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U.S. government trying to locate modern kin of Civil War veteran who was killed with ax in 1877
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 05:10 p.m. EDT, Jun 08, 2009
As U.S. Army Pvt. Levi Morris died a slow, painful death from an ax wound, he told the medical workers tending to him that his only relative lived in Akron.
Henry Pickett.
For the past few weeks, the U.S. government has been trying to track down the Pickett family, but there was a big problem.
Morris died in June 1877.
In New Mexico.
And Pickett, obviously, died long, long ago.
So why does the government want to contact Pickett's family?
It's a crazy story that involves a long-forgotten cemetery near the historic Fort Craig, grave robbing, a missing cemetery plot map and the remains of 64 people exhumed in 2007 to prevent future looting.
''We've had a pretty unusual situation to say the least,'' said Mary Perea Carlson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Forgotten grave
The U.S. government had forgotten about the grave site outside Fort Craig, an outpost established in 1854 that protected settlers from American Indians and played a role in the Civil War.
Then again, it was easy to forget.
There was a stone corral of sorts marking the site but no gravestones. Just clumps of overgrown grass and sandy desert.
Nothing that would signify that it was home to more than 60 bodies — a mix of soldiers and civilians; men, women and even children.
The Bureau of Reclamation, a water management agency in the West, bought the cemetery property in 1910 as part of a larger land purchase.
The belief at the time was that the Army had exhumed the bodies from the grave site in the late 1800s and moved them elsewhere.
But a local historian stepped forward in November 2004 to alert authorities that a friend had the mummified body of a black soldier — referred to as a Buffalo Soldier — on display in his home, and that the body had come from Fort Craig.
Federal authorities launched an investigation and found evidence of looting at the cemetery. But the man accused of the grave robbing, Dee Brecheisen, died at the start of the probe.
Later, a skull — the same one that was on display — was handed over to federal officials in a brown paper bag.
Authorities say it is unclear what happened to many of the Civil War and American Indian artifacts collected by Brecheisen's grave robbing at Fort Craig and other locations in New Mexico.
Bodies exhumed
Archaeologists exhumed the bodies from the Fort Craig cemetery in 2007.
With no grave markers and the cemetery plot map missing from the National Archives — Brecheisen apparently had it at one time — authorities have spent the past year trying to figure out who was buried there.
They were able to identify the soldier who was on display at Brecheisen's home as Pvt. Thomas Smith, a 23-year-old farmer from Butler County, Ky. Within the past six months, they identified two others: Pvt. David Ford and Morris.
The bodies of the 39 adults — the others were children — are being examined by Dr. Douglas Owsley, division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Morris was identified because of the unusual way he died.
According to military records, he was struck in the back with an ax after a quarrel with another soldier June 19, 1877. The blow broke the third and fourth ribs on his right side and opened a 4-inch wound in his chest.
The gruesome account of his injuries is detailed in the military report.
There is no explanation for the fight or what happened to the soldier who struck him.
His company — the 9th Cavalry, Company B — had been camping at Round Mountain, about 35 miles from Fort Craig.
Morris died June 28 after being brought back to the fort. He was buried in the cemetery the same day.
''Before his death, he gave the name of Henry Pickett of Akron, Ohio, as his only relative,'' according to the Record of Death and Internment.
Federal investigators have been able to unearth scant details about Morris.
He was either 22 or 26 when he was killed. Both ages are listed on military records.
He apparently was a slave born in Vicksburg, Miss., and enlisted in the Army in December 1872 in Pittsburgh.
Morris was single and a plasterer by trade.
He was 5-foot-4.
At the time of his death, he was owed $55.30 in military pay, $57.27 for clothing and $43 in deposits that the government was holding. He also owed the U.S. $1.14 for tobacco and $5 to the laundress.
''That's all we have to go on,'' Carlson said.
Unknown relation
So who was Henry Pickett and what was his relationship to Morris?
That's unclear.
A 40-year-old Henry Pickett was living in Akron in 1870 and working as a plasterer, according to U.S. census records. Living at the same address was a 20-year-old ''Levi Marsh'' who was born in Mississippi.
That's probably Levi Morris, historians said.
Several other people also were living there, including Pickett's future wife, Mary Jane Alexander. They were married in May 1877.
Pickett, who was born in Kentucky, died Sept. 14, 1897, in Akron at the age of 67.
