Andrew R. McCurdy
Andrew R McCurdy was born Nov. 2nd 1835 in Richland County Ohio, near Mansfield on a farm. My father was a farmer and he worked part of the time in a saw mill for Mr. Campbell and he had a threshing machine and in the fall of 1843 he traded with Mr. Campbell for land in Indiana and in October 1843 we packed up one load in a covered wagon and Uncle Jo Donaldson had another and he came out with us and came back and on our way out we stayed at Hardin county to Uncle Jonathan and Smiley Mathews and arrived in Fort Wayne Ind. Friday evening and we stopped at the HediKin House and Mr. Calvin Anderson was landlord. On our way after leaving Hardin County we came to a ten mile woods at sunset. We camped at the edge of the woods all night. Mr. Anderson had taken the HediKin House in May 1843 and on Saturday morning it was clear and a frosty morning and we started for the woods. I walked through the town to see the sights and I had no shoes on and my feet got so cold I had to get in the wagon to get them warm. On our way out Mother and some of the children had the ague. We arrived at Mr. William Wells. Our land cornered with his on the north east of his. He came a year on his before we did and we stayed with them until we built a house and on Monday we located our land and selected a building spot and cleared off a spot and cut logs for the house and in a short time had the house built and roof on but could not get the doors and windows in before cold weather and we had to hang up quilts and blankets to keep out the cold and we could not get it daubed. We had it chinked and that would keep some of the cold out. And in the spring of 1844 we finished our house and cleared a patch for corn and potatoes and in the summer we cleared some for wheat but the boys had to work out to help to support the family and Mother done weaving on her loom and in the winter of 1844-1845 we cleared up another patch of ground and in the summer we could work out again all we could. We did not get much schooling some winters only a few days at a time. We worked for Mr. Joseph Jones and he was a hard man to work for and the winter of 1845-1846 we had some large poplar saw logs to sell. They was ten feet long and over five feet in diameter and we had to take them to Thren Andrews sawmill six miles. And we got one dollar a log for them delivered and it would take all day haul one load with oxen and bob sled and when we wanted meat to we went to the woods and killed wild hog or deer and it is very dangerous to go after them with a dog. They will chase a dog and the dog will follow you. I was out in the wood and came across a drove of wild hogs and my dog was along and as soon as they seen the dog they after and he after me. I had to climb a tree but they crushed the dog so we had to kill him. I was out hunting the cows evening and I heard something like a child crying and I ran to it and the dog had a fawn that is a young deer and I took it home and kept it all summer and in the fall it run off wild. We had some good schoolteachers and some not so good. A Mr. Cole he was an old bachelor and he taught one winter and one summer of 1844 and in the summer he would go to sleep and we had George Hutzell. He was a good teacher and we had Mary Smith an old maid. She was good and we had Mr. Isie Clanton he was good. He taught at the Manning schoolhouse and in 1853 cousin John Donaldson taught school at Huntertown and he made his home with us. And in 1850 I went to live with Joseph Jones and Caroline Fair was living with them and I had the whooping cough and the would not let me come home. They was afraid I would give it to the rest of the children. I helped to dig the first ditch in the big prairie that goes to Huntertown. It was a hard job and in 1857 Mr. Jones had some relatives to visit him. One of the young ladies gave me a Bible and I have it yet. They was from the south. They was nice folks and in 1852 Samuel Shryock sold his mill to John Stoner and Shryock and family came to live with Jones. His father in law and Shryock wanted to go to California during the gold excitement and he was going to take with him his son Joseph and John Thompson, Bro William, and myself. I was to do the cooking. We was all ready to go on Saturday but Mrs. Shryock got sick on Sunday and the Dr. said Mr. Shryock would have to give up going or he would lose his wife so we did not go. And in 1852 Mr. E L Barbour taught geography Peltons outline maps and we would sing it. I took two terms with him and also Bro William and we got so we could teach it and Bro William bought the maps of Mr. Barbour and in Jan 1853 we started out to teach geography and we went to Hardin County Ohio to our Uncles Jonathan and Smiley Mathews and had two classes and had a good time. I could sing like a lady. I had a song I would sing and I would have to sing often. The title of the song was Our New Country. I remember the chorus: For fish we used the hook and line, We pounded corn to make it fine, On Johnnycake our Ladie dined, In our new country. We had a chance to sell our maps so we sold out and then we went to Mansfield Ohio to visit our relatives and I was to Uncle David McCurdy at Lexington. James Marlow, John Rusk, Jacob Culler at Lucas and Hugh McKee and Cisneys at Saranac and Joseph Donaldson and Francina Zimmerman at Spring Mills. I was staying with Joseph Donaldson and he wanted me to drive his team on the PFW and CRR. His boys was all to school. The RR was located