Couple discovers much about military man buried in Citizens' Cemetery
by Bob and Candy Heath and Betty CorrellWhile attending the Memorial Day Services at Citizen's Cemetery a year ago, my wife Candy, her mother Betty Correll and I were asked to adopt a grave site. We willingly agreed but asked if it could be a grave of a California veteran, as all our relatives were in California.
We were given the grave of a California soldier, Private Joseph Hemphill. From the obituary that was supplied, we learned that he was born in Ohio. He came to Arizona in the early 1860's while serving in Co. K 6th California Volunteer Infantry. He served as a private in the Civil War. He was a member of the Barrett Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died in Prescott on November 7, 1898 at the age of 72. He left no relatives in Arizona at the time of his death.
Being anxious to find out more about him, we went to the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives, looking for any person's named Hemphill living in Prescott from 1860 to 1900. We found the above obituary in the Prescott newspaper.
We were encouraged by Richard Gorby at the Archives to research other sources, such as the voter rolls or the Great Register of Yavapai County. We found that Joseph had registered in 1880, listing his age as 50, then in 1896 as age 70 and 1898 as 72.
We also researched references to the California Volunteer Infantry in the 1860's in the Prescott area but so far have not found references to Company K 6th Regiment. We think there may be more information at the archives to dig into.
Meanwhile, Pat Atchison suggested that we write to the National Archives in Washington for Joseph's military records. First we acquired his pension records which contained a wealth of information including affidavits written and signed by Joseph attesting to the fact that he had been a teamster for the government in California and Arizona after his discharge from the Army. He apparently lived for a time during his last years at the National Military Home in Los Angeles and received a military pension of $12 per month for disabilities of rheumatism and cataracts.
We also learned that he had enlisted in the Army in April 1863 at the age of 36. We wondered why he left Ohio and what might have caused him to join the army.
Next we sent for his military service record from Washington. From that we learned that he listed his occupation at enlistment as a miner. Maybe he went to California in the 1850's like so many other men to search for gold and not having found his fortune decided to enlist. Or maybe during the height of the civil war his patriotism required him to join for his country.
We learned that he mustered-in to Company I at Benicia Barracks, Forest Hill, San Francisco, California for 3 years service. And now we had his description! Joseph at the age of 38 was 5 feet 8 inches tall, had a dark complexion, blue eyes and black hair and weighed 150 pounds. We wondered if there might be a picture somewhere of him in his military uniform.
During 1864 he served on detached service as a steamer guard (?), but no reference to duty in Prescott or Arizona. He was discharged when his company was mustered-out in San Francisco in 1865.
We had never done any genealogy research before so we were not sure where to turn next for more information. Again Pat Atchison came to the rescue and uncovered two references for us to check out. One was a book from the Prescott Library titled "Record of California Men in the War of Rebellion 1861-1867". It confirmed Joseph's dates of enlistment, muster-in and discharge. The other source uncovered by Pat was a reference in the "Yellow Jacket, The Great River Genealogical Society" publication, listing a Hemphill Historical Society in Woodstock, Georgia.
We excitedly wrote to the president to see if he had any additional information on Joseph or his family from Ohio. He wrote back to us that he had no information, but that he was currently writing a book that would list and record all Hemphills who had served their country in the military. He was very grateful for the information we had to supply him and appreciated that we were caring for the grave of one of his relatives. He also requested to notify the annual Hemphill reunion of our concern and caring for this unknown Hemphill soldier.
We still are looking for new references that might uncover more about Joseph. We feel compassion for this soldier, who served his country during time of war and later with no one to morn his passing, lay alone on a hill in Prescott. We hope that our small effort to decorate and maintain his grave will assure that he is not forgotten.
(Bob and Candy Heath and Betty Correll are Citizens' Cemetery Adopt-A-Grave project members.)
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Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(c101pe) Reuse only by permission.
Since 'adopting' the grave of Private Joseph Hemphill more than a year ago, Bob and Candy Heath and Betty Correll have found a wealth of information about the 'Arizonan' who came to the state in the 1860's while serving in the California Volunteer Infantry. Hemphill's grave is located in the Citizens' Cemetery in Row C, Block 3, Plot 3.