BYERS BIBLE QUEST LAID TO REST… I had a private Memorial Day event last weekend in a wooded cemetery in the Hiawatha Township Cemetery; 400 miles north of South Haven, Michigan, where James A. Byers, age 38, from Waverly Township, joined the 13th Michigan Regiment in 1862.
I was at the grave of James A. Byers to tell him I had the Bible he had carried with him, marching from Kalamazoo to Nashville to Shiloh to Chickamauga to Chattanooga.
The story of the Bible I wrote in the December 13, 2007, Karl’s Kolumn; in part…
JAMES A. BYERS FAMILY, I HAVE A BIBLE FOR YOU… Perhaps 10 years ago, Anne gave me a Civil War Bible. It was printed by the American Bible Society in 1862 in New York City.
Inside the front cover, printed in pencil, is the name James Byers. Inside the back cover, again printed in pencil, is the name James Byers, plus 13th Michigan, Company I.
Sweat stained; torn; a bit tattered; throughout it are penciled underlines.
I’ve cherished this Bible; perhaps it spurred a new interest in the Civil War, causing me to pick up reading and studies of that great national catastrophe that I had abandoned at the end of my college years.
Now, for the past year or so, it seems James has been pulling at my mind. Last summer, as I walked through the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, with its vast photos of Civil War soldiers in combat, living and dying, resting at a campfire, I started studying the faces… “Is that you, James?” I often wondered, looking into eyes that had dimmed more than a century ago.
Just by chance, James was pulling at my mind just a week ago. I took his Bible off the bookshelf and opened it again.
For some reason, the name looked different; I swear it had been spelled differently that last time I had looked at. I had even approached a local named Baiers, looking for information on James. But his name wasn’t Baiers; it was Byers.
When I went to a Michigan Civil War database, there was his name as a member of the 13th Michigan.
Along with the information was a link to a Civil War database that lists all the soldiers from Michigan.
I sent them an e-mail and got a response. According to their database… James A. Byers had been drafted into the Union Army in South Haven, Michigan. He was discharged less than a year later in Washington, D.C.
He may have been from Waverly (Township?). He died in 1898 and is buried in the Hiawatha Cemetery in Manistique, Schoolcraft County, Michigan. As there are 13 other Byers buried in the cemetery, it is also known as Byers Cemetery. Buried there is an Abraham Byers who may have been his brother or cousin. According to Civil War veteran and census records of the 1880s and ’90s, he was not married.
I believe this family heirloom belongs to James’ most direct descendents; folks who will cherish it as a Bible and as a link to a man who went to war, came home, died and was buried; and somehow he lost track of his Bible. I think he wants me to give it back.
In return, I want to know what James did with his life and maybe even get to see a picture of him.
If you are kin of James A. Byers of Company I of the 13th Michigan, I want to hear from you. I have a Bible for you. (269) 463-6397
BIBLE DONATED TO MUSEUM… Lo and behold, less than a week after I wrote the column a gentleman from Coloma called to say he thought his neighbors were related to James A. Byers; that they were out of town but would return soon.
In early January, I was able to talk to Katherine Strawbridge of Coloma. She was able to tell me she thought James was a distant relative of her husband’s family and gave me a phone number of Russell and Peggy Ruggles in Manistique who live just down the road from the cemetery where James is buried. The Ruggles’ direct ancestor is James’ brother Abraham who was a member of the Hiawatha Association, a short-lived “utopian society” in the woods north of Manistique, after the war.
It was she who suggested I give the Bible to the Schoolcraft Historical Society, which has a Museum in Manistique that includes an original log cabin from the Association grounds.
I was pleased to give the Bible to Historical Society President M. Vonciel LeDuc. She told me the Bible would likely sometimes be on display in the log cabin or in the main Museum.
Vonciel told me she had read somewhere that James was a member of the Hiawatha Association as well. His brother, Abraham, was a preacher who sometimes would come to Manistique to harangue its citizens.
James’ tombstone reads J.A. Byers, 13th Michigan.
I put my hand on the stone and thought, “James, I’m glad I found you.”
As I walked in the early morning sunshine, back to my car, I was glad I had found a home for the Bible; close to James and yet available to all to share its story and perhaps add to it. I hope so.
TCR 5-22-08