close to the farm in the winter of 1853. I worked on the RR. It was hard work had a long fill just west of the Spring Mill and had high filling about fifteen feet high and we had to turn on the grade and would have to let the hind wheels go down the grade. The top was so narrow and the king bolt came out and let the hind wheels go down the bank and it was hard to get up. I got some of the other teamsters to help me get them up and it was cold and I got tired hauling dirt so that was my last day teaming on the RR. And I received a letter from Father wanting me to come home. I had to get ready for our spring crops and after corn planting my Bro Joseph want down near Columbia City to work on the PFW and CRR and we worked until the corn was ready to work and we came home. We got our pay in the old mill in Columbia City, came home, and I went to work for Joseph Jones and Samuel Shryock and family was staying with him. They moved to Fort Wayne and Samuel Shryock and his son Joseph went into business. Joseph Jones bought a farm eleven miles from Lafayette on the Grand Prairie in 1854 and in March Jones with his family drove through with his team and Caroline Fair and I went with him and we went through Logansport and to Lafayette and then out to the farm and we had a very wet spring. Had hard time to get out the spring crop and I had the most of the work to Samuel Shryock sold out in Fort Wayne and he came to Jones to help farm but they could not agree. So he left. Jones was a hard man to work for. I had some spots with him. I was the only one that would stay with him. In the winter of 1854 and 1855 he came on a visit to Fort Wayne and he came back in a sleigh and we had plenty of snow and I used the sleigh after he came back. Caroline Fair and I went to Mt. Morence to get some molasses to make taffy and the box came off and spilt us out. We was going to see A. G. Mills to invite him to the taffy pulling and he married Caroline after that. We had a nice spring and got out a good crop and Mitton Freeman helped one to do the farming and Mrs. Jones was visiting at Lafayette. Mrs. Winona his adopted daughter and Mrs. Jones died at her house and after her death Mr. Jones sold out and we came to Lafayette and we stopped at the Jones Hotel and I got a chance to learn the painters trade with Carnahan and Pierce and I engaged with them for three years. The first year for fifty dollars and the second seventy-five and the third for one hundred. The second year Mr. Pierce died. I had been staying with him and Thomas Martin was one of the apprentice's boys I stayed with Mr. Canahan until my time was out and I went in partnership with him. We had a job at Delphi Ind. and during the Presidential campaign of 1850 was a hot and I was active in the campaign. We would attend rallies as border ruffians. You could tell who they were and on election day we was at Delphi and the train was late so we had to get the section hands to take us 18 miles to Lafayette on hand car. Got there just in time to vote for Freemans and Dayton. My first vote and last but we had a good time out of the campaign. And in the fall of 1859 I went out to Oxford Benton County hunting chickens and stopped with Mr. Martins and had a good time and on my way home I went to camp meeting at Tipacano (Tippecanoe) Battle Ground and Mr. William Martin of Lafayette brought his niece out in a buggy and he wanted me to take charge of her. He was an old bachelor and I had to take care of her so got her dinner and all the money I had but twenty five cents to my name, I said I was not hungry and I waited on her but before she got through I saw a man that I had done some work for and he gave me five dollars and I got hungry right away and had a nice time with the young lady. And in the winter 1857 and 58 I worked in the candle factory and I boarded with Mrs. Lesley and in the summer of 1858 I worked for Mr. T A Carnahan and in the spring 1859 I went to St. Louis and worked on steam boats and on the Lindle Hotel and I boarded with Mr. Myers and I was to see my Uncle Alexander McCurdy and I had to drink the river water when on the boats and it made me sick so in the fall I came home and I Doctored with Dr. Doland. He could not help me and in the spring of 1860 I went to Lafayette and drank artesian water and I got well and I went to Indianapolis and my Uncle Alexander McCurdy had moved from St. Louis and he died in 1860. I went to Cincinnati Ohio and stayed a short time and I went to Memphis Ten. on a boat. Had a nice ride and was in a storm at Cairo Ill. and got to Memphis and I got a job with Jones and Tagg and I had a good job and I stayed until Dec. 1860 and the Rebels was drilling and I had to leave. After the election of Lincoln it got hot. I came home and stayed at home all winter and in March 1861 I went to work for J J Kamm and the first work I done was on the Avaline Hotel and I worked until the 27 of April 1861. I enlisted Co. F 12th Regt. Ind. Vol. and we drilled out on the old fair grounds. And Capt. George Humphrey was our Capt. and he wanted me to play the fife for his Co. and he bought me a fife and when we got to Indianapolis I had my photo taken with my fife. We enlisted for three months and they wanted us to go for three years. We all voted to go for one year. Our Regt. was sent to guard the Ohio River. Our Co. was stationed at Newburgh, Indiana and our company guarded the Ohio River and Colonel Link commanded the Regiment and George Humphrey was Lieut. Col. and