Edward Hartshorn

Grandma Mc's grandpa was Edward Hartshorn.  He was born in Wales and immigrated with is family to the United States in 1850.  They made their home in Iowa where he met his sweet wife, Alice Confer.  They married and had 4 children, one girl and 3 boys. Before Edward met and married Alice, he served in the Civil War in Company A, Regiment 7 of the Iowa Calvary.  He did become ill at one point during his service and was put on light duty, but he did later rejoin his unit and served the entire length of the war.

Not long after their last child was born, Alice died from burns she sustained from oil from a kerosene lamp.  It must have been a very sad moment in the family to lose their mother as such a young age.  She was only 31 years old at the time.  This was in 1875.  In April of 1879, Edward married Matilda Horn who was only 17 years old at the time.  In December of the same year, Edward passed away.  He was working for Thomas Blackburn in a coal mine.  He was killed in a coal bank while igniting coal that exploded.

After Edward passed away, the 4 young children were split up and sent to live with various family members.  Matilda did not stick around to help take care of them in anyway.  She did apply to receive his pension though.  She lied several times on the application and it seems she was a very dishonest person.  On the application she listed that her and Edward had a child together who born just the month before Edward died.  She says the child's name was Sarah Hartshorn.  I have search everywhere for any sign of Sarah with no luck.  In fact, don't you think she would be living with Matilda in the 1880 census as a little girl?  Matilda has no such child with her and there is no birth record of Sarah.  I have also searched every other place for her and nothing can be found.  Matilda also lied about not remarrying.  She stated that she had not remarried since Edwards death.  All of this information was dated in the year 1882.  The truth of the matter is that she actually married a man named Thomas H. Payne in 1881!  I think she was just trying to say everything she could to get the pension.  Another thing she lied about is the way Edward died.  She said he died of an inflamed bowel instead of in the coal bank!

One last note I found out about Edward is that he was only 5 ft 4 in tall with light hair, light complexion and blue eyes.  I wish we had a picture of him!  If anyone has one, I would love to see it!