My Genealogy Hound

JOHN S. HEDGES. This gentleman is a well known business man of the town of Shelton, Buffalo county. He came to Nebraska in July, 1883, and settled at that date in Shelton. He came from Iowa to Nebraska, but Iowa not being his native state, nor yet his native state the one where he was reared, it will be best for the purposes of this sketch to go back at once to the place and time of his birth and bring the record down in chronological order.

John S. Hedges was born in Chemung county, N. Y., April 2, 1839. He comes of New York parentage, his father, Jeremiah Hedges, having been born and reared on Long Island, and his mother, whose maiden name was Martha R. Saunders, having been a native of Steuben county. His father went into western New York when a young man, settled at Elmira, married, and there lived for some years. As soon, however, as his family began to grow up he decided to move West, and in 1847 emigrated to Illinois and settled in Kane county. There he lived till 1864, when he moved to Fairfax, Linn county, Iowa, where he died the following year in the sixty-third year of his age. He was a farmer and led the plain, uneventful life common to his calling. Mr. Hedges’ mother survived her husband some years, dying at her son’s home in Nebraska, December 1, 1888, having attained her seventy-sixth year.

The family to which the subject of this sketch belonged embraced eight children, who reached maturity. These were Laura B., Emma C., John S., Isaac S., Edmund Julius, Charles H., Mary K., and William G. These are all living but Isaac S., who died towards the close of the war from disease contracted in the army, and Edmund Julius, who died March 6, 1866, at the age of twenty-two. The eldest daughter is now Mrs. Laura B. Gibson, of Aurora, Ill.; the next is Mrs. Emma C. Goodell, of Ellsworth, Kans.; Charles H. is a resident of Los Angeles, Cal.; the youngest girl is Mrs. Mary K. Sargent, of Roscoe, Ill., and the last, William G., is a resident of Ainsworth, Nebr.

John S., with whom this article is more immediately concerned, was, as the dates already given will show, only about eight years old when his parents immigrated to Illinois and settled in Kane county. He was reared mainly in the towns of Aurora and Batavia, in that county. The first event of importance in his life, as it was an event of much moment in the lives of thousands of other young men of his age, was his enlistment in the army. He offered himself as a volunteer to the Union army when the first call was made in April, 1861, but was not mustered into service till the August following. He entered Company I, which was made up mainly of volunteers from Kane county. His company reported at once to Chicago for duty, and was placed in the Forty-second regiment of Illinois infantry, then forming to go to the front. From that date his company’s history of course became merged in the history of his regiment, a brief outline of which we will here give to preserve in its appropriate place the facts of Mr. Hedges’ military career. On September 21, 1861, the Forty-second moved to St. Louis, Mo. It took part in various movements in Missouri till February, 1862 , when it was ordered to Fort Holt, Ky.; was subsequently engaged in the operations at Island No. 10; joined Pope’s army April 11; moved to Hamburg, Tenn., April 22; was engaged in the siege of Corinth, also the battle of Farmington, Miss., May 9, losing in the latter engagement two killed, twelve wounded and three missing; was ordered thence by forced marches into Tennessee; was present at the siege of Nashville, and was held in that vicinity for two months during the see-saw campaigns conducted by Buell and Bragg in Kentucky; was then attached to Sheridan’s division; took part in the battle of Stone river, where it lost twenty-two men killed, one hundred and sixteen wounded and eighty-five prisoners; moving thence south it was in the engagement at Chickamauga, where its losses were twenty-eight killed, one hundred and twenty-eight wounded and twenty-eight prisoners. At Missionary Ridge it lost five killed and forty wounded, being on the skirmish line during the entire engagement. After pursuing the enemy to Chickamauga creek it returned and entered the east Tennessee campaign. January 1, 1864, it veteranized and was granted a thirty-day furlough. Returning it entered the Atlanta campaign and was engaged at Rocky Face creek, Resaca, Adairsville, New Hope church. Pine mountain, Kenesaw mountain, Peach Tree creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy station, losing in the campaign twenty killed, eighty-nine wounded and seven prisoners. Being then in the fourth corps it formed part of Thomas’ array and was on the return campaign into Tennessee; took part in the battles at Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, losing in these engagements twenty-six killed, one hundred and six wounded and thirty prisoners. It followed Hood to Decatur, Ala., and was there till April, 1865, when it was ordered into east Tennessee to cut off an anticipated retreat of Lee into that locality, and it was there engaged in that mission when the surrender took place. Returning to Nashville, it was ordered by way of New Orleans to Texas, being stationed at Port Lavaca as an army of occupation until December, 1865, when it was mustered out, left Indianola, arrived at Camp Butler, Springfield, Ill., January 3, 1866, and on the twelfth received final payment and discharge.

