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CIVIL WAR PENSION EXTRACT

 

Thomas Councilor

Private
Company C
2nd Michigan Infantry



IMAGES FROM SERVICE RECORD contributed by Mark Councilor: "Thomas was my Grandfather's Great Uncle."

ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM THE PENSION RECORDS:

Pension #MC 93-719

Thomas Councilor:    
  Enrolled: 24 Mar 1864
  Mustered-in: 14 Apr 1864
  Killed in action: 17 Jun 1864, Petersburg, VA.
  Date of birth: [not given]
  Place of birth: [not given]
  Date of death: 17 Jun 1864
  Place of death: Petersburg, VA
  Married first to: Never married.
  No children  

Among the affiants / witnesses for Thomas' mother Rebecca: (none with apparent connections to Mitsawokett-related families).

OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE:

Mother/claimant's residences as noted in the pension records
:
Fulton, Gratiot Co, MI (as of 20 Dec 1866).
Fulton, Gratiot Co, MI (as of 12 Apr 1867).
Springbrook, Gratiot Co, MI (as of some point after 20 Apr 1867).

Thomas' father Elisha's death date is given as 12 March 1864, in Fulton, Gratiot Co, MI.

Thomas' parents' marriage date is given as 09 Feb 1842, in Kent Co, DE.

Thomas' mother Rebecca is noted as being aged 40 as of 20 Dec 1866.


OTHER ITEMS PERTAINING TO THOMAS COUNCILOR, NOT FROM THE PENSION RECORDS:

Per Joseph Romeo's website:

Thomas is listed as age 3 in the 1850 census, Dover Hundred, Kent Co, DE, making him b. ca. 1847.
Thomas is listed as age 11 in the 1860 census, Van Buren Twp, Wayne Co, MI, making him b. ca. 1849.

Per Chuck Councellor as relayed through Donald Fisher:

Thomas was born 04 Sep 1847 and died 17 Jun 1864.

A brief history of Thomas' regiment, as shared by Donald Fisher: http://www.hardylaw.net/2d_27th_Mich_Inf

Another regimental history, from a site shared by Donald Fisher: http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmiinf1.htm#2nd

A roster of men in Company C of the 2nd Michigan Infantry, showing Thomas "Councilor or Counsellor"


On the official National Park Service's "Soldiers and Sailors" website, Thomas is noted as having an alternate name of "Thomas S. Councilor," thus giving a middle initial.

To go to the "Soldiers and Sailors" website, go to the following site, and in the boxes select or type "Union," "Michigan," unit number "2" and function "Infantry." Then click on the 2nd Regiment Michigan Infantry. Then, scroll down to the bottom for the links to the specific soldiers: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/regiments.cfm


QUERY ITEMS:

1. It is suspected that Thomas' mother, Rebecca Dean Councilor, was the daughter of William Dean and Mary Ann Cork. Does anyone have any records to substantiate this?

(Here is an excerpt from an email from Donald Fisher detailing the circumstantial evidence):

"We cannot find absolute identification of Rebecca Dean's family. We have pretty fair circumstantials, but no smoking gun.

Main problem: she got married before 1850 in Delaware and no documentation mentioning her parents has been handed down through the family. The thinking is that she was the daughter of William Dean and Mary Ann Cork. She fits into the 1830 and 1840 census numbers for William where no other known daughter would be. Rebecca fits nicely between sons James (m Angelica) and Wilson (m Nancy A Perkins).

William and Mary Ann moved to Michigan at the same time as Elisha and Rebecca. After going to Gratiot Co., Rebecca certainly maintained contact with the folks still in Wayne County, and after she had been widowed, she herself returned to Wayne Co. to marry widower Mitchell Perkins (my g-g-grandfather). None of her own children were in Wayne Co., but her presumed parents and siblings were still in Wayne Co.

The marriage to Mitchell was a late-in-life thing for both of them, no children, but Rebecca is buried with Mitchell in Wayne Co., not up in Gratiot Co. where her first husband was buried and where some of her children were when she died. Mitchell, first wife Sally ("mother"), and Rebecca ("wife") all share the same headstone.

"The connections to Mitchell Perkins are also suggestive. Assuming Rebecca's connection to William and Mary Ann, her brother Wilson was Mitchell's son-in-law and two of her sisters, Mary Ann and Sarah, were his daughters-in-law. It's not a far stretch to assume that these family connections are what helped to bring Mitchell and Rebecca together after their first spouses had died. The connection wasn't made by proximity, with Rebecca about 125 miles away from Mitchell in 1870. If Rebecca wasn't related to these Deans, there's no reasonable explanation for her leaving her family to return to this exact same spot in Wayne Co prior to marrying Mitchell. Her siblings and his kids probably encouraged them.

Both William and Mary Ann were still alive at the time of Rebecca's wedding to Mitchell in 1872. Both Mitchell and Rebecca still had children at home when they married. Later (1876), Rebecca's daughter Rebecca Ann married Mitchell's son Peter. For a while, the two of them had lived as step-siblings in the same household, and then they married."


2. A couple of people seem to show Thomas as being killed on 18 Jun 1864 rather than 17 Jun 1864. What is the source of the June 18th date? All of the documents in the pension records I received from the National Archives show him as dying on 17 Jun 1864.

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To view some of the other
Civil War pension extractions, as well as an explanatory note, please see the following page of the Mitsawokett site:


http://www.mitsawokett.com/MilitaryService/DelmarvaAreaCivilWarPensions.htm

(Once on the page, scroll down below the Index to see the Overview).

Please let me know if anyone has any questions: John C. Carter


 

 

 

 

 

MITSAWOKETT

"The History and Genealogy of the
Native American Isolate Communities
of Kent County, Delaware, and
Surrounding Areas on the Delmarva Peninsula
and Southern New Jersey"

 

 


Copyright 1997-

All rights reserved.
Not to be used for commercial purposes.

 
 

 

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