Civil War "I" Button - Info Update

[Admiral de Salee]

Civil War "I" Button - Info Update

Back to the Canuck dime & jars site. Among some smaller roots of an old maple tree, I got a +54 3.5" deep. I never expected to find a Civil War button around Milford, but here it is.
Maybe the veteran was standing under the tree waiting to join a G.A.R. parade in 1870. Maybe his grandkids were playing with his Army coat in 1920.
There's an old dent across the "I" shield. The shank is present and still pivots / rotates.
I took a half-day of vacation to go back over there. I was right (for a change).
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Update Part: After some research at the village museum, all thanks to Marlene G. for dragging out all the folders on Civil War Vets, I've concluded that the owner of this button was Mr. Adelman Van Leuven. His father bought the 1856 house in 1872. Adelman enlisted at a recruiting rally up in Pontiac, Mich. and was paid a $100 bounty. There was no rank shown, but the clothing allowance was generous--and someone here said it was an officer's button. He was assigned to "I, 22nd Michigan Infantry".
Mr. Van Leuven was 18 when he mustered in for a 1-year hitch on April 1, 1865. The peace was signed at Appomattox 8 days later. "Timing is everything".
I don't know how much of his year Mr. Van Leuven had to serve. He later married and moved to northern lower Michigan.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: Civil War "I" Button - Info Update

I love the history of it!

Here is a little history for you.

VanLeuven place, the home of three generations of Van Leuvens -Hiram H., the pioneer merchant, his son, Adelman and family, and his grandson and namesakes.

Hebbard House (Commerce Street). The four Hebbard brothers, William Bradford, Ira, Alvah and Sterling, came to Milford in the 1840's and were instrumental in developing the Upper Pettibone water power, the Pettibone Grist Mill, the woolen mill and the early stagecoach inn. Ira Hebbard built this Greek Revival house, probably in 1856, on a 26-acre farm on the east side of Milford. Hebbard sold it to Thomas Chappell, and Chappell sold it in 1872 to Hiram M. Van Leