Jeremiah Andrews Felt
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Jeremiah Andrews Felt | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 2, 1817 |
| Died | February 27, 1906 (aged 88) |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Known for | Public service, family of pioneers |
| Spouse | Adriana Leach |
Jeremiah Andrews Felt (1817-1906) was a school trustee, commissioner of the highways, and farmer in Quincy, Illinois, United States.[1]
Family in military
Jeremiah, a member of the Felt family, was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, in 1817, the second surviving son of pioneer and abolitionist Peter Felt and Polly Mary Fletcher. Both grandfathers served in the American Revolution—Sgt. Peter Felt Sr. and Fifer Ebenezer Fletcher, who wrote a memoir of his injury and captivity at age 16.[2][3]
Jeremiah was named for a brother who died at age two, ten months before his own birth, and whose name honored their great uncle Jeremiah Andrews (1757-1826), who fought at the Siege of Boston, and in actions at Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga and Saratoga.[4]
Military service was never far from Jeremiah: his own eldest son Peter Leach Felt—named for his father and grandfather—died of wounds received in the American Civil War.[5]
Journey west
Young Jeremiah, at age 13, left New Hampshire with his father, mother and siblings—Albert, Adeline, Charlie, and Edward—and came by carriage wagon to Troy, New York, thence canalboat by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, overland by wagon to the Ohio River and then by steamboat to Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, alongside the Mississippi River, arriving in June 1830. His father built a log cabin and was instrumental in founding the first Congregational church in the state.[6][7] Jeremiah would later become a member of the Unitarian church.
In 1838, Felt moved to his father's farm in Warren County, near Galesburg, and hauled wheat in wagons to Chicago. He brought hogs and sold them in Chicago at the market price of 3 cents per pound. The following year, on December 5, 1839, he married Adriana Leach, daughter of Mathias and Lydia (Chandler) Leach and born at Boston in 1819. They had eleven children; nine survived into adulthood.
Civil War
On September 20, 1863, Felt's eldest son, Pvt. Peter Leach Felt, and a member of the 78th Illinois Infantry, was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga (Tennessee). He lay on the battlefield all night. Chickamauga was the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg. On the final day, the 78th Illinois served a vital role as part of Mitchell's Brigade in reinforcing Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas at the height of the Confederate attack and took 40 percent casualties.
The next morning, September 21, Peter was taken prisoner by the rebels and to hospital at Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father, Jeremiah, received word and started for Tennessee in hopes of seeing his son. "He got as far as Nashville (133 miles away) where he was told he could not pass farther." Private Peter Leach Felt died October 9, ten days after his twenty-third birthday, without seeing his father.[8]
