HomeMy WebLinkAboutpieces of the past carol kammen article (4)Pieces of the Past: Ithaca's 'Aunt Becky' cared for Civil War wounded
November 6, 2009, 6:15 pm
Pieces of the Past appears every other Saturday. Carol Kammen is the Tompkins County historian and the author of several books on local history, most recently "Ithaca: A Brief History,"
published by The History Press.
On Nov. 11, Veterans Day, members of Company A of the 49th Iowa Voluntary Infantry will raise a flagpole at Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines to mark the grave of Sarah Young -- born in
Ithaca and known during the Civil War as "Aunt Becky."
She was born Sarah Graham and went to war as Sarah Palmer, but the soldiers she nursed, in their pain and weakness, began calling her "Mother." Then one soldier said she reminded him
of his Aunt Becky back home and that name stuck. She became well known in the regiment and beyond as Aunt Becky.
In 1908 she was buried in Des Moines, Iowa, as Sarah Young in a grave shared with her second husband David Young. Their grave puzzled a member of the Iowa Voluntary Infantry who regularly
visited local cemeteries to see that the stones are upright and the service markers in place. At the grave for David and Sarah Young, the metal Civil War marker was placed next to Sarah's
side of the stone and not that of her husband. Why was this?
When he finally looked into the records, he discovered that the marker was rightly placed--Sarah Graham Parker Young had been an army nurse during the Civil War and was the only woman
member of the Iowa GAR. David Young, her husband, was also a veteran of the war.
On Wednesday the company will raise a flag to remember the service of this Civil War nurse.
Aunt Becky was born in 1830 as Sarah Graham in Ithaca. About 1850 she married Abel Palmer and so became Sarah Palmer. Abel died shortly before the start of the Civil War, leaving Sarah
a widow with two very young daughters.
Her brother Theodore Graham answered the call for volunteers in the summer of 1862, joined two weeks later by her brother John. Both were members of Company A of the 109th New York Infantry.
Although nursing was not regarded as a proper thing for a woman to undertake, Sarah's brothers asked that she accompany them into the field to care for them if they fell ill.
On Sept. 3, 1862 Sarah Palmer left Ithaca on the train to Owego, then she took the cars to Baltimore. She was 32 years old. Going off to war could not have been an easy decision for
she had two young daughters she left behind with members of her large family. Following her brothers might have been an economic, as well as a patriotic option, for she did draw army
pay while in service.
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As the war neared its end, Sarah Palmer looked about for a means of earning her livelihood. She received an appointment as Matron of the Asylum for Orphans in Washington, D.C. but without
enthusiasm, she wrote, "if that is my sphere henceforth, I will try to be happy."
That was not, however, to be her fate. When she returned to Ithaca in the late spring of 1865 she had her army pay and $165 from the soldiers, which they collected for her benefit. To
raise money, she put together her one diary that had not been lost and wrote out her recollections, and in 1867 published "The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life."
Sometime before 1870 Sarah Palmer married David Young and the couple, with her two daughters, moved to Iowa. Her brothers also moved west to Iowa and Nebraska.
Sarah Young remained spunky and outspoken during her long lifetime. When given the chance to meet with a former Confederate officer she declined, stating she didn't care to remember
all the starving she had done on his account.
Sarah Young was called in Ithaca newspapers "Our Florence Nightingale." She died in Iowa in 1908. There will be some of Aunt Becky's descendents at the ceremony Nov. 11 as a new flagpole
is raised in her honor. We should remember her too.
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Pieces of the Past appears every other Saturday. Carol Kammen is the Tompkins County historian and the author of several books on local history, most recently "Ithaca: A Brief History,"
published by The History Press.
As the war neared its end, Sarah Palmer looked about for a means of earning her livelihood. She received an appointment as Matron of the Asylum for Orphans in Washington, D.C. but without
enthusiasm, she wrote, "if that is my sphere henceforth, I will try to be happy."
That was not, however, to be her fate. When she returned to Ithaca in the late spring of 1865 she had her army pay and $165 from the soldiers, which they collected for her benefit. To
raise money, she put together her one diary that had not been lost and wrote out her recollections, and in 1867 published "The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life."
Sometime before 1870 Sarah Palmer married David Young and the couple, with her two daughters, moved to Iowa. Her brothers also moved west to Iowa and Nebraska.
Sarah Young remained spunky and outspoken during her long lifetime. When given the chance to meet with a former Confederate officer she declined, stating she didn't care to remember
all the starving she had done on his account.
Sarah Young was called in Ithaca newspapers "Our Florence Nightingale." She died in Iowa in 1908. There will be some of Aunt Becky's descendents at the ceremony Nov. 11 as a new flagpole
is raised in her honor. We should remember her too.