Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Culver, Truman 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 1:35 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

Truman Culver, a retired merchant, of Rock Falls, is a native of the Empire 
State. He is the first son that survived in the family of Truman H. and 
Catherine A. (Campbell) Culver, and was born in Booneville, Oneida Co., N. Y., 
Sept. 9, 1835. His parents, natives also of that State, emigrated to Lee 
County, this State, in 1860, where his father died; his mother is still 
living, with one of her sons, at Cambridge, Neb. Truman, the subject of this 
biography, remained at his parental home until he was 17 years of age. At 14 
he began to attend school; being subject to asthma, he could not begin 
earlier. Although his schooling comprised so short a term,—only three years,—
he made such progress that he then began to teach; and, as was the practice in 
those days, he "bought his time" and started out in the world for himself, 
promising to give his father $200 any time before he was 21. He paid this debt 
within 18 months. He taught eight terms of district school, alternating with 
attendance as a pupil at higher schools. From the age of 22 to 24 he attended 
college during the winters and followed manual labor the rest of the year. He 
next went to Pike's Peak to dig gold, and was not successful. After remaining 
there a month, in company with three others, he made two canoes ("dug-outs") 
from cottonwood, lashed them together to keep them from rocking while on the 
water, and started from Denver (that place then comprising only seven sod 
houses) down the Platte River to Omaha; but after going about 150 miles they 
came to grief by the upsetting of their craft in a whirlpool caused by a 
beaver dam. They lost everything except a part of a sack of flour. They made a 
fire on the bank, rolled their rescued flour, which had become wet by the 
accident, into balls and roasted them on the coals, for their bread, which 
they stored in a small sack made out of the flour sack just referred to. They 
started on foot and subsisted on these bread balls two days, when they met an 
old trapper, from whom they purchased an old coffee­pot, without spout, handle 
or bail, at the price of $4.50! In this they made gruel out of the dry portion 
of their flour, which lasted them about a week. At this time they learned from 
inscriptions on buffalo bones that the coming trains had received word that 
the gold diggings had proved a failure and that they had turned back, and 
those coming back had taken a shorter route. On learning these facts, they 
knew they would not be overtaken by any one, nor met by those coming, while 
they were hundreds of miles from civilization, without anything to eat. They 
resolved, however, to push ahead, hoping to meat friendly Indians. After their 
little store gave out the first thing they ate was cactus, which proved 
nauseous and could not be retained in the stomach. They then tried several 
kinds of weeds, but with no better effect. Finally they succeeded in capturing 
five frogs, which they ate entire! and with good results! They pushed on until 
again exhausted, when they found some herd's grass, the roots of which they 
ate. On the strength of this they trudged along two days more! But by this 
time their stomachs became so weak they could bear nothing, yet they dragged 
their weary way along for a few days more, without endeavoring to eat 
anything! At this juncture Mr. Culver noticed that the other boys avoided him, 
and were consulting each other privately!   He pretended to go to sleep, so he 
might overhear what they said; and, sure enough! he learned that two of the 
three were in favor of killing him to eat! He roused up and asked them whether 
they heard "those frogs." They answered No. He said, "Remain here, and I will 
go and look for them." Accordingly he went down to the bank, and forever 
disappeared from those fellows. He soon fell in with a band of Indians, who 
gave him "jerked" antelope, refusing money but accepting a bright-colored 
necktie as a remuneration. With this sustenance Mr. Culver pushed on, walking, 
for many days, and at last sank down on the bank of the Platte, utterly 
exhausted. He wrote on an envelope his address and a statement that he had 
starved to death; and there he lay insensible, he knows not how long, when he 
was discovered by four men, in the first boat that ever succeeded in getting 
down the river. He could not talk above a whisper. After informing them of the 
emergency, they took him aboard their boat, saying that if he were to die he 
should die with them. They gave him broth, and after a few days of careful 
management they so revived him that he became able to steer the boat. Their 
provisions being exhausted, they searched about for something to eat, and the 
best they could find was the carcass of a buffalo, which had lain so long as 
to become tainted; but they made a portion of it palatable by scorching it. A 
day or two after that gave out, they arrived at Fort Kearney, where they were 
cared for by the Government army surgeons. Regaining sufficient strength, they 
were sent to Omaha, where the subject of this sketch found he weighed a little 
over 100 pounds, having lost about 70 pounds! Mr. Culver then came to 
Whiteside County, locating at Morrison. After working, as he was able, on a 
farm for three months, he returned to the State of New York and taught a term 
of school. Then he came West with his parents, who settled near Lee Center, 
while he came on to Morrison and worked on the same farm in 1861, owned by 
Erastus Pollard. Next, Mr. Culver enlisted for the cause of the Union in the 
great War of the Rebellion, joining Co. C, Eighth Ill. Vol. Cav., as a 
private, and during his service in the army he was under fire more than a 
hundred times. At the battle of Gettysburg he was wounded in the right ankle, 
on the second day of the engagement, but he remained on duty to the close of 
that bloody contest. At the expiration of his term of service in 1865, he was 
honorably discharged, as First Lieutenant. Returning to Morrison, he engaged 
in the grocery trade, which he followed for about 13 years, erecting at the 
end of three years the first new store building in Rock Falls, on the corner 
of Main and May Streets. For the next three years he was engaged in the boot 
and shoe trade, and then retired from active business. Sept. 5, 1865, Mr. 
Culver was married to Clarinda Allen, of Morrison. Their only child, named 
Glen, died when five years of age. In his political views, Mr. C. is a 
Republican. Was the first Postmaster of Rock Falls, holding that position 
three years. He is a member of the G. A. R.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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