GenealogyBuff.com - making genealogy simpler; a free genealogy surname research tool that reaches for data from all over.

Articles and Clippings of History from
the State of Arizona

First Name:
Last Name:


NEW!!! Arizona, U.S., Obituary Index to Arizona Newspapers, 1993-1994
NEW!!! Mesa City, Arizona, U.S., Cemetery Records, 1885-1960
WeddingNoticeArchive.com - Arizona Anniversaries

[ Return to Index ] [ Read Prev Msg ]

State of Arizona Articles of History

GenealogyBuff.com - 88-year-old Casa Grande woman recalls life of Civil War veteran dad

Posted By: GenealogyBuff.com
Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2019, at 1:29 p.m.

Arizona School Yearbooks by County

88-year-old Casa Grande woman recalls life of Civil War veteran dad

• The Casa Grande resident’s father fought in the war that ended 132 years ago.

Not many people living today can say their father fought in the Civil War, which ended 132 years ago.

Effie Turner of Casa Grande can.

Turner, 88, is the daughter of Thomas Wood Machen, who was a soldier in the Confederate Army of Alabama.

She was a child of his second marriage, born May 1, 1909, in Arkansas when Machen was 76.

Her mother, Blanche Wilson Lockett, was a 34-year-old widow with one daughter when she married the 71-year-old Machen in 1904. The marriage license said he was 57, but that may have been a clerical error.

Machen died at 87 on Nov. 7, 1920, when Turner was 11.

She doesn’t remember him telling stories about his Civil War service – only that he was a kind and religious man. After all, the War Between the States ended 44 years before Turner was born.

”He and my mother didn’t just send their kids to church, they took us,” Turner said.

Machen was born March 16, 1833, in Cherokee County, Ala. He grew up as a farmer and joined the Confederate Army in 1862 at age 29.

Life was hard. Confederate soldiers on the march had little to eat, so when they did get a scrap of food they tried to keep it a secret.

”They just didn’t have any food, they were so hungry,” said Nadine Hackler, Turner’s daughter, who lives across the street from her. ”He (Machen) had a meat skin (bacon rind) in his knapsack he was hoarding. One night someone stole it.”

As a member of Company G of the 31st Alabama Infantry, he was captured May 19, 1863, by the Union Army after the Battle of Big Black in Tennessee.

He was imprisoned at Memphis but was part of a prisoner of war exchange in August 1863 and rejoined his company. He was captured again Nov. 25, 1863, at Missionary Ridge.

Missionary Ridge was part of the Battle of Chattanooga, which raged from Nov. 23-25. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant commanded 60,000 Union troops against 40,000 Confederate troops led by Gen. Braxton Bragg.

In December 1863, Machen was taken to a prison camp at Rock Island, Ill.

By September 1864, the Union had moved most of its frontier troops eastward, leaving its position in the West vulnerable to Sioux Indian attacks.

Machen was one of 6,000 Confederate soldiers at crowded Union prisons who were promised their freedom if they would serve on the frontier. They would not be ordered to fight Confederate troops.

The ”Galvanized Yankees,” as they were nicknamed, delivered mail, restored downed telegraph lines, manned Union forts, protected stagecoach routes and fought the Sioux.

Machen served the Union Army in Kansas before being discharged at Fort Leavenworth in November 1865. He was given transportation to Selma, Ala., where he resumed his life as a farmer.

Machen later moved to Texas, then to Arkansas. His first wife, Leticia, died in 1894.

Despite their 37-year age difference, Blanche Lockett decided to marry the long-widowed Machen a decade later. He and Leticia had had four children, and their grandchildren were already grown by the time he married Blanche.

The Machens settled in Mt. Holly, Ark. Their first child was stillborn in 1905. A son, Custer, was born in 1907, and Effie arrived two years later.

By the 1890s, Machen tried to obtain a Union Army pension.

”There was a lot of the correspondence with the War Department,” Hackler said. ”His letters said that when he went into the army he was a healthy, fit man, but since he’s been home (from the war) he has not been able to do a good day’s work.”