A short, five-sentence death notice in the Akron Beacon Journal noted that he was ''one of Akron's well known colored citizens.'' A veteran of the Civil War, he is buried in Glendale Cemetery.
At the time of his death, Pickett had three grown children: Thomas Pickett of Indianapolis, Aaron Pickett of Akron and Jennie Pickett of Indianapolis. (The handwriting on the census records are difficult to read and Jennie's name could be Jeannie.)
In the 1900 census, Mary Jane Pickett is listed as living with a son, Charles Alexander, in Akron. She died in March 1918.
Search for relatives
The government has so far been unable to track down any living relatives of Thomas, Ford or Morris.
The Bureau of Reclamation placed a classified ad in the Akron Beacon Journal on May 30 seeking any information about Pickett's family.
Michael Elliott, a reference assistant at Akron-Summit County Public Library, last week traced the Pickett family line to at least two descendants living in Akron: Doris Jelks Wallace and John Jelks Jr.
They apparently are the great-great-grandchildren of Henry Pickett.
''Find out if he was owed any money,'' 78-year-old Wallace said with a laugh when told the story. She is a retired Akron school teacher.
Her brother is 82.
It's unclear whether the family is entitled to the money or if it was paid out to someone else upon Morris' death.
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to contact them.
All the bodies exhumed from the Fort Craig cemetery will be reburied July 28 in the Sante Fe National Cemetery.
''These soldiers and these civilians have been forgotten for a really long time and we want to make sure they are buried with the honor and the respect that they deserve,'' Carlson said.
Any descendant of Morris or anyone who has more information about his family should contact Carlson at 505-462-3576 or mcarlson@usbr.gov.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
As U.S. Army Pvt. Levi Morris died a slow, painful death from an ax wound, he told the medical workers tending to him that his only relative lived in Akron.
Henry Pickett.
For the past few weeks, the U.S. government has been trying to track down the Pickett family, but there was a big problem.
Morris died in June 1877.
In New Mexico.
And Pickett, obviously, died long, long ago.
So why does the government want to contact Pickett's family?
It's a crazy story that involves a long-forgotten cemetery near the historic Fort Craig, grave robbing, a missing cemetery plot map and the remains of 64 people exhumed in 2007 to prevent future looting.
''We've had a pretty unusual situation to say the least,'' said Mary Perea Carlson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Forgotten grave
The U.S. government had forgotten about the grave site outside Fort Craig, an outpost established in 1854 that protected settlers from American Indians and played a role in the Civil War.
Then again, it was easy to forget.
There was a stone corral of sorts marking the site but no gravestones. Just clumps of overgrown grass and sandy desert.
Nothing that would signify that it was home to more than 60 bodies — a mix of soldiers and civilians; men, women and even children.
The Bureau of Reclamation, a water management agency in the West, bought the cemetery property in 1910 as part of a larger land purchase.
The belief at the time was that the Army had exhumed the bodies from the grave site in the late 1800s and moved them elsewhere.
But a local historian stepped forward in November 2004 to alert authorities that a friend had the mummified body of a black soldier — referred to as a Buffalo Soldier — on display in his home, and that the body had come from Fort Craig.
Federal authorities launched an investigation and found evidence of looting at the cemetery. But the man accused of the grave robbing, Dee Brecheisen, died at the start of the probe.
Later, a skull — the same one that was on display — was handed over to federal officials in a brown paper bag.
Authorities say it is unclear what happened to many of the Civil War and American Indian artifacts collected by Brecheisen's grave robbing at Fort Craig and other locations in New Mexico.
Bodies exhumed
Archaeologists exhumed the bodies from the Fort Craig cemetery in 2007.
With no grave markers and the cemetery plot map missing from the National Archives — Brecheisen apparently had it at one time — authorities have spent the past year trying to figure out who was buried there.
They were able to identify the soldier who was on display at Brecheisen's home as Pvt. Thomas Smith, a 23-year-old farmer from Butler County, Ky. Within the past six months, they identified two others: Pvt. David Ford and Morris.
The bodies of the 39 adults — the others were children — are being examined by Dr. Douglas Owsley, division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Morris was identified because of the unusual way he died.
According to military records, he was struck in the back with an ax after a quarrel with another soldier June 19, 1877. The blow broke the third and fourth ribs on his right side and opened a 4-inch wound in his chest.
The gruesome account of his injuries is detailed in the military report.
There is no explanation for the fight or what happened to the soldier who struck him.
