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The original copy of this Journal
is safely preserved in the Warsaw Community Library. Several years
ago, the Allen County Public Library made two xerox copies of
the original document. They kept one copy for their genealogy
collection and gave the other copy along with the original back
to the library for safekeeping.
The original journal is relatively easy to read, despite being
handwritten. The ACPL xerox copy is difficult to read, as some
of the pages did not copy very well, and as a result many words
are difficult, if not impossible to decipher. Since the original
Journal is much too fragile to be placed on the shelves, it seemed
like a good idea to transcribe and make available a typeset copy.
I believe there are many people who will read and enjoy this historic
document now that it can be read with ease.
It should be noted that authorship of this Journal has been erroneously
attributed to Col. Joseph B. Dodge or to General Reub Williams.
It will be apparent to the reader, as it was to me that neither
Williams nor Dodge could have written it. Col. Dodge did, in fact,
serve as secretary during the formation of Company E, but was
not a member of the unit. General Williams was an officer of the
company, but he was only responsible for carrying notes and papers
belonging to Hemphill, the author, back to Warsaw after the muster-out
ceremony in Washington D.C. in May of 1862. According to the Journal,
Mrs. Williams inadvertently destroyed the original notes and papers,
causing the author to write this document sometime after the war,
using personal diaries and company memorandums as the basic source
material. I was not able to find a date when this Journal was
actually written. Based on information in the individual records
chapter, it seems that he added information periodically until
about 1903.
William S. Hemphill was born about 1832 in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
He married Sarah A. Stoner on the 16th of August 1855 (Kos. Co.
Marriage Records Book A Page 449). She was born in 1830, the daughter of Christian
Stoner and Elizabeth Morton Stoner and died April 8, 1917. According
to the 1860 Kosciusko County Indiana federal census, William and
Sarah lived in Wayne Township and had one child, Luella, aged
about 2 years old. William is shown as 28 years old and Sarah
as 30 years old.
I have not found when William Hemphill died. It was probably between
1903 and 1917 as Sarah's obituary indicates she was a widow and
her nearest surviving relative was a brother Christopher Stoner.
The Hemphills moved to Denver Colorado hoping to improve their
health. A folded letterhead laid in the back of the original document
indicates an address of 2305 Lincoln. It's quite likely that William
died in Denver and Sarah moved back to Warsaw to be near her brother's
family. Sarah is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Warsaw Indiana,
however William is not shown as buried beside her.
This is an exact transcription of the Journal. You will find very
few misspelled words. Having worked for a newspaper, Hemphill
had a good command of the language and his spelling was very good.
There is some inconsistency in the spelling of names. You will
find many words capitalized within the sentences. There didn't
seem to be a particular pattern, so they are capitalized as shown
in the original. The writer used quotation marks for emphasis
and those have been copied as shown. Italics have been used to
show words that the author underlined. In a few places I inserted
words to provide consistency or clarity. These have been placed
in square brackets.
In the original document, paragraphs were often many pages long
and there were no chapter breaks. For reading ease, I have taken
the liberty of breaking long paragraphs into shorter ones and
added the chapter headings. Incomplete sentences were left as
written. An index is added at the back of the book.
As a final note, I would like to especially thank Ann Zydek, Director
of the Warsaw Community Library for her cooperation and support
of this project and for allowing me to make a working copy and
proofread the transcription against the original document.
Marjorie Priser
NOTE: This introduction was completed in 1993 when the transcription was completed. I have since found that WILLIAM S. HEMPHILL, author of this journal died in Denver Colorado on August 27, 1907 and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery as reported in the Denver Republican.
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