HomeMy WebLinkAboutsarah 2Family Group Sheet 28 September 2016
1 Sarah
Father Abel O. Palmer
Birth 1830
Death maybe 1855 New York, United States1
Burial x
Marriage
Census (fam) 1850 Richford, Tioga, New York, United States2
Father
Mother
Mother Sarah A. Graham1
Census 1830 Lansing Tompkins County NY3
Birth 19 Aug 1830 Ithaca, Tompkins, New York, United States
Military 3 Sep 1862 came home June 12, 1865, Ithaca NY Tompkins County
Death 6 Apr 1908 Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa, United States4–5
Burial
Father James C. Graham (1793-1871)
Mother Ann (1802-1869)
Other spouse David C. Young (1835-1910)
Marriage 1868 Ithaca, Tompkins, New York, United States6
Children
F Alice E. Palmer1
Birth 3 Jul 1851 New York State
Census
(fam)-Witness 1870 David C. Young and Sarah A. Graham; Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States7
Death 8 Oct 1909 Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States8
Burial
Spouse James Straw Ainsworth (1843-1915)
Marriage 1872
F Isabel (Belle I.) Palmer 1
Birth 3 Apr 1853 Tompkins, New York, United States
Census
(fam)-Witness 1860 James C. Graham and Ann ; Enfield , NY Tompkins County9
Census
(fam)-Witness 1870 David C. Young and Sarah A. Graham; Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States7
Census 1925 Iowa10
Death 4 Nov 1936 Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States5
Burial
Spouse Leander Bolten (1838-1901)
Marriage 1872
Preparer Comments
Sue Thompson
487 East Enfield Center Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-272-6412
sdt1@cornell.edu
FATHER NOTES: Abel O. Palmer
General: No Abel Palmer listed in Tompkins County Death Index Ithaca Journal 1854 to 1874.
MOTHER NOTES: Sarah A. Graham
Census (1830): This census says Lansing NY with a Trumansburgh post office? Sarah is listed as a
domestic living in boarding house? as others listed are not family members. Her daughters or Abel are
Family Group Sheet 28 September 2016
2 Sarah
not listed with her if this is Sarah A. Palmer daughter of James C. Graham.
Military (3 September 1862): July 31, 1886 Chap. 834 An act granting a pension to Mrs. Sarah Young.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representativesof the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That the Secretary ofthe Interior be, and be hereby is authorized to paced on the pension, at
therate of twenty dollars per month, the name of Mrs. Sarah Young, of Des Moines,Iowa, for an d on
account of services rendered as a nurse during the war of therebellion. Approved, July 31, 1996.
Perry to the same committee Under the call of States andTerritories resolutions of State legislatures were
presented and referred asfollows viz By Mr Conger A concurrent resolution of the general assembly of
theState of Iowa asking that the name of Mrs Sarah Young late army nurse should beplaced out the
pension roll by special act of Congress to the Committee onInvalid Pensions By Mr Frederick A
concurrent resolution of the senate andhouse of representatives of the State of Iowa asking the Senate
and House ofRepresentatives of the United States to grant a pension to Mrs Sarah Young ofthe city of
Des Moines Iowa to tne same committee By Mr Lyman A concurrentresolution of the general assembly
of the State of Iowa asking the passage ofan act granting a pension to Sally Young of Des Moines Iowa
for service as anurse during the late civil war j to the same committee
Congressional Series of United StatesPublic Documents, Volume 2366
Tompkins County and The Tompkins Cortland Community College will dedicate a monument
located grounds to Civil War Nurses on Wednesday.
From the stoplight, the road from Route 13 to the college cuts through the Dryden hillside. There is an
expanse of lawn edged with trees at the back of the view. The road curls softly along — an entrance to
new experiences, which is what we all hope education will be.
Near the top of the hill (and it is not so big a hill), the road curves to the left to a parking area. This is a
perfect place to look down, past the road to the main college building, to see four striding figures
moving across the landscape. They look purposeful, each holding a lantern.
Cross over to look more closely.
These four figures, created by local artist Rob Licht, make up a monument to the women who went as
nurses at a time when there was no nurse training, no uniform, no required skills, but only the
willingness to be helpful at the nation’s time of need and to be over the age of 35, of good moral
character,willing to travel lightly, and to pick up assigned duties, however distasteful.
The monument created by the Tompkins County Civil War Commission and TC3 honors four Civil War
nurses from our county, but these figures also stand for all the others who served at the time. There were
nurses and matrons, laundresses,cleaners and cooks. There were women who left their homes when
there was a battle nearby, and some who accompanied their soldier son or husband or brother to war and
nursed those who needed care.
The monument created by the Tompkins County Civil War Commission and TC3, with by local artist
Rob Licht, honors four Civil War nurses from Tompkins county, as well as others who served during the
Civil War. (Photo: Provided Photo)
In all, there were more than 21,000 Northern white women who worked in camp and field; there were
260 Sisters of Charity, a Roman Catholic order — and probably many more nuns than these — who
nursed. There were 2,096 black women noted in the records who nursed, served as matrons, cooks or
laundresses.
There was asocial bias against women nursing, and a double bias against African American women, but
need presented opportunity and women or all colors — including women such as Susie King Taylor —
stepped in. Some of these workers are counted, but many are not. The records for women of the
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Confederacy are scant; some were burned, others were never counted on any official list.
It was Florence Nightingale who became known as the “lady with the lamp” for her services during the
Crimean War. From that experience, she wrote “Notes on Nursing” in 1859 and opened a training school
in London for nurses in 1860. The line from this origin of nursing moved through the experiences of the
women who nursed during the Civil War, and on through the Spanish American War until nursing
became a trained profession during the early days of the 20th century. Standards for military nurse
training were set during The Great War with the work of Jane Delano and the Red Cross.
Today, this monument to Civil War hospital workers also honors the fine nursing program at Tompkins
Cortland Community College whose nurses are those we encounter in area hospitals and in facilities
around the world.
Civil War nurses were mocked at the time, they worked hard under very difficult situations, and after the
war they blended back into well-worn roles as daughters, mothers, wives. Their war work was mostly
forgotten.
Except in special instances, the government did not give these workers pensions until the 1890s. They
were accorded but two hundred words, or one paragraph, in a twelve-volume work titled “Medical and
Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,” their service receiving a “subordinate place in the medical
history of the war.”
This week on a hillside in Dryden, New York, we gather at this place of memory and of gratitude to
remember women who for reasons of patriotism, of loyalty, of religious persuasion or because they
wanted to be useful at a time of need stepped beyond their expected role to bring comfort at a time of
war.
It is time, well beyond time, that attention be paid.
The Women from Tompkins County
Susan Hall, of Ulysses, was the first Northern woman to enlist as a nurse. She was a student at the time
in New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and she was first among the two-dozen women trained
for wartime nursing at Bellevue Hospital. By June, she was in a battlefield hospital in Virginia.
Sophronia Bucklin and Sarah Graham Palmer enlisted in 1862. Bucklin was turned down because she
was underage, but she went to Washington anyway, and Superintendent of Nurses Dorothea Dix put her
to work. She remained at field and hospital until the end of the war; then she returned to Ithaca.
Sarah Palmer,who came to be known as Aunt Becky by the troops, was a widow with young children.
She was working as a domestic servant in a home in Lansing; her daughters lived with her brother on
Bostwick Road in the Town of Enfield. When two of her brothers enlisted in the 109th Infantry, they
asked her to accompany them to war. Only when the war was over did she return to Ithaca.
Julia Cook was a widow of a Civil War soldier; her son had been wounded but had returned to his unit.
She answered the call for more nurses in 1864, worked in the infectious hospital in Washington but
promptly fell ill. She returned to Dryden within three weeks.
Death (6 April 1908): She was author of a book, "The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life" by Sarah A.
Palmer, published in 1867. It has been reprinted by Applewood Books and is available today. All but 3
months of her diary was lost so the book includes her account of her experiences plus the existing
portion of the diary from February-April of 1865. While she is modest in listing her accomplishments,
the book is interesting and provides an excellent account of the often dreadful conditions in the army
field hospitals.
She is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines in Block 17 - Lot 134. This is just north of the city
vault in the SW area of the cemetery. There was only a rusted flagpole by her tombstone. Due to efforts
of the SUVCW Grenville M. Dodge Camp #75, a great deal of effort has been made to restore the
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4 Sarah
flagpole, obtain a Veteran's headstone, and place a plaque on the back of the headstone. A large crowd
gathered on November 11, 2009 to rededicate this memorial in her honor. The photos include the
flagpole before restoration. There is also a photo of a flag being presented by 1st Sgt. David Lamb to
Fred Pease, a descendent of Aunt Becky. The photos were taken November 11 and 12, 2009. The photo
with the rusted flagpole was taken 7/27/09. The image of her as a younger woman is from her book and
the other is from the History of the WRC from 1884-1934.
General: A.J.Graham Carpenter and builder, brother to “Aunt Becky” in Denver is well known
throughout the city[1]
[1] Seneca Lake NY 1883 – The National Tribune Washington DC August 23, 1883. Library of
Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
Sarah was founder of Sanitary commission (see 1902) the New York organization later became the New
York Sanitary Commission. Both James and Ann Graham of Ithaca were listed as parents in this 1901
article. Along with an Aunt Ruth Graham who was a nurse from the war of 1812. Her father told her
stories of his sister (Ruth)[1]
1902 Article calls Sarah “Anne Graham” Besides being an Army nurse she was founder of two
State sanitary associations one in New York and other in Iowa. The first has its beginning Ithaca, N.Y.
when she was a girl at the outbreak of the civil War. The latter was organized in Des Moines at the
beginning of the Spanish American War. She married David Young, a carpenter and a soldier who had
fount for the English in Canada during the Fenian outbreak. Sarah had nursed him during the struggle
and fell in love with him.[2]
[1] The Minneapolis Journal. (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, October 26, 1901, Library of
Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
[2] December 9, 1902. The San Francisco call. (SanFrancisco, Calif. 1895-1913.) Library of
Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
Sarah "Aunt Becky" Young (1830-1908) followed her home regiment at Ithaca, NY (NY 109th Infantry
Regiment) in 1862 and was assigned as a Volunteer Army Nurse in field hospitals. She served
continually through the end of the war. It was said that she was "beloved and famous throughout the
Union Army." President Lincoln toured her hospital on April 7, 1865, just a week before he was
assassinated. Her maiden name was Sarah Graham - her first husband was Abel Palmer and she was
known as Sarah Palmer during the war - he died and she married David Young after the war and they
moved to Des Moines. She was active in the WRC and Veteran affairs and known everywhere as "Aunt
Becky."
Endnotes 28 September 2016
5
1. Rootsweb.com.
2. 1850 Federal Census, Richford, New York Tompkins County, ; .
3. Year: 1860; Census Place: Lansing, Tompkins, New York, Ancestry.com; .
4. Works Project Administration. Graves Registration Project. Washington D.C.: n.p., n.d..,
Ancestry.com. Iowa, Cemetery Records, 1662-1999 [database on-line]., "These cemetery records
represent seventy-six counties in Iowa which were transcribed by the Works Project Administration.
Learn more...," database, (: accessed ), .
5. Find A Grave.
6. Year: 1900; Census Place: Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal
Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.; .
7. 1870 Federal Census; Census Place: Des Moines Ward 6, Polk, Iowa, Ancestry.com; .
8. http://www.findagrave.com, Find A Grave Find A Grave
PO Box 522107
Salt Lake City, UT 84152-2107.
9. Year: 1860; Census Place: Enfield, Tompkins, New York; Federal Census. Ancestry.com.
10. Ancestry.com. Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007., ; .
Index of Names 28 September 2016
6
<NO SURNAME>
Ann (b. 1802) . . . 1
AINSWORTH
James Straw (b. 1843) . . . 1
BOLTEN
Leander (b. 1838) . . . 1
GRAHAM
James C. (b. 1793) . . . 1
Sarah A. (b. 1830) . . . 1
PALMER
Abel O. (b. 1830) . . . 1
Alice E. (b. 1851) . . . 1
Isabel (Belle I.) (b. 1853) . . . 1
YOUNG
David C. (b. 1835) . . . 1
Index of Places 28 September 2016
7
Iowa . . . 1
Ithaca NY Tompkins County
1865
came home June 12 . . . 1
Lansing Tompkins County NY . . . 1
New York State . . . 1
NY Tompkins County
Enfield . . . 1
United States
Iowa
Des Moines
Woodland Cemetery . . . 1
Polk
Des Moines . . . 1
Woodland Cemetery . . . 1
New York . . . 1
Tioga
Richford . . . 1
Tompkins . . . 1
Ithaca . . . 1