ADIEU DEAR COMRADE, YOUR MISSION IS FULFILL'D

ADIEU DEAR COMRADE, YOUR MISSION IS FULFILL'D

(Whitman, Adieu to a Soldier)

JAMES E. DORLAND, 41ST OVI

by Richard Baldwin Cook  

Excerpts reprinted from the OHIO CIVIL WAR GENEALOGY JOURNAL, Vol XIV Issue 1 (#53) (2010, pp. 20-25) Published quarterly by the Ohio Genealogical Society, ogs@ogs.org

 (OCWGJ EDITOR’S NOTE: The following sketch is taken from All Of The Above II (Nativabooks LLC, 2008), available at bookstores and on line at amazon.com and elsewhere. The author, Richard Baldwin Cook, is the great-grandson of James E. Dorland. In this and a companion volume, All Of The Above I, Cook has traced dozens of genealogies from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky back to the colonies, and many of them back several generations in England, Ireland, Scotland and continental Europe.)

James E. Dorland (1844-1915) was born in the village of Holmesville OH on 15 March 1844. James' father, Ezekiel Dorland (1812-1846), died when James was two years old. James' mother was Lucinda Haley Dorland (Lash) (1818-1893). James’ brother Richard (1839-?) was older than James by five years. The 1860 federal census records Lucinda Dorland and sons Richard, 21, and James, 16, living in Salt River Township, Wayne County OH. [. . .]

Lucinda was buried (Lot 16, Square 3 in East Union Cemetery, East Union Township) beside Ezekiel, who died on 23 April 1846 at age 32. Also buried here is Mary E. Dorland (Jan 1842-24 Aug 1855). [. . .]

In August 1862, shortly after his 18th birthday, James enlisted as a Private in Company C, 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served to the close of the war. [. . .]

On 15 March 1863, James was in a convalescent camp near Nashville for a respiratory problem. "I have a bad cold," James wrote to his mother. "I can hardly speak out loud. I was on guard last night and it made my cold worse." James' main concern on that occasion (which was also his nineteenth birthday) was that his brother Richard be stopped from trying to bring James home.

"You know how I would feel if he would come down here and have to go home without me and I know or almost know that he would. There would be ten chances to one for him to for I have seen too many cases like that. Some brings their children citizens clothes and take them home but I would sooner stay my two years than to go home that way. Tell him to stay at home until I send for him."

All of James' surviving letters to his mother are vaguely descriptive of warfare and the fighting he was in, as he tries to adopt a youthful bravado without terrifying his mother about the dangers. On 1 June 1864, James wrote, "We were ordered to make a charge, which we did, with great slaughter." The letter was penned "near Pumpkin Vine Creek," Georgia. Three months later, James, by then one of Sherman's seasoned veterans, wrote again to his mother, reporting with slight drama and no embellishment, "We marched about 50 miles to get the rebels out of Atlanta and we took possession and are now laying in camp." (Editor’s note: James is most likely referring to the 27 May 1864 battle at Pickett’s Mills GA, in which the 41st recorded 108 men killed and wounded, out of the 262 who went into the engagement. Discussion of this battle is included in the regimental history, cited below, pages 82-89.)

JAMES’ LIFE AFTER THE WAR

Arabelle America Ireland (1850-1895) and James were married in Belle’s parents' home in Columbia City IN on 11 October 1871. The date is recorded in a formal certificate of marriage in the handwriting and signature of the minister, Hugh Wells, the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Columbia City.

James moved eventually to Louisville KY, where he conducted a profitable career as managing representative for the American Book Company. He provided textbooks to the public schools of Louisville and the near region. The 1911 Louisville City Directory (Carson's 1911 Directory, page 0353) lists James' residence at 1307 S. First St. It was in this stately residence that James and Belle raised their two daughters, Blanche and Ethyl, during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. James may have lived in Illinois prior to settling in Louisville. This is suggested by the federal census of 1900, which recorded that his second daughter, Ethyl, 23, had been born in Illinois in 1876-77.

In Louisville, James was known as a gregarious and popular man. In keeping with his Dorland heritage, James was an active Presbyterian. This Calvinist legacy extended back to James' grandfather, for whom he was named. The first James Dorland (1 Aug 1781-2 Feb 1858) was himself a Presbyterian lay reader. (Editor’s note: to distinguish the elder James from his grandson, the primary subject of this article, the elder James will be designated as James-1.) James-1 was the great-grandson of Gerret (Garret) Dorlandt (Dorland) (1707-1774), who was an original subscriber of the first Dutch Reformed Church in Harlingen NJ and served the congregation as both deacon and elder.