This record speaks for itself. Comment is not called for in this place. Mr. Hedges was with his regiment from the beginning to the end of its service, except the thirty days he was home on his veteran furlough, and twenty days when wounded. He participated in all the battles it fought, and helped to win for it the honorable position which it occupies in the annals of the war. He entered the service as a private, was promoted at once to corporal in May, 1862, to sergeant; in October, 1864, to orderly sergeant; in November, 1864, to first lieutenant, and in September, 1865, to captain. At the battle of Chickamauga he was wounded by a gun-shot in the left leg below the knee, but was off duty only thirty days in consequence. This wound gave him trouble during all the following winter, not entirely healing till the next spring.

A man with such a record would naturally continue to feel much interest in military matters, and so Mr. Hedges does. He joined the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1883 and has been an active member since. Besides this he organized a Zouave company at Shelton in 1886, which was re-organized in June, 1887, and made Company A, Second regiment of the Nebraska national guards, of which he was elected captain. August 25, 1887, he was made brigade commissary of the first brigade on General L. W. Colby’s staff, which position he now holds.

Adverting to Mr. Hedges’ business career it may be recorded that when the war was over he went to Fairfax, Linn county, Iowa, whither his people had moved during the war, and there settled, and in October, 1866, engaged in grain, lumber and coal business, which he followed successfully till coming to Nebraska. On locating in Shelton, this state, he embarked in the same line of business, forming a partnership with D. P. Junk, who came with him from Fairfax, Iowa. As this volume is not an advertising medium it will be sufficient to say that the firm of Hedges & Junk is one of the representative business firms of the town of Shelton and that they handle their share of the trade in their line. Mr. Hedges is also a stockholder in and a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Shelton, having helped to organize that bank about a year ago. He has never been an aspirant for public office of any kind and we therefore have no political successes or defeats to record of him. His career has been that of a business man strictly. He takes such interest in public enterprises and matters of general concern as any good citizen might be expected to, working with his own hands when his efforts are needed and giving of his means in proportion to his ability. As evidence of the interest he takes in the welfare of his fellow-men and the practical and commendable turn his charitable impulses take, it may be mentioned that he is a member in good standing in the following fraternities — The Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Modern Woodmen of America and Iowa Legion of Honor.

Mr. Hedges was married in March, 1864, the lady of his choice being a girl with whom he had been almost reared, Miss Lettie M. Hanvey, of Batavia, Ill. Mrs. Hedges was born in Wyoming county, N. Y., and moved to Kane county, Ill., with her uncle, N. Wolcott, when small. This volume is not a work of romance and we can not therefore give way to flights of fancy or indulge the tender feelings, yet the reader who peruses this sketch carefully and notes the fact from the dates above given that the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hedges took place while he was home on his veteran furlough, carrying an ugly wound, will form for himself a mental picture, a wartime etching, which can not but be pleasing to the fancy, albeit the picture may take on something of a sober coloring when he remembers how cruelly short the honeymoon was and the long and weary months that passed before the mated ones were re-united again.