George Nelson was our Capt. and O K Hinkle was our first Lieut. and John Godown was our second Lieut. And our Co. was stationed in the college grounds and when we heard the news of the first battle at Bull Run, two of our guards was talking of the fight. One of them said he wished he had been in the fight and the other guard raised his gun and pointed it at him and shot him through the head. He didn't know the gun was loaded. They was the best of friends. The one that shot was a relief for the other guard to go to his breakfast. The name of the one that shot was Gabe Stembarger. I cannot remember the name of the one that got shot. That was our first funeral and I had to play the dead march and we buried him at Newburg Ind. It was a sad day for us all. And in a few days after the battle of Bull Run we was ordered to Washington and in July 1861 we went to Townsville and took the train for Washington and when we got to Harrisburg Pa. our order was countermanded and we was ordered to Harpers Ferry Md. and we arrived at Sandy Hook and for several weeks we camped in Pleasant Valley and on Maryland Heights and we had a nice time. The remainder of the summer going around Sugar Loaf Mt. and all we had to was to drill and march and we marched through Darrstown and Hagerstown and we always had to play the fife and drum when going through the towns and in the fall we came to Antietam and our Regt. guarded the Potomac River and I had a good time. I had to go after the mail to Harpers Ferry six miles. Mr. Newton Bingham was first Sergeant and had charge of a picket post and a canal boat came along. It was loaded with shells and Sergeant Bingham took one from the boat and thought he would set it off and he got a fuse and lit it and run away. It did not go off so he went to see the reason and as he got over it, it went off and killed him. He was the second one killed by accident. That was a sad time. He was sent home for burial. He was one of my chums. And in our mess in camp I had Harve Kriss, Luke Valentine, Amos Sine, John Henning, Can Brown. Luke Valentine and myself would sing songs and hymns to the rest of the boys. I numbered the knap sacks for the boys and I charged five cents marking them and some of the boys paid and some never paid. One of the boys we called Mother Rusteelan. He was cook and a good cook too. And he could make fried cake as good as any body. I was going down to Harpers Ferry one day and the boys was shooting across the River at the Rebels and they was shooting too and I shot into a house on the other side. I could hear the bullet strike the house. We was on the towpath between the river and canal and the bullets struck the water in the canal and we had to get down in the canal to keep them from striking us. We had a cannon up on the mountain and they shelled them out and they wounded some. We could see them taking the wounded away and I went to Harpers Ferry after the mail. A few days after some of our boys went over the river and rebels came up behind them and took them prisoner and kept them a few months and they was exchanged. Gabe Smihar and William Smith was the ones taken. I was fishing one day in the basin and a canal boat came along and I saw Mr. Myers from St. Louis. I called to him. He did not recognize me. He got off at the aqua dock and he knew me. He was going to Sharpsburg and he came to Va. to settle up his estate and the next day he came to see me and I went with him to Sharpsburg and I had a good time with him. I boarded with him when I was in St. Louis in 1859. There was a gristmill near our camp on the Antietam crick and the miller would give us all the flour and corn meal and the miller's daughter baked us pies. Some of the country people would have a keg of whiskey out in the mountains and some of the boys would find it and get drunk. Josh Parker and Cass Smith would get drunk whenever they could get whiskey. Josh Parker was the worst one in the Co. After he came home he had his arm shot off at some celebration. He had been drinking. We was stationed at Antietam four months and had a good time all winter and on the first day of March in 1862 we was ordered to Winchester Va. and we took a canal boat up to Williams Port and we was after Stonewall Jackson and we went through Bunker Hill and on to Winchester and on our way we stopped at a house where Jackson ate his dinner at eleven o'clock and we got there at one o'clock. The folks had left with Jackson and had left two old darkies to take care of the place and we had some nice ham to eat but the boys was so mad they broke a large mirror in a thousand pieces and I had get the officers to stop them or they would brake a nice piano to pieces. And we chased Genl. Jackson out of Winchester and we stayed seven days and we was ordered to Warrington Junction and the first day we crossed the Shando (Shendandoah) River and camped on Blue Ridge Mountain and the next day we got over the mountain to All Day and when we got into camp and was putting up our tents and getting supper we got orders to remarch back to Winchester and we marched all night to the top of Blue Ridge Mountain where we was the night before and the next day we got across Shando River. And within five miles of Winchester and the order was countermanded and we was ordered back to Warrington Junction and when we got across the Shando River, it was dark and we camped that night on top of Blue Ridge Mountain for the third night and marched every day and the next night