Daughter Blanche married Cecil Virgil Cook. What would the fathers of the bride and groom have talked about at the wedding reception? We have no record or family recollection, which might guide our speculation. Joshua Flood Cook (1834-1912), father of the groom, was of a slave-owning family. At age 27 in 1861, Joshua had resigned the presidency of a female "institute" in Kentucky to become a Baptist chaplain in the Southern cause. J.F. Cook had buried more than one Confederate soldier, including his young brother-in-law, Willie Farmer, who died in 1862, shortly after the battle of Shiloh, from a shattered hip. (For additional Cook and Farmer family details, please see All Of The Above I & II). In his memoir, Old Kentucky (1908), Joshua recorded with pride that his brothers “rode with Morgan” on rebel raids into James E. Dorland's home state of Ohio. The deepest penetration into Ohio by John Hunt Morgan and his "Raiders" was to Lisbon in July 1863. Lisbon was the first Ohio hometown of James Dorland's grandparents, Mary and James-1 Dorland. A monument five miles south of Lisbon commemorates Morgan's capture.

Although James Dorland had settled in Louisville after the Civil War, he had reached manhood in the uniform of the Federal army. By age twenty, he was a battle-hardened veteran with three years service, much of it under the command of General William T. Sherman. By his 21st birthday, James had seen much death and destruction and probably had caused some of it. During the war he had written to his mother that he had participated in "much slaughter." No doubt James had buried many a young Ohio boy like himself, to say nothing of many a 'rebel' boy as well.

James died in New York City on 14 January 1915, while visiting his daughter Ethyl Barnes Qualey and her husband, Joe. James, a member of the Warren Memorial Presbyterian Church (4th and Broadway) in Louisville, was eulogized as "one of the best loved men in the city."

JAMES DORLAND'S PATERNAL ANCESTRY

James' father was Ezekiel Dorland (14 Sep 1812-23 Apr 1846), dead at age 34, and his mother was Lucinda Haley Dorland Lash (1818/20-1893). Although orphaned of his dad, James knew both his paternal grandparents; he had been named for his father's father, James-1 Dorland (1 Aug 1781-2 Feb 1858.) Grandfather James married Mary Moore (22 Nov 1785-16 Feb 1869) in southwestern Pennsylvania on 11 Dec 1804. James-1 and Mary made their homes in Lisbon (called at first New Lisbon Village). They subsequently moved to the nearby village of Fredericksburg OH. Mary is listed in the 1860 Fredericksburg census, where she and James-1 had raised eighteen children. Yes, eighteen children. She is thought to have been buried in Crestline OH.

James' Moore great-grandparents moved from Pennsylvania to Lisbon OH, not long after their daughter's PA wedding in 1804. The move to Ohio is certain at this time because Mary's father, John Moore, was a reader in the Presbyterian Church in Lisbon from 7 Aug 1807 until 19 Sep 1812. To function as a lay reader usually meant a person conducted the regular weekly service in the absence of an ordained minister. From the fact of congregational leadership and public reading by her father, we infer that Mary came from an educated background, whose Reformed religious principles would have fitted her comfortably into the Dutch Reformed traditions of her husband's ancestors.

DORLANDS - FROM HOLLAND TO AMERICA

The word "dorlandt" appears to be a Dutch compound, "dor" (sterile, barren) and "landt," and therefore can be taken to mean 'unproductive soil.' There is no clear reason how 'Dorlandt’ came to be a proper last name. Absence of certain etymology is a characteristic of many names. A reasonable speculation suggests this was a convenience, developing out of the circumstance that surnames became both needed and common as Europeans, whether peasants or privileged, became more mobile during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. You could call yourself or were called by whatever moniker identified you most conveniently to your original place or people. The Dorlandts were Dutch people from, it seems, barren farmland. [. . .]

The first of James E. Dorland's ancestors to have traveled an angry sea from Bruekelen, Holland to Brooklyn, New York Colony was Lambert Janse Dorlandt (1639-1720) [. . .] On 16 April 1663, Lambert arrived in New Amsterdam on the ship Bomekoe (Spotted Cow).  There may still be found an historical marker on a farm north of Sunset Road, Montgomery Township, NJ, which was placed on Lambert’s grave after the headstone was lost.  There are recent reports that the farm house he built along Sunset Road about 1710 is still standing.

[. . .]

Lambert Janse Dorlandt married Hermina Janse Peters (Hermptje Janse Pieterse) in 1665. Lambert and Hermina had eight children, the oldest son (and third child) being Gerret Janse Dorlandt (abt 1666-1736). Gerret was born in Brooklyn and died in Somerset NJ. He married Jannetje Jansen Schenck (abt 1673-bf 1695) on 20 May 1692 in Brooklyn. He then married Marytje ______ (abt 1665-abt 1751). Gerret and Marytje had four children, including Gerret (Garret) Dorlandt (Dorland) (1707-1774), who married Hilitie (Matilda) Van Arsdalen (1712-1774) on 13 March 1730/31 in Harlingen, Somerset County NJ. Garret Dorland was an original subscriber of the Dutch Reformed Church in Harlingen and served as both deacon and elder of the church.  Garret’s body was reportedly moved from a family cemetery to the Harlingen Reformed Church Cemetery.

