Aaron Abbot

Aaron Peter Abbott was born in Lewis County, Virginia in 1831-32. The exact date of his birth is not known.

He is first seen in the 1850 census of Lewis county with other members of the family. Apparently most of the family moved to Missouri in the mid 1850's. In April of 1857, Aaron filed on 80 acres of land in Crawford County, Missouri.Most of the family is found in the 1860 census of Crawford and Phelps county, Missouri. We have no further information on two of Aaron's sisters, Frances and Catherine, nor of his parents. It is thought that the parents may also have migrated to Missouri, but this is not proven. In a sworn statement in 1864 Aaron told the court that he had had "control and government" of his youngest sister Matilda, for "about 8 years" , since Matilda would have only been about eight years old, it can only be assumed that something had happened to their parents.

He married Elizabeth Bunyard on July 7, 1860 in Crawford County, Missouri. There were five children born of this marriage,

Dora was blind and died in childhood. Another child Frankie died in infancy.

Aaron P. Abbott was enrolled as a Private, Company F, 26th Regiment of Missouri Volunteers on August 13, 1862 at Steelville, Missouri. He was mustered into the Regiment on October 18th at Benton Barracks Rolla, Missouri that same year. (There is a record in the name of Jackson Abbott, which reads almost identical to that of Aaron, all entries pertaining to place of birth, place of enlistment, company and Regiment, etc. are the same, however Jackson gives his age as two years younger than Aaron. Jackson died of desease on the river steamer "Memphis" on February 3, 1863. I believe this to be a brother of Aaron.

Aaron Abbott saw very little service , and saw no action at all during the Civil War. He was thrown from a horse shortly after enlistment and sustained injuries in the lower portion of his back and body. He also contracted dysentary and kidney infection. These injuries and desease were to plague him for the rest of his life. War Department records state that he entered Post Hospital, Benton Barracks, Missouri October 28, 1862 with intermitent fever and charged with desertion from the Hospital November 27, 1862. There are also records on file that indicate he was given leave during this period. He was arrested as a deserter in October 1863 in Rolla and taken to the Gratiot Street Prison Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri on October 28, 1863 suffering from anemia. Elizabeth came to St. Louis, and convinced the surgeon to let him be transferred to the New House of Refuge Hospital near which her brother lived. He entered the New House of Refuge Hospital on November 14, 1863 with inflamation of the kidneys. He was again transferred, this time to Marine General Hospital with nephritis and discharged from the service January 4, 1864 on a Surgeons Certificate of Disability. The record also indicates that the application for the removal of the charge of desertion was denied at this time. Because they later granted him his pension the motion must have been approved or the charge overlooked at a later date.

Aaron Abbott married Mary Josephine Lee (divorced from Abeliar Crawford in February 1874) October 9, 1875. At the time of this marriage Aaron owned a farm located five miles south of Rolla on the Hartsville and Huston Road. Their friends while living on this farm were Bert Long, Warren Leavett, Pres Woolsey, Billy Yelton and John Hargis. They remained on this farm until 1884.

From 1884 to 1889 they lived on another farm located 7 miles east of Newburg, Phelps County, Missouri where they had friends named Charles Kitchell, James Hopkins, Ike Hudgins and Alf Morrow.

From Newburg they moved to South Haven, Sumner County, Kansas, remained about one year and then moved to Tulsa, Cherokee Nation, IndianTerritory. (According to family sources they made the Land Run into Oklahoma but were unsucessful in securing a homestead.) In May of 1894 Josephine left Aaron and went to Kansas. Statements executed by her in 1899 (when she was trying to claim a widow's pension) claim that she lived in Coffeeville, Kansas and Seneca, Missouri and supported herself and her children by taking in washings and working as waitress in a restaraunt.The divorce filed by Aaron in May 1896 (about two years after she left him) accuses her of adultery and desertion, and also alleges that she and her lover, one John Thomas, had tried to kill him. There are numerous affadavits on file executed by various friends and neighbors, some of them swear that the charges are true and others swear that they are not true. In any case it seems that the Government examiner (Mr.Elliott) did recommend that the government pension being paid to Mary J. Abbott as a widow of a Civil War Veteran be stopped as she had violated the act of August 7, 1882, in that she had been divorced from said veteran prior to his death. Mary Josephine lived until 1922 and died in Tulsa, Oklahoma.