My Genealogy Hound

NELSON MOTE, farmer; P. O. Arcanum; the subject of this memoir was born in this township, May 30, 1842, and is a son of Noah and Catherine Mote; his father was the third actual settler in this township. Our subject assisted his father in the duties of the farm till his 17th year, when he began life for himself, and at his country’s call for men to preserve the honor of the flag and save the Union in the impending crisis, he enlisted in Company B of the glorious old 110th O. V. I., Aug. 17, 1862, and went resolutely forth to do whatever his country required of him; he was stationed at Piqua about two months, and then his regiment was sent to Parkersburg, W. Va., in October, where they remained two weeks, thence to Clarksburg, W. Va., where his regiment did camp duty till Christmas, and then did fortification duty till June, 1863, and was then ordered to the front, stationed at Harper’s Ferry; his regiment belonged to the 3d Division of the 3d Army Corps; in the spring, they were transferred to the 6th Army Corps; his regiment participated in the engagement at Winchester, and afterward in the ever-memorable and disastrous battle of the Wilderness, that raged with unabated fury all through the month of May, in 1864; here the regiment lost heavily, but our subject escaped uninjured; the battle of Cold Harbor followed almost immediately, and the old 110th was again plunged into the thickest and hottest of the fight, and came out with thinned ranks, crippled and torn, and only a shadow of its former strength; here our subject received a severe wound in the left hand, entirely losing the forefinger, and shattering the bones in his hand in a terrible manner; this wound incapacitated Mr. Mote from further duty till the 15th of December, when he again joined the regiment at Petersburg, Va., and was engaged in the terrible and destructive battles of that renowned stronghold in March and April of 1864, and on April 2 he received two wounds, one in the breast, and the other behind the left ear, the ball passing clear through his head, and coming out by the side of his nose; he was again taken to the hospital, this time to City Point, and afterward to the hospital in Washington, where he remained till he was honorably discharged from the service, May 19, 1865, having served his country well and faithfully for two years, nine months and two days; he now returned home, completely broken down from wounds, exposure and privations of war, and was unable to do much manual labor, but did all he could. He was united in marriage with Miss Sarah, daughter of George and Mary Hansberger, Aug. 16, 1866; her parents were residents of Darke County; her father was born in Virginia in 1810, her mother was born in Kentucky in 1816, and came to Darke County in 1823; Mr. Hansberger came in 1835; they were married in 1840, and are the parents of six children, of whom three are living. Mr. Mote has filled the office of Supervisor for one term; Mrs. Mote is a member of the Christian Church, and is an exemplary Christian woman.