Garret and Hilitie Dorlandt were the parents of ten or eleven children, including Lucas (Luke) Dorland (1748/9-aft 1787), who became the husband of Eleanor (Aulche) ______ (1752-16 Oct 1835) in about 1773 in New York. As far as is known, Luke and Eleanor lived their lives in Harlingen, NJ. This Lucas has been incorrectly identified as the founder of Warren Wilson College in Ashville, NC. (See below.)

The youngest of the four children of Lucas and Eleanor Dorland was James-1(1781-1858), who was born in Harlingen, NJ on 1 Aug 1781, married Mary Moore on 11 Dec 1804, and died on 4 Feb 1858 in Fredricksburg OH.

This Dorland line, traced forward from Lambert, Garrett-1, Garrett-2, and James-1 remained for generations in New Jersey and then migrated from New Jersey to Ohio.  [. . .]

“COLOR, CASTE, OR CLASS DISTINCTIONS ARE AN EVIL THING”

Some researchers do not list all of the children of Mary and James-1: they have only Luke Dorland (1815-1897), his wife Juliette E. Goodfellow (1824-1897), and their son, Charles Johnson Dorland (?-?). There is good reason to focus on Luke and Juliette Dorland, who left an impressive historic legacy. They were Presbyterian missionaries, employed by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. In 1867, working in the mountains of Western North Carolina, they founded Scotia Seminary for Negro Women in Concord NC. Luke was the school’s first president. (In 1932, the name of Scotia Seminary was changed to Barber-Scotia College.) Historian Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore has written (see Sources, below) that Scotia Seminary’s ”biracial faculty oversaw a curriculum calculated to give students the knowledge, social consciousness, and sensibilities of New England ladies, with a strong dose of Boston egalitarianism sprinkled in.” Seminary President Luke Dorland declared that “skilled hands must be directed by a sound mind in a sound body, motivated by a zeal to serve others." An early Scotia student, Mary McLeod, recalled her northern white teachers’ insistence that “the color of a person's skin has nothing to do with his brains, and that color, caste, or class distinctions are an evil thing."

In 1867, Luke led the organization of the Bellefonte Presbyterian Church in Concord NC. In 1869 and 1872, he was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Concord NC, and in 1884 was pastor of the African Presbyterian Church, also in Concord. Luke and Juliette remained active even in retirement. In 1887, they secured financial backing from northern Presbyterians and founded yet another school in the NC mountains, the Dorland Institute in Hot Springs, Madison County NC. Luke and Juliette provided the early instruction in their home and erected the first buildings at their own expense. In 1914, the school was described as worth $40,000, providing instruction, room and board for 70 girls as well as 30 boys, who were also taught farming practices. In addition to the boarders, there were 60 non-residential students. The Dorland Institute merged in 1918 with the Bell Institute to form the Dorland-Bell School, which merged in 1942 with the Ashville Farm School, which was the predecessor of Warren Wilson College in Ashville, NC. [. . .]

Just as James-1 in the eighteenth century left behind his Dutch reformed traditions and family in New Jersey to settle in Ohio, the nineteenth century found some of the Ohio-based Dorlands striking out on adventures of their own. Some of these seem to have been stimulated more by wanderlust than from any well designed plan. In March 1852, a certain Garret Dorland of Perry Township OH led a one-hundred member company of men to the California Gold Fields. The party included a Cornelius Dorland as well. The company traveled by boat down the Ohio River to Cairo IL, up the Mississippi to Independence MO, and then overland to California. As far as is known, they found no gold but did manage to establish Dorland progeny throughout the far West.  

JAMES E. DORLAND'S MATERNAL ANCESTRY: HALEY, COTTON, RICKETTS, CHENEY, NICHOLSON, POWELL, JONES

James’ mother, Lucinda Haley (1818/20-1893) was the daughter of Richard Healy (1786-1824) and Rachael Cotton (1785-?). They were married 16 April 1807, possibly in Wayne County OH. Richard died in Salt Creek Township, Holmes (formerly Wayne) County OH. His parents were John Healy (?-?) and Sarah Wilson (?-?).

Rachael was one of eleven children born to John Cotton (1748-15 July 1818) and Mary Ricketts (15 July 1755-29 Nov 1833). They were married 2 June 1774, probably in Anne Arundel County MD. In 1810, John Cotton appears in the Beaver County PA census. By 1814, he is the owner of 160 acres of land in Holmes County OH. Both John and Mary died in Salt Creek Township, Holmes County OH. John Cotton is known to have been buried in the Wolgamot Cemetery in Salt Creek Township.

