John Charles Alderson updated 2026

John Charles Alderson was born on January 5, 1845, in England,  the son of English-born William Alderson and Jane Brown.  

John settled in western Michigan by the end of 1863. 

John stood 5’7” tall, with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old farmer living in Berlin (Saranac), Ionia County, Michigan when he enlisted in Company D on January 29, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years. (Company D was composed in large part of men who came from western Ionia County and Eaton County.) John joined the regiment on April 28, 1864, at Brandy Station, Virginia, and was reportedly wounded soon afterwards. In later years John claimed that he had been hit by a rifle butt stock in his left side during an assault on enemy lines at Spotsylvania, Virginia on May 12, 1864. He remained with the regiment and was transferred to Company A, 5th Michigan Infantry upon consolidation of the 3rd and 5th Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana. 

After the war John returned to Michigan.

John (listed as Charles) married Michigan native Ruby N. Johnson  (1856-1894) on April 14, 1873, in Danby, Ionia County, and they had at least five children: Leroy (1875-1948), twins Frederick (1877-1927) and Ruby (born 1877), Frank (born 1879), William Howard (1882-1933), and Nellie (Mrs. Jones). 

John was living in Lansing in 1890 and at 806 Genesee Street West in Lansing when he was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 2556) in Grand Rapids on December 3, 1895. Upon admission to the Home he listed his occupation as sailor and as a single man his nearest relatives as sons William Alderson  of Lansing and Leroy in Jackson, Michigan. 

John was discharged from the Home on January 3, 1896, readmitted on April 4, and discharged on June 8. He was readmitted on January 8, 1900, and discharged April 15. He may have been working as a farm laborer and boarding with the Cheetham family in Sunfield, Eaton County in late June of 1900. John was readmitted on July 27, and discharged on September 10, 1900, admitted on July 14, 1905, listing himself as a widower. (In 1900, his son William was boarding with the Schelhammer family in Lansing.) He was discharged on October 12, admitted on August 4, 1906, listing a son William of Lansing as his nearest relative, and discharged on November 26, 1907. Sometime in 1908 he was living in Lansing, Michigan at 623 Lewis Street, and was under the care of Mrs. Barbara Schelhammer. John was admitted to the Home on March 30, 1908, and listed as a waiter living at the Home in 1910. He was discharged on October 4, 1910, and admitted to the Home for the last time on December 16, 1910, listing a daughter Nellie B. Jones of Charlevoix as his nearest relative. 

John received a veteran’s pension (1883, no. 1,005,251), drawing $16.00 per month. 

John was listed as a widower when he died of organic heart disease on March 22, 1913, at 2:00 p.m. at the Home, and was buried in the Home Cemetery: section 5, row 15, grave 11.