His company — the 9th Cavalry, Company B — had been camping at Round Mountain, about 35 miles from Fort Craig.
Morris died June 28 after being brought back to the fort. He was buried in the cemetery the same day.
''Before his death, he gave the name of Henry Pickett of Akron, Ohio, as his only relative,'' according to the Record of Death and Internment.
Federal investigators have been able to unearth scant details about Morris.
He was either 22 or 26 when he was killed. Both ages are listed on military records.
He apparently was a slave born in Vicksburg, Miss., and enlisted in the Army in December 1872 in Pittsburgh.
Morris was single and a plasterer by trade.
He was 5-foot-4.
At the time of his death, he was owed $55.30 in military pay, $57.27 for clothing and $43 in deposits that the government was holding. He also owed the U.S. $1.14 for tobacco and $5 to the laundress.
''That's all we have to go on,'' Carlson said.
Unknown relation
So who was Henry Pickett and what was his relationship to Morris?
That's unclear.
A 40-year-old Henry Pickett was living in Akron in 1870 and working as a plasterer, according to U.S. census records. Living at the same address was a 20-year-old ''Levi Marsh'' who was born in Mississippi.
That's probably Levi Morris, historians said.
Several other people also were living there, including Pickett's future wife, Mary Jane Alexander. They were married in May 1877.
Pickett, who was born in Kentucky, died Sept. 14, 1897, in Akron at the age of 67.
A short, five-sentence death notice in the Akron Beacon Journal noted that he was ''one of Akron's well known colored citizens.'' A veteran of the Civil War, he is buried in Glendale Cemetery.
At the time of his death, Pickett had three grown children: Thomas Pickett of Indianapolis, Aaron Pickett of Akron and Jennie Pickett of Indianapolis. (The handwriting on the census records are difficult to read and Jennie's name could be Jeannie.)
In the 1900 census, Mary Jane Pickett is listed as living with a son, Charles Alexander, in Akron. She died in March 1918.
Search for relatives
The government has so far been unable to track down any living relatives of Thomas, Ford or Morris.
The Bureau of Reclamation placed a classified ad in the Akron Beacon Journal on May 30 seeking any information about Pickett's family.
Michael Elliott, a reference assistant at Akron-Summit County Public Library, last week traced the Pickett family line to at least two descendants living in Akron: Doris Jelks Wallace and John Jelks Jr.
They apparently are the great-great-grandchildren of Henry Pickett.
''Find out if he was owed any money,'' 78-year-old Wallace said with a laugh when told the story. She is a retired Akron school teacher.
Her brother is 82.
It's unclear whether the family is entitled to the money or if it was paid out to someone else upon Morris' death.
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to contact them.
All the bodies exhumed from the Fort Craig cemetery will be reburied July 28 in the Sante Fe National Cemetery.
''These soldiers and these civilians have been forgotten for a really long time and we want to make sure they are buried with the honor and the respect that they deserve,'' Carlson said.
Any descendant of Morris or anyone who has more information about his family should contact Carlson at 505-462-3576 or mcarlson@usbr.gov.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Posted 06:36 PM, 06/08/2009
Very interesting ...
Akron, Oh
Posted 07:16 PM, 06/08/2009
Wow..A really good story,I like doing research like
this, I tracked down my 8th-great grandmother who
was an Iroquois Indian back before they named
Newcomerstown,with English name, when I found my parents I always heard we were Cherokee..just a lil' research and find out there is even a book about her.
Our history is assume to bad we got screwed over..
akron, oh
Posted 07:43 PM, 06/08/2009
noticed a picture at a clients house this past saturday and could`nt belive that she had a pic of my aunt maryann, so i asked how do you know my aunt, well this lady wasn`t my aunt, she is the mother of her best friend and she lives in scotland ,i about fell over, this lady could be every lady in my family, also on twitter last week i saw a pic that i thought was my niece, not her, also from scotland, kinda cool
akron, oh
Posted 06:52 AM, 06/09/2009
while not exactly news, this story and the one yesterday about the boxer are the best written pieces in the Beacon in years. thanks!
Boston Hts, Oh
Posted 07:52 AM, 06/09/2009
A good read I agree!!
akron, oh
Posted 09:06 AM, 06/09/2009
very cool story, i love working on my families genealogy this would be a great story for anyone doing research on this family.
Independence, OH
Posted 09:41 AM, 06/09/2009
Cool story, actually worth reading.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 03:29 PM, 06/09/2009
Very interesting story.
