
His
service at Chickamauga was mainly in the second line of battle.
After
the Confederate forces had penetrated the Union center, they wheeled right and
hit the First Brigade(Connell’s Brigade) in front, rear, and flank, sending
most of the Brigade reeling back in disorder. At least half of the Brigade,
including Col. Connell was routed, and sent reeling back towards the Rossville
Gap, and Chattanooga. Company B
retreated about two hundred yards, in a compact formation, rallied and
charged upon the advancing Confederates, losing at least half their number in
this futile charge. The Senior Officer, Lt. Col. Durbin Ward pulled his
remaining men back behind the thin Union line, and were consolidated with elements
of the 31st Ohio, under Col. Moses Walker, and the 82nd Indiana, under Col.
Morton C. Hunter, who was placed in temporary command of all three units, with
overall command being by Brig. Gen. John Beaty. This scratch unit was placed in
location upon Hill no. 1, on Horseshoe Ridge, building barricades from rail
fences, and helping to repulse the savage, charges of Confederate General James
Longstreet’s Confederate Brigades upon the thin Union line gathered on
Snodgrass hill, and Horseshoe Ridge.
This
determined and stubborn stand by Union Forces on September 20, 1863, is what
earned Union General, George H. “PAP”Thomas, the sobriquet of “The Rock of
Chickamauga”!
Following the Battle of Chickamauga, Captain
James W. Stinchcomb was named with seven other officers in a report to higher
authority by Brig. Gen. John Beatty. In the Report Gen. Beatty Praises the
officers for their "Higher order of
Heroism", and "For an
exhibition of determined courage Which (I) believe unsurpassed in the history
of the rebellion".
" The
distinguished bravery of Captain J. W. Stinchcomb, of this regiment, and the
leading part he took in rallying on the second line at Chickamauga, are more
fully stated in the sketch of the Thirty-First Ohio. It is enough to say here
that he was not unnoticed by brave old General Thomas, being handsomely
mentioned in his official report of the battle."(A.A.Graham, The History of Fairfield and Perry Counties.)
During the
siege of Chattanooga, the Seventeenth was in several severe skirmishes, and at
Brown's Ferry, it won honor, along with the brigade to which it was attached.
At Mission Ridge, though in
the rear when the battle commenced, it was at the front when the top of the
hill was gained. In this brilliant charge,
the brave and gallant Major Butterfield fell mortally wounded, while leading
the regiment.
(A.A.Graham, The History of Fairfield and
Perry Counties.)
January 1, 1864, the subject of re-enlisting as veterans having been agitated, three hundred and ninety-three members of the Seventeenth agreed to enlist for a second three years term, if it became necessary. January 22 the regiment started home on furlough, and on the 7th of March, returned to the field with over four hundred recruits.
From the History
of the 31st Ohio Volunteer Infantry :
On the second day of
Chickamauga, after the disastrous rout and disorganization of most of the
Federal army, many of the Perry and Fairfield boys, members of the Seventeenth
and Thirty-First, kept together, as well as they could, and when orders were
given by General Thomas, commander of the army of the Cumberland, to which they
belonged, to form a second line of battle, and throw up temporary breast-works,
they joined heartily in the movement.
Captain J. W. Stinchcomb, born and brought
up in Thorn township, Perry county, but
in command of a Fairfield county company, was very active and conspicuous in
the formation of this famous second line of battle. So much so, in fact, that
he is mentioned by General Thomas in the official report of the battle. His
loud hoarse voice was heard above the din, rallying the scattered soldiers, and
his stalwart form almost tottered beneath an incredible load of rails.
A
private soldier of the Thirty-First facetiously remarked that he “never had the
most distant idea how many rails were a load for a man, until he saw ‘Jim’
Stinchcomb in the business at Chickamauga.”
(transcribed by Timothy
Fisher)
He was promoted from Captain to Major on December 15, 1863, and transferred to Field and Staff, not quite three months after the Battle of Chickamauga, and not long after the Battle of Mission Ridge where Maj. Butterfield was killed, creating a vacancy in the Officers ranks.
Major James W. Stinchcomb resigned his Commission on May 2, 1864, He cited his deteriorating health, and his cares and concerns for his family in Ohio. He had been on continuous service for over three years, the privations of being in the field, and exposure from the elements had sapped his health, and weakened his body. Col. Durbin Ward, Commanding the 17th Ohio, wrote an endorsement that Major Stinchcomb’s resignation not be accepted, as he was a superior officer. However, the endorsement of Gen. Absolam Baird expressed the opinion that Major Stinchcomb’s place could be better filled by an ”Officer of the Regular Army”, than by Major Stinchcomb, who was a Volunteer.
After his resignation, James and Family lived in Lancaster (Fairfield county) until 1865 when he sold his house, and then moved to Logan, Ohio (Hocking county). The Deed records of Hocking County show that S. Louisa (Sophronia) Stinchcomb bought lot 205 (lot 9 in the Webster addition) in the town of Logan on November 26,1866 for $922.00 from Meed Bowen, and his wife Lucy. The Bowens personally appeared before Probate Judge Oakley Case to be examined by him on Nov. 26,1866, about their voluntarily signing and sealing the instrument of sale to S. Louisa Stinchcomb.