Mary Ricketts Cotton, grandmother of Lucinda Haley Dorland, was the daughter of Cheney Ricketts (1732-15 May 1814) and Ann Cheney (1734-13 Sep 1813). Cheney Ricketts was born in Maryland Colony and died in Fairfield County OH. Ann was born in Prince George's County MD and probably died in Fairfield County OH. Cheney Ricketts was the son of Edward Ricketts (1706-1786) and Mary Ann Cheney (?-?).

Edward's parents were Thomas Ricketts (20 Sep 1685-?) and Rebecca Nicklisson (Nicholson) (19 April 1681-?). Both Thomas and Rebecca were born in South River, Anne Arundel County MD. Rebecca's parents were John Nicklisson (1651-?) and Rebeckath _______ (1655-?). Both John and Rebeckath were born in South River as well.

Mary Ann Cheney (wife of Edward Ricketts) was the daughter of Charles Cheney Jr (1703-?) and Mary Powell (?-?). Charles Jr. was the son of Charles Cheney Sr. (6  Jun 1673/77-1745) and Anne Jones (1677/81-?). Both Charles Cheney Sr. and Anne Jones were born in Anne Arundel County MD. They were married 15 July 1701. Therefore, we reach the conclusion that James Dorland was, through his mother's Haley, Cotton, Ricketts, Cheney and allied families, but two generations removed from Anne Arundel County MD, where his ancestors had lived for close to two hundred years prior to the arrival into central Ohio of James' maternal grandparents.

CAVE HILL CEMETERY, LOUISVILLE KY

James and Belle Ireland Dorland are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville KY in a perpetual care plot, which James bought in 1895 at the time of Belle's death. They lie beneath a large granite monument James selected for them and located among the Ballards, Fields, Galts, Speeds, and other Louisville notables of the nineteenth century. Cecil V. Cook Jr. (1913-1970), grandson of James and Belle, and Cecil's wife Betty Taylor Cook (1918-2000) are also buried in the Dorland plot at Cave Hill.

SOURCES – PLEASE SEE: the OHIO CIVIL WAR GENEALOGY JOURNAL, Vol xiv Issue 1 (#53) 2010, pp. 24-25)

The illustrations (among dozens which are reproduced in All Of The Above I & II) are charcoal drawings, made by Leah Fanning Mebane from family photos. 

OCWGJ EDITOR’S NOTES:

The 41st OVI participated in most of the major engagements in the Western Theater, from Shiloh to Nashville. Its first commander, William B. Hazen, became a brigade and division commander well-known for the day-long defense of his brigade’s position at Stones River. Its second commander, Acquila Wiley, was initially the commander of Dorland’s Company C, but rose to regimental command when Hazen was promoted. He was wounded at Shiloh and severely wounded at Missionary Ridge, suffering the amputation of a leg and causing his resignation from the service. Another of the initial company commanders, Emerson Opdycke, left the 41st for promotion to regimental commander of the 125th OVI, which gained its greatest honors filling a gap in the Union line near the cotton gin during a critical moment in the Battle of Franklin TN.

Although Stones River is not listed in the battles in which Dorland participated, it occurred during his period of  service. It may be that he was away on other duty, or was not available due to illness. There is evidence that August 1862 recruits were with the regiment at Stones River, such as Albert McFarland of Company A, who enlisted on 30 Aug 1862, and was killed on 31 Dec 1862 at Stones River.

The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion (Volume IV, page 179) lists Dorland’s enlistment date as 30 April 1862, whereas the Dorland family information and his organizational pension index card both state his enlistment date as August 1862. It is likely that August is the correct date, which can be corroborated from his Compiled Military Service Record and pension file. Only one other person in the entire regiment, Theodore Hawley of Company B, has an enlistment date in April 1862, but he was an experienced recruit from the 19th OVI in the 3-months’ service. On the other hand, there are many enlistments shown for August 1862, including eight others in Company C alone.

The regimental history was published under the title The Forty-First Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry in The War of the Rebellion. 1861-1865. (Robert L. Kimberly and Ephraim S. Holloway, With the Co-operation of the Committee of the Regimental Association ... Cleveland, Ohio: W. R. Smellie, Printer and Publisher, 1897. Reprinted by Blue Acorn Press, Huntington WV, 1999.) Kimberly and Holloway were both veterans of the 41st who in succession commanded the regiment after Colonel Wiley, both promoted to Colonel and eventually Brevet Brigadier General. Their summary of the regiment’s service is as follows (page 292): “On a general summing up we find this Regiment traveled during the service 14,500 miles: 5,200 by water, 3,800 by rail, and 5,500 on foot. Was engaged in 20 battles, besides a great many skirmishes. Lost, 109 killed in battle, 69 died of wounds, 141 died of disease, and 3 killed by accidents; total, 322 deaths. There were 616 wounded that are known, and a great many more were slightly wounded, of which there is no record.”