He was awarded a pension of $28 per month in 1912, but he applied for more. After he died in 1920, the government raised the sum to $30 per month for his widow, plus $6 apiece for Custer and Effie until they turned 16.

That doesn’t sound like much money by today’s standards, but in pre-Depression Arkansas it was enough to sustain a family, Hackler said.

In 1923, Effie, 14, married A.L. ”Buck” Turner, who was 23.

”Granny was this widow with two kids, and Daddy started courting Mama and wanted to marry her, and Granny agreed,” Hackler said, noting that women of that era often married in their early teens.

They settled in Prescott, Ark., which is near President Clinton’s hometown of Hope.

In 1938, the Turners moved to Casa Grande. Buck Turner, a carpenter and contractor, built their house in the southern part of town in 1946. Buck died in 1976, but Effie still lives there.

”This was all desert here (in 1946),” Hackler said. ”Only this little house was here.”

The couple raised four children in the house. Hackler said Machen has two more descendants still living in Arkansas, Custer’s twins – Benny of Mt. Holly and Betty of Little Rock.

”When I say my grandfather was a Civil War veteran, (people) say, ‘No, he couldn’t be,’ ” Hackler said.

”Yes, he was, because he was 76 when Mama was born,” she said. ”He was 72 when their first child was stillborn. And then 74 when my uncle Custer was born.

”So I don’t think that war disabled him too much,” she said. ”I mean, not totally disabled.”

Obituaries in Arizona Newspapers

[ Return to Index ] [ Read Prev Msg ]

State of Arizona Articles of History is maintained by GenealogyBuff with WebBBS 5.12.

Records Search | PublicData.com
Find Records From Across The USA For Just Pennies A Search! Search NOW!

GenealogyBank.com - latest additions!

US Federal 1940 Census Search (FREE)

MyHeritage.com Hacks (No, really...lol!)

5 Basic Strategies for searching Newspapers.com

The 1950 Federal Census release!

Ancestry HACKS

Births, Deaths, Marriages

Military Records

Census / Voter Lists

Immigration Research

Colorize or Animate Photos

SEARCH VARIOUS VITAL RECORDS:

Death Records

Cemetery Records

Obituary Records

Marriage Records

Birth Records

Divorce Records

Vital Records

  Discover you family history through historical newspapers at Newspapers.com

The Newspaper Library

Show ALL Obituary Collections

User-Contributed Genealogy Data Forum

User-Contributed Obituary Forum

Library of Genealogy Files

United States Newspaper Directory

United States Counties

United States Cities

USA NEWSPAPER
ARCHIVES

Alabama Newspapers
Alaska Newspapers
Arizona Newspapers
Arkansas Newspapers
California Newspapers
Colorado Newspapers
Connecticut Newspapers
Delaware Newspapers
Florida Newspapers
Georgia Newspapers
Idaho Newspapers
Illinois Newspapers
Indiana Newspapers
Iowa Newspapers
Kansas Newspapers
Kentucky Newspapers
Louisiana Newspapers
Maine Newspapers
Maryland Newspapers
Massachusetts Newspapers
Michigan Newspapers
Minnesota Newspapers
Missouri Newspapers
Montana Newspapers
Nebraska Newspapers
Nevada Newspapers
New Hampshire Newspapers
New Jersey Newspapers
New Mexico Newspapers
New York Newspapers
North Carolina Newspapers
North Dakota Newspapers
Ohio Newspapers
Oklahoma Newspapers
Oregon Newspapers
Pennsylvania Newspapers
Rhode Island Newspapers
South Carolina Newspapers
South Dakota Newspapers
Tennessee Newspapers
Texas Newspapers
Utah Newspapers
Vermont Newspapers
Virginia Newspapers
Washington Newspapers
West Virginia Newspapers
Wyoming Newspapers

This website may earn a commission when buying items through keyword links on this page.


CanadianObits.com - GenLookups.com
Marriage Search Engines - WeddingNoticeArchive.com - HonorStudentsArchive.com

Return to Main Page
Copyright © 2004-2024 All Rights Reserved - Bill Cribbs, CrippleCrab Creations