52.12: Misfortune; Catharine Murphy Reck

This post is part of a project called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" created by Amy Johnson Crow.

The prompt this week is Misfortune. This dovetails with last week's Lucky story of William Harrison Reck.

As with most women in my family tree, I don't know a great many details about my great-great grandmother Catharine Murphy Reck. She was born on October 3rd, 1838 in Miami County, Ohio to William Henry and Mary (Sipe) Murphy.  She was the oldest in a family of 13 children that all lived to adulthood.

When she was 20, she married William Harrison Reck in Darke County, Ohio. He enlisted in the Civil War a few years later.  After the war, they moved from Darke County, Ohio to Henry County, Missouri for a few years, during which time my great-grandmother was born. I don't know what took them out there or why they returned, but by 1874 they were back in Ohio. In the early 1900s they moved to Riverside County, California with several of their children, where they died and are buried.

I have a letter Catharine wrote to her daughter after the death of William Harrison. I shared that letter in this post. From this, I can tell she was well-educated and had good penmanship. I have a few pictures of her, all with a calm, mild expression. Other than these bare facts, I didn't have a lot.

Catharine and William Harrison Reck had seven children. I knew one had died young but I did not know the circumstances. His name was Charles Edward Reck, born October 16, 1868 and died April 17, 1893 aged 24. He hadn't married or fathered any children.  There are no death records available for this time, so I figured I'd never find out more.

Then in 2007, another researcher sent me a newspaper clipping. The clipping is unsourced but has the date Jan. 29, 1976 written on it. It is a human interest piece about Bertha Mae Marchal and shares some of her memories.

Newspaper Clipping Jan. 29, 1976 Dateline Versailles
Interview with Bertha Marchal

The pertinent part is marked by a pen and reads as follows: 

"Another vivid memory occurred when I was 10. One day an explosion shook the schoolhouse. We thought it might fall down. Charles Haber of Greenville was the teacher. He went out and looked all around. When he came back, he said it had to be a bomb, but there was no damage."

"We found out later it was a boiler exploded at John Kelch's saw mill. Two young men, McClurg and Reck, were eating their lunch nearby. It boiled dry and blew up and they were blown to pieces."

"Again my nosieness got the best of me. I asked my sister to go along with me to see the place.  We walked back the long road to the edge of the woods and there we found Mrs. Reck picking up pieces of the bodies. I'll never forget that."

What a horrific story. 

Steam boiler being installed in a saw mill
Black & white photonegative, 4 x 5 in. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. 

More recently, with the abundance of digitized newspapers, I thought I might find out more about this event online. The story was indeed picked up and ran in newspapers across several states as a small paragraph. Not one paper got the names of the men correct. The earliest one referred to "Charles Peck" and then almost instantly it became "Harry Rex".  The other man was called by McClung and McClerg. If I didn't already know what I was looking for, I probably would not have found them.

The earliest report I found ran two days after the explosion:

Akron Daily Democrat 19 Apr 1893, page 1
From Newspapers.com

As the story traveled, details became more lurid. A New Orleans newspaper reported this:

The Times-Democrat of New Orleans 20 Apr 1893, page 8
From Newspapers.com

I am certain Catharine Reck was out of her mind with grief. But I wondered why this 54-year-old woman was out searching for her son's body, seemingly by herself?

As I learned more about Catharine's husband William Harrison Reck, I began to understand a little. Harrison Reck dislocated his shoulder in a fall from a horse in 1889. The injury plagued him to the point he was unable to get out of bed at times for several days. Also, by the time of their son's death, he was legally blind.

Their older children were married and out of the house. Charles Edward Reck was the oldest unmarried son, and I assume he still lived with his parents, supporting them as they aged and the father was unable to work as much as he used to. There were still three other siblings at home to support: my great-grandmother Jennie age 20, Martha age 18, and Perry age 15.

