John W. Kellogg

John W. Kellogg was born in 1840, the son of Ann.

There was one Ann Kellogg living in Grand Rapids in 1850.

In any case, John was 21 years old and living in Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. (Company I was made up largely of men from Ottawa County, particularly from the eastern side of the County.)

He reportedly took sick of typhoid fever at Fort Lyon, Virginia, about November 25, 1861, and died at 12:40 p.m. on December 1, 1861. Aaron Camp, also of Company I, wrote home to John’s mother to tell her that he was with John when he died.

I take my pen in hand to perform a sad and painful task and yet one which I feel duty bound to perform.

It is in informing you of the death of your son John who died today at 20 minutes to one o’clock of typhoid fever after an illness of about a week. He was delirious most of the time after he was taken [sick]. Once or twice he called me by name but was gone again before I could talk to him any.

John was a good boy and one that was universally liked in the regiment and a great favorite with the company and my intimate friend and bedfellow. But he has gone and left us to mourn his loss although he past [sic] off very easy & quite [sic] with a groan or struggle but more like one going to sleep & what more is it than taking a sleep from all our earthly cares & troubles. But I have written more of a letter than I intended for I suppose. The officers will take [care?] of the affairs but still I could not help writing to you to be sure that you heard of it as soon as possible and inform you that he had the best of care that could be under the circumstances but to no avail; nothing could save him and he has gone home to heaven I hope.

Curiously, the U.S. Quartermaster General’s “Roll of Honor” lists him as having died on March 7, 1864, and buried in Alexandria National Cemetery: section A grave no. 1424. He is in fact buried in Alexandria.

In any case, there is a memorial to him in Pilgrim Home cemetery in Holland.

In 1870 his mother Ann was living in Chicago, Illinois, when she applied for and received a pension (no. 147336).

John A. Kellogg

John A. Kellogg was born on February 26, 1842, in Ohio, the son of Martin (d. 1909) and probably Eliza (b. 1818).

By 1860 Eliza was listed as the head of the household, and working as a tailoress in Fitchville, Huron County, Ohio. John left Ohio sometime before the war broke out, and immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in western Michigan.

He stood 5’7” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old laborer possibly living in Hastings, Barry County when he enlisted with his parents’ consent in Company E on May 13, 1861. He was a Corporal on duty with the regiment in late May of 1863, and was a Corporal when he reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Cascade, Kent County. John was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.

He was wounded by a gunshot in the left arm on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, and was subsequently sent to Columbian College hospital in Washington, DC. He was transferred on May 15 to Patterson general hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, with a flesh wound below the shoulder caused by a minie ball. According to his hospital Records of May, 1864 he was not married and he listed his nearest relative as one Elisha or Elvira (?) Kellogg, living in Fitchville, Huron County, Ohio.

John was still absent wounded in the hospital when he was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was furloughed from the hospital on October 24, 1864, and returned on November 13, returning to duty on November 29, joining the Fifth Michigan. He was promoted to Sergeant on June 1, 1865, and was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Following the war John returned to Michigan, probably Barry County.

John was married to New York native Jane Amelia Spencer (1849-1936), on January 2, 1866, in Hastings, by Israel Geer, Justice of the Peace, and they had at least five children: Lucy (b. 1867), Lydia (b. 1869), Frederick (b. 1872), Harvey O. (b. 1875) and Rena B. (b. 1881). (Israel had himself served in the Third Michigan during the war.)

By 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and two daughters in Baltimore, Barry County. He was residing in Maple Grove, Barry County in 1883. By 1889 he was living in Fishville, Montcalm County, where he probably remained through 1894. He was living in Stanton, Montcalm County in December of 1898 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association.

John was a member of Grand Army of the Republic Stanton Post No. 37 in Stanton. In 1868 he applied for and received a pension (no. 96,682), drawing $4.00 in 1883 for a wounded left arm and $17 per month by 1908.

John died of apoplexy on January 1, 1909, at his home in Stanton. He was buried in Forest Hill cemetery, Stanton: lot no. 10 (or 2), row 5, grave no. 4, 1st addition.

Two weeks after he died Jane, still living in Michigan, applied for and received a widow’s pension (no. 675137). She was living in Stanton, Montcalm County when she died of influenza in 1936.