Civil War Bounties
 

          In April, 1862, the Board decided to allow each family, a member of which had gone to the war, $25. This sum was then paid to Jacob Davis, Mrs. S.A. Davis, John Monroe, Amos Rhoads and Cyrus Rhoads. In October following, the same bounty was paid to Robert Haney and James F. McLuen, and in March, 1863, Alva Chambers drew a like amount. In December, 1863, the bounty to enlisted and drafted men was fixed at $100. Parker T. Punteney was paid $100 under this provision in February, 1864. During the year Orrin Jerome, William Carter and Luther Short became entitled to the bounty and received warrants for the amount.

        A review of the pioneer history of this county would be incomplete without some reference to the part Carroll County took in the Civil War. For no other event so deeply impressed itself upon the pioneers and nothing tested their manhood in a broader or truer sense. Nothing brought greater hardships to many of the early settlers or caused deeper suffering than was experienced during the early sixties. With a population of about 100 able bodied men subjected to military duty, 28 of that number enlisted in the war and 3 were drafted.

        Only two of those who enlisted from this county are living here today. They are Parker T. Puntenney and Luther S. Short. Mr. Puntenney is living in Newton Township near Dedham and Mr. Short on North Coon on the farm where he has resided since the war. Both of these old comrades are enjoying fairly good health and from all appearances have a number of years still before them, in which to enjoy the blessings of living in Carroll County.

        That a draft was levied upon our county is to be regretted and especially so under the circumstance. When the first call was made for volunteers a number of our young men were anxious to answer their countries call. As no company was ever organized in this county, it was necessary for those who desired to enlist to go to Greene or Guthrie Counties where they were enlisted and were never accredited to Carroll County. If they had been, there would have been no draft levied, for nearly one third of all those who could enlist were in the army.

        This county never gave as large a bounties to her volunteers as many other counties in the state. The bounty from this county was first placed at $25.00, and then $50.00, then $75.00 and finally raised to $100.00. If the bounties given were not as large as those given at other places, no other people ever cared for the wives and children, the widows and orphans more zealously than did the authorities of our country, and the brightest pages made by them in the records of Carroll County are those dotted over by warrants drawn on the relief fund for the support of those families whose fathers and husbands had gone forth at their countries call to defend the old flag.

    As generations come and go and turn the faded pages of the early records of our county, their pulse will beat with manly pride to know that the pioneers of this county were men of brains and brawn and that "through this rough land there were no braver in these days of blood and strife". "Aye, ready for severest trial; Aye, free to peril life."

C. C. COLCLO, Historian

Carroll County History (date & page unknown)