On the Trail of My Civil War Ancestor

I've been on the trail of my 2x great grandfather, Edward Myrick, ever since I found out he and his father, Enoch Myrick, were born in Clermont County, Ohio. My father's mother was a Myrick, and as far as I had known (and probably my father knew) they all lived in Indiana for a long time. But not this branch. Edward Myrick moved to Indiana right after the Civil War. He died when my grandmother was not quite six, so no one spoke of his service.

Edward Myrick served in the Civil War. He signed up not far from his home at Camp Dennison and he also mustered out there at the end of the war. Discovering he had applied for an invalid pension helped me find out this information. Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit the site. It's only open on Sunday afternoons and run by some nice volunteer ladies from the DAR. There are two sites to visit. One is the Christian Waldschmidt Homestead, built in 1803. It's quite interesting, but by the time my ancestor was there, the Waldschmidts were not. The area and houses were abandoned and claimed by the state, and the surrounding land rented from the families who owned it--between 600 and 700 acres, depending on the source you pick. Being so close to the river, and with the railroad running right through the middle of the site, it was the logical place to put a large (about 18,000 men at a time) training facility. The DAR ladies said the site was chosen to protect the city of Cincinnati.

Camp Dennison

I did not take any pictures inside, but there were some amazing pieces, including a wardrobe from Germany that was able to be dismantled for travel. It was beautiful carved and dated to 1714.

Camp Dennison. This photo appeared in Harpers Weekly.

But the reason I'd come was to experience a later time, the Civil War era. The Civil War museum houses much less, but is still interesting. A small house at the rear of the property, named Kate's house by the Waldschmidts for the daughter it had been built for, served as the guard house to Camp Dennison. (The main house was for the officers and administration.) Kate's house holds some guns, uniforms, photographs, letters, Bibles, journals, and artifacts unearthed from the site. In addition there are stories displayed throughout that make interesting reading.

Kate's House, which served as the gate house to Camp Dennison.

Beyond where the railroad was. (Now a bike trail.) This serves as a youth soccer field but once would have held solider housing or perhaps a firing range.

This Civil War memorial was erected in the 1930s.

Back of the monument above.

Edward Myrick served in the 89th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company F, enlisting August 6, 1862. Camp Dennison opened about a year earlier. He was disabled by illness while on duty near Carthage, TN, on Feb. 28, 1863. He was treated at several hospitals in TN and Atlanta, so I believe with the exception of one 30-day furlough, he continued to travel with his company. He was discharged at Camp Dennison on June 17, 1865, essentially at the end of the war. The camp was deactivated in September of that year.

My dad, a WWII veteran, never knew this. He would have been proud, I'm sure.

Edward Myrick later in life. He died in 1907.

There is more to the Myrick story. Edward's father, Enoch and who I presume was his father, George, joined the Gilead Anti-Slavery Society of Clermont County when Enoch was only 14, in 1836. I'm still trying to find out more, so the search continues! :)

From the minute book, found here: http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p267401coll32/id/3190/rec/1

Updates!

Lots of exciting things happening. I'm hoping to get a newsletter out in a day or two, so if you're not signed up, just looking for the link above. I'm going to include a giveaway this month.

Next week I'll be at the Indy Irish Festival.

At the same time I'll be attending ACFW's annual conference in Indy, and I'll get to meet with my agent, three Tyndale editors, and many new and long-time author buddies. It will fun for sure!

On Saturday, Oct. 12, I'll be at the Books By the Banks book festival in Cincinnati.

For more updates, be sure to like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cindyswriting

I've been going through my photos from Ireland. Here's one I like. What do you think? I love beaches in all kinds of weather!

On a beach in Sligo.

Pictures From Ireland

It's been awhile since I've shared some of my pictures from Ireland. I have so many more! I hope you'll enjoy these from beautiful Sligo, Ireland.

Hope over to my blog, Celtic Voices to view them by clicking here.

Me on Echoes of Erin!

I was honored to speak to radio host Diane Byrnes today on WEDO 810 in Pittsburgh about my new book, Grace's Pictures.


My interview on Echoes of Erin starts on this clip below at 57:37, but there's some good music there too that you might like to hear.

Echoes of Erin interview clip, August 18.

Two notes: I did say goodbye! She seems to have lost me at the end, but I wasn't being rude, I promise. And...gotta work on those "ums!"

Is a Park Better Than a Monstrosity?

One thing that surprised me when I visited New York City was the plethora of parks. I guess I had thought Central Park was the only one. Some of the parks in Manhattan are very small, but they offer respites of green space and refreshing fountains that city dwellers need. Battery Park, Washington Square, Market Square, Gramercy Park, Hudson River Park...Wikipedia says there are 74 parks in Manhattan!

The development of the city has a long history. Open spaces came and went over the centuries. In Book Two of the Ellis Island Series the male protagonist is a postman, so naturally I was interested in the main post office building of the time. What I discovered surprised me. Not that the building of that era no longer exists, but that it was so sorely disfavored from the time it was erected in 1880 to when it was demolished in 1939 in favor of extending City Hall Park. The main post office was considered "old fashioned" and an eyesore on the point of Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street.

In this photograph the building looks majestic.

Maybe it's the coloring or the perspective, but this photograph causes me to see the complaint. See the wee bit of green peeking out behind the left side of the building? That's the hidden City Hall Park.

It was designed by architect Arthur Mullet and dubbed "Mullet's Monstrosity." The post office was built in the style of the Second Empire Baroque. It's not that there weren't any other buildings of that style. One example is the Waldorf-Astoria, built later in 1893. At the time it was "the talk of the town." Perhaps New Yorkers thought the style better suited to a luxury hotel than a post office. However, this building (pictured below) was demolished ten years before Mullet's post office.

A 1912  New York Times article voiced concern that a proposal in Congress to demolish the Mullet Post Office might fail. Plans were to extend City Hall Park through the spot where the building stood.

"The Mullet Post Office has always been an architectural eyesore, and has, from the first, been unsatisfactory to the Postal Service and the Federal Courts also beneath its roof...The restoration of City Hall Park as a civic centre, with no superfluous building to mar its parklike aspect, so that old City Hall could remain as a historic landmark amid appropriate surroundings has been looked forward to..."

The issue, of course, was that it was Federal property that the city wanted back. No doubt that's what took so long. New Yorkers wanted the building gone almost as soon as it went up. Perhaps the fact that it stood on a point made it too overbearing.

The deed was done, however. Here's an early photograph from 1939.

And here it is today.

So what do you think? Is the park better or do you like the elaborate old building?