An interesting Note:
James W. Stinchcomb and Oakley
Case (Probate Judge), together buy lot no. 361 in the Village of Logan from
Lawrence A. and Lucy H. Culver on May 25,1869. (I would presume that this is to open a law office together, or for
speculation purposes.) The cost was three Hundred Dollars, and the deed was
recorded on May 26,1869.
After his Mother died in 1869, he moved his family to Nebraska, first settling in Plattsmouth (Cass county). James worked as an Attorney in Omaha, Nebraska during the early 1870’s as a partner in a practice, which was associated with Daniel Wheeler, a noted Omaha Attorney.
James and Sophronia sold their house and lot in Logan, Hocking County, Ohio to Lewis Green on February 18, 1874, for the sum of Fifteen Hundred Dollars. James and Sophronia personally appeared before Notary Public Lloyd D. Bennett on February 18, 1874, in Cass County, Nebraska to acknowledge the sale instrument, and to guarantee that they were in fact the persons they represented themselves to be. This sale and Identity guarantee instrument was recorded in Hocking County, Ohio on March 2, 1874. James’s daughter, “Lizzie” Stinchcomb signed the document as a witness.
James’s wife Sophronia
(Shaw) Stinchcomb died in Plattsmouth, Nebraska on March 27, 1874, and is
buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska, being buried in the west
half of lot 775.
James relocated to Adams County, Nebraska, filing a homestead in Kennesaw Township on October 6, 1874.
James returned to Ohio in early 1875, and married Amanda Kelly McKee on April 25, 1875 in Morrow County, Ohio. Amanda was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Titus Kelly of Morrow County, Ohio.
Amanda had been previously married to a William McKee,
and had had a daughter by him in 1859, May McKee. Amanda”s marriage in Morrow
County, Ohio to William McKee was
“Hereby dissolved, and wholly set aside”on October 20, 1862, by reason
of desertion on the part of Mr. McKee.
An Affidavit on April 8, 1898, by the Rev. J. Tudor Lewis
states: “I hereby declare that I am personally aquainted with Mrs. Amanda H.
Stinchcomb, and can certify to the fact that from the time of her divorce from
Mr. McKee in 1862 to the time she married Mr. Stinchcomb in 1875, she
contracted no marriage relation with any man. “
On
July 11, 1875, James’s Father, George Stinchcomb died in Perry county, Ohio.
His official cause of Death is “Caught in Rain”. George is 77 years, 11 months,
and 27 days old at his death.
James
inherits one third of his Fathers estate, the other two thirds go to his
sisters Susan H. Stinchcomb, and Elizabeth W. (Stinchcomb) Pugh.
On July 19, 1875, James and Amanda Stinchcomb
convey a power of Attorney to one Reuben Butter in Perry County to sell his
portion of his Fathers estate. The property, (one undivided third of Seventy
eight acres) is sold on July 23, 1875 to Jacob J. Johnson of Perry County by
their attorney in fact, (Reuben Butter) for Seven Hundred and Twenty Five
Dollars. The Deed is received on July 24, 1875, and recorded on July 26, 1875.
A copy of which may be found in the Perry county Deeds book no. 18, pages 395,
and 396.
James
and Amanda Stinchcomb have a son, born July 19, 1878, in Nebraska, James and
Amanda named him James Kelly Stinchcomb.
James worked as a writer, and
sometime editorialist for the Lincoln Journal, and the Juniata Herald, writing
articles, and giving strong opinions when he felt they were needed.
James W. Stinchcomb died on December 18, 1878 from a debilitating Lung disease (Consumption {Tuberculosis}), leaving a wife, four sons, a daughter, and a stepdaughter to mourn his loss. His youngest son was less than a year old at his death. He was buried in the Kennesaw Cemetery in Lot 69, North Block. His Grave is marked only:
J. W. Stinchcomb
17th Ohio Vol. Inf.
Amanda
remarried less than a year after James’s death to a farmer named Oscar Mott.
(She divorced Mr. Mott in Marysville, California in 1893, reverting to her
previous name of Stinchcomb)
She had an eighteen-year-old daughter, an infant son less than a year old, a mortgaged
homestead, and not much money. James had received about Seven Hundred Dollars
as his share of his Father’s Estate in July 1875, but after his death, his wife
had five years to pay off the mortgage on the homestead, which comprised his
entire Estate.
When her son, James K. Stinchcomb came of age, Amanda filed to receive herself the pension that previously had been given to her minor son, James K. Stinchcomb.
The last Pension record we have of Amanda is that she was living in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1908.
She is found on the 1910 census, as a housekeeper in the household of Sallie Burks (age 79), and her son, Bennett Burks (age 60 ). Amanda herself is 70 years old.
In Colburn’s
“History of Perry County, Ohio”, Mr. Colburn states in the Preface that most of
his information about Thorn Township in his book came from Major James W.
Stinchcomb.
James's first
three sons were all members of the Printing/Writing profession. William was an
Editor, and Freelance Writer, George F., and Douglas A. were both members of
the Cincinnati, Ohio, and Typographical Union no.3.
James's youngest son, James Kelly Stinchcomb, became a minister, and worked tirelessly for the Methodist Church in California. His work was with the younger people, who would be the future of the Church. James Kelly's son, grandson, and great grandson were all named;
“James William
Stinchcomb”
John S. Stinchcomb, Feb. 2002