Catharine's husband was unable to help her find their son's broken body. She most likely wanted to shield the girls and Perry from what she knew would be a terrible sight. But she had to get her son and lay him to rest. I wish I had a picture of Charles to share here. This is Catharine:

Catharine (Murphy) Reck 1838-1915

52.11: Lucky; Harrison Reck

This post is part of a project called "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" created by Amy Johnson Crow.

The prompt for this week is Lucky; for next week it is Misfortune. I'll use these two prompts to tell you more about my great-great grandparents, William and Catharine (Murphy) Reck.

I blogged about William before; first about his Civil War service, and then some about his life after the war.

William (also called Harrison) Reck was 24 years old when he enlisted in 1861. He had married Catharine Murphy in 1859. At the time he enlisted, they had a son David, not quite two years old, and Catharine had just given birth to their son John less than one month before. He joined the 69th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. My earlier blog post highlighted some activities of this unit.

William Harrison and Catharine Murphy Reck

Last week, in March of 2018, I visited the Stones River National Battlefield near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  Harrison Reck and his unit were in the thick of the fighting there. I read about the battle when writing my original post, but actually being there added a whole new dimension to my understanding of what these men went through.

The battle took place over three days. The men were encamped at the end of December 1862, knowing a battle was about to take place. They were ordered to have no campfires during this time. On New Year's Eve, though, the men were allowed to make fires in the morning, and enjoyed warming their hands and having some hot coffee. It was exactly at this time the Rebels attacked.

The men struggled to grab their weapons and form up. The fighting that day was incredible.  I studied the maps of where the different units were, and Harrison's Ohio 69th was very close to what became known as the Slaughter Pen. This was a rocky area with some deep crevicees where the Union soldiers hid and fired from.

The Slaughter Pen; my daughter is standing in one of the rocky cracks for scale

They became surrounded by Confederates and were ordered to retreat. As they came out of the rocks, it was easy for them to be picked off by the rebels. The rocks became slippery with blood, and bodies piled up. I am not sure Harrison was in this exact area but he was certainly near enough to know and see what was going on.

The Slaughter Pen was only a part of the horrors that day.  The Union was beaten down. New Year's Day finally dawned, though many men never slept that night. Both sides tended to their wounded and collected their dead. The Confederates felt certain they had won the day. However, due to the bravery of some units holding strong, reinforcements were able to arrive. The battle resumed the next day and led to a Union victory. Stones River was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

Harrison Reck's unit went on to other battles.  Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Missionary Ridge. Sherman's March to the Sea. Harrison, in spite of all the horrors he had to witness, was in some aspects a lucky man. First, he was a survivor. The second thing I learned at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield.

Outside the Visitors Center at Kennesaw Mountain

Visiting Kennesaw Mountain wasn't even on my travel radar that day. We were driving home from Florida to Indiana, and Kennesaw happened to be shortly past the halfway point, so that's where we stayed. I thought we might stop by the park so my daughter could earn a Junior Ranger badge. A little research the night before showed I had two ancestors who had fought there: Thomas Hilyard and Ansel Wilson; and a third whose unit was there: William Harrison Reck. However, Harrison had been placed in the Veteran's Reserve Corps a few months earlier.

The person working the desk in the visitors center was most helpful. I gave her my ancestors' units, and she looked up where they would have been camped and fought. She marked them on a map for me and photocopied some other pages of information.  When we got to Harrison Reck's unit, she looked up at me and confirmed that he wasn't actually there.  I said correct, he was taken out of active combat duty already. "He was really lucky," was her reply.  She said his unit was located at Cheatham Hill, where the heaviest losses were during this battle. "He probably wouldn't have survived this."

Harrison Reck, blind in his old age, with his cane

If you ever get a chance to visit sites like this in person, take advantage of it.  The staff is eager to share their knowledge. Walk the fields, look at the museums. Think about what your ancestor saw. It had to be a life-changing experience.

Stones River National Cemetery