NEWS: Living Link to the Past, 2003, Larue Co. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Submitted by kmarty4@aol.com Date: 7 July 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ************************************* USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************* From Winfield Courier Newspaper, Winfield KS BY: Judith Zaccaria/Courier Frances Marsh, 105 today, a resident of Cumbernauld Village, holds the 48-star flag that was on her father's coffin when he died in 1937 at the age of 92. With her are her daughters, Shirley Everhart, left, and Jane Lee Clift. We usually think of the Civil War as an event in our distant past. It ended, after all, in 1865. But when Frances Marsh and her family celebrate her 105th birthday today, they will also celebrate a family connection that makes the Civil War almost contemporary. Marsh, a resident of Cumbernauld Village, still enjoys company, but sometimes conversation is difficult, so her daughters Jane Lee Clift, Winfield, and Shirley Everhart, Wellington, have taken up the role of family storytellers. Marsh's father, Charles C. Friend, fought for the Union in Company F 37th Volunteers, a mounted infantry. A native of Larue County, Ky., he ran away twice and his father brought him home both times before finally letting him enlist in September 1863. He was 18 years old and setting off on his own, for most of his relatives and friends were enlisting for the Confederacy. "(My grandfather) told me he enlisted with the Union because he had seen slave auctions," said Clift. "He saw families split up, and he couldn't stand it. He didn't like slavery though he had grown up with it all around him." Clift was 16 when her grandfather died. Everhart, hardly remembers him because she was only five. The family genealogist, however, Everhart has copies of muster rolls showing her grandfather's presence in the company and has collected war records that show where the company fought. A private, Friend was mustered out Dec. 2, 1864, in Louisville, Ky. During his service, he took part in the Battle of Saltville, Va., and skirmishes in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 in Lexington, Ky., while he was still in the service. In 1876 he married Nancy Lee Keith, also of Larue County and 13 years his junior. Both the Keith and Friend families had connections to Lincoln that went deeper than the vote or service in the Grand Army of the Republic, Everhart said. Lincoln, like Friend and Keith, was born in Larue County - on land adjoining their families' land. According to Lincoln biographers, including Carl Sandburg, and Everhart's genealogical studies, three great-great-grandmothers on both sides of the family assisted at Lincoln's birth in 1809. According to the story, a Friend dressed the newborn, and a Keith nursed him until his mother's milk came in and another stayed to help out. "This has always been part of our family history," Everhart said. With all the genealogical research done by family members, "we know there is something to it." Because of Marsh's birthday and the family ties to American history, "we've always had a big celebration on Independence Day." In 1881 Charles and Nancy Friend moved to Doniphan County, Kan., with their two oldest children, Susan "Sudie" and John Cash. They farmed until Charles' health failed, then moved to Denton where he ran a grocery store. In 1910 the family moved to Emporia so the children could attend college. Charles became a cobbler there, Everhart said, but "he wanted his children to be educated. Education was very important to him." Five of his seven children became teachers. Sudie eventually became the supervisor of elementary education in Lawrence in the 1920s. Frances, the youngest child, born in 1898, became an accomplished pianist and received a degree in music from Emporia. Clift remembers her grandparents as great lovers of family - especially children. "They always had grandchildren staying with them." Her grandfather "was just the sweetest man," she said. "He loved to jig, to dance. When I was 10, I wanted to be Ruby Keeler, but it was the Depression, and we didn't have much money. He sent me money for tap dancing lessons." Frances Marsh is not the only living child of Union veterans in Kansas, according to a list compiled by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. There are at least three others, including retired Col. John Dinsmoor, whose father, Samuel Dinsmoor, built the Garden of Eden in Lucas. Altogether, there are about 250 children of Civil War veterans still alive and one widow - a woman from Alabama whose husband fought for the Confederacy. These people keep history alive among us. The picture accompanying the article can be found at http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/larue/news/link.txt