we got to All Day and we got to Warrington Junction. And we stayed there until our time was out and was ordered to Washington where we was discharged May 19, 1862 and we was in Washington two weeks. We was ordered in Grand Review before President Lincoln and he gave us a good talk and thanking the boys for what they had done. Advised them all to re-enlist as many as could. I came home. On my way home I stopped at Lucas to see Grandmother Donaldson and Uncle Jacob Culler's and go to Fort Wayne the last of May 1862 and was at home in Eel River Township a short time and came to Fort Wayne and went to work for J J Kamm at painting and worked for him all summer and most of the winter. And in Feb. 1863 I went to Nashville Tenn. for Bro Smiley to bring him home. He was in the hospital. He was sick. He belonged to the 88 Regt. Ind. Vol. and I was there two weeks and I took sick with typhoid fever and was sick four weeks. I was staying at Capt. Drivers and I had good care and Bro Smiley was getting better and he wanted me to come home as soon as I got able and he would come home as soon as he would get his discharge. I stopped to see him when I started home and he was better but that was the last time ever got to see him. The hospital was moved and he got sick and died and was buried in Nashville Tenn. I got home and took a relapse and was sick four weeks at Kamm's and when I was getting better a young lady, a Miss Mary J. Line came to Kamm's to stay with them and her sister Annie was staying with them and we had a good time and I boarded with them all summer and October 25, 1863 I was married to Mary J. Line. The Rev. Ruthrof married us and we stayed with Kamm's on Berry St. and we was painting the Berry St. Church and we tried to work on New Years Day of 1864 but it was too cold. That was the cold New Years and while we was working at the church Mary had all her wedding clothes stolen and we never heard from them and in April 1864 we bought out Robinson furniture. They lived in John Dawson's house on E Berry St. and we went to house keeping and Annie lived with us and J J Kamm and I went into business on Columbia St. under Calericks Hall in the paint and wallpaper business. My health failed and I sold out to George Mill and I went in with O L Starkey in the painting and Annie had the small pox and after she got better we moved to Mr. Webbers house on Lewis St. and when Annie had the same pox in the Dawson house Myrtie was born and I had to take care of Annie and the baby. I could not get any one to come to the house and the house we was in on Lewis St. Mr. Webber sold and we had to move. We could not get a house. We stored our goods and the folks went out home and I boarded at the Hediken House and I bought a house of Mr. Blystone on W. Main St. in 1865 and we lived a few months in the house and sold it to Mr. Recol. I did not get any better and the Dr. said I had better go on the farm. I bought a farm of Amos Manning north of my father's in the Eel River Twp. and moved out in the fall and I rented it to Bro William and we lived in the same house and I taught school at the Manning school house in the winter of 1865 and 1866 and on Jan. 5, 1866 our little Myrtie died and she was buried at Eel River and in the fall of 1865 I went out to Wolf Lake and bought a load of wheat for seed and paid $2.00 per bushel for it and the next harvest we did not save a grain. The weevils eat it up, a total failure. We had a good crop of corn. My health was no better. I could not work on the farm. We had a sale and sold off every thing and the folks went home to stay and I came to Fort Wayne to get work and I got a job with J B White and Barden to buy on the streets for the fruit house and before we moved to town John was born at the old home and I rented a house on the corner of Wayne and Harrison and we moved in the last of Nov. 1866 and Annie lived with us. And in Dec. Mart Hall wanted me to go in Orffs Store to clerk and I was with them seven years and in 1867 we moved to W. Jefferson St. in Mr. Thumans house and in 1868 we moved to Webster St. Rented at Mr. Bridenstine and Millie was born there in 1869 and in August 1870 we bought a house, no. 38 Lavina St. of Reason V Jones and George was born there and in 1875 I left Orffs. Father died in 1877 on Lavina St. Went with George De Wald & Co. and was with them until Frank was born 1880 on Lavina St. In 1881, I sold out and went to Albion with Adams and Mossman and we moved to Columbia City and had a store Adams McCurdy and Co. and we rented a house of Mr. Jones and we broke up. Adams used the money and I closed the store and Adams sold the store to Halderman and I got out $1000 dollars and we came back to Fort Wayne and I went to work for George DeWald & Co. again and we rented a house on W Jefferson St. and in Oct. 1885 I bought a house on Third St. Mother died in 1888. Was with DeWalds until they burnt out in 1899 and the clerks started the Wayne D.G. Store in 1900. The firm was JTM Lloyd, Christ Hitzman, A R McCurdy, Herman Koppel, and E J Williams and we had good business and in 1902 I was taken sick and I sold out and in 1902 & 1903 we went to Columbia Alabama for my health. Came home April 11, 1903 and May 4, 1904 went to Hot Springs and came home the last of June 1904. Andrew died June 18, 1907, age 71y 7m 16d, buried in lot #87 section G, Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, IN.
Typed from Andrew's handwritten pages by Loren Anderson of Canton, Michigan.