Minerva
Jane 'Jennie"
(Miner) Lame
(1855- ? )
Minerva Jane "Jennie" (Miner) Lame was born in 1855 in Pickaway Twp., Pickaway County, OH, the daughter of John "Henry" and Malinda (Six) Minor.
As a young girl, Jennie moved with her parents to a farm near Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, IN, which is where she may have met her future husband. Later, the Miners migrated again to Missouri, with Jennie apparently in tow. While the rest of her story is not proven with precision, the circumstantial evidence is strong, and follows here.
At age 18, Jennie is believed to have married Civil War veteran Jeptha M. Lame (1843-1880). The ceremony took place in September 1872 in Lebanon, Boone County, MO. Jeptha was 12 years older than Jennie. He stood 6 feet tall and had a dark complexion.
Jeptha was a farmer who as an 18-year old resided near Thorntown, Boone County, IN. During the Civil War, and eager to join the fray, he went to nearby Lafayette, Tippecanoe County to enroll in the US Army on Oct. 23, 1861. He was assigned the rank of Private in the 40th IN Volunteer Infantry, Company K.
Union troops destroy the Macon Railroad at Jonesboro, where Jeptha was wounded
Jeptha and his regiment saw action in Georgia. On about Sept. 1, 1864, he was wounded by a gunshot in battle at Jonesborough, GA. The enemy musket ball struck his left shoulder and cut through his upper body toward his right upper back, where it lodged. He was taken to Tennessee where he was treated for 10 days in a field hospital in Chattanooga, and the bullet was extracted. He then was transferred to the U.S. Hospital No. 19 in Nashville, where he remained for two more weeks.
A
physician's sketch, showing the entry and exit points of the musket ball, is seen
at right.
Describing the wound, Jeptha later said it "causes almost entire loss of use of left arm and great weakness of back, preventing to a great extent [my] performance of manual labor."
At the expiration of his two-year term of service, Jeptha was discharged on Jan. 11, 1865. In August of that year, Dr. M.H. Bonnel, a physician examining Jeptha, stated that "the wound is still open, perhaps will heale."
After returning home, Jeptha filed a petition to receive a pension from the federal government in compensation for his wartime wound. The petition was approved, and on Feb. 5, 1866, he received his first monthly check of $8.00. The following year, the pension was reduced to $6.00 monthly, and again in 1873 it was lowered to $4.00. In 1874, it was increased again to $6.00 monthly.
By 1873, the newlyweds had migrated to Missouri, where they resided in Butler, Bates County. A year later, on Aug. 10, 1874, son Charles R. Lame was born. By 1878, the Lames had moved again, to Jefferson, Cole County, MO.
A surgeon examining Jeptha in 1874 wrote: "The shoulder droops, and is much weakened, and the nerves of the spine are injured to such an extent as to affect the left side from the neck to the small of the back -- and at times prevent him from performing any labor whatever." When checked immediately after the war, Jeptha weighed 144 lbs., but over the years, he regained weight and by 1878 was up to 165 lbs.
Jeptha suffered from heart disease, which led to his death. He passed away from its effects on May 30, 1880, at Jefferson City, MO.
As son Charles was just age 8 at the time of his father's death, he was assigned a guardian -- his grandfather, Isaiah Lame ( ? -1884 ), of Danville, Vermilion County, IL, and later of Bennett, Lancaster County, NE. In 1884, Isaiah signed an application asking the federal government to award Jeptha's pension to the boy. Ruth (Calvert) Lame, Isaiah's wife, signed the document as a witness. When Isaiah died in 1884, the legal custody of the Charles was taken over by his uncle, Isaiah Hickman Lame (1854- ? ).
Jennie is believed to have married again to George W. Reynolds. It's possible George also was a Civil War veteran, and a fellow member of Jeptha's regiment, the 140th Indiana Volunteers.
After that, Jennie's fate is unknown, lost in the mists of history.
According to family lore, Charles resided with his uncle Isaiah until age 18, when he "left Nebraska and the sorghum molasses making business that the family had going." Charles may have felt he had escaped the world of sorghum molasses, but "after trying several other things, and on his second marriage with the kids coming, he and his wife started their own molasses making business in Louisiana, Pike County, MO early in the century."
In 1900, at the time the federal census was taken, Charles resided in Audrain County, MO.
Copyright © 2005, 2007 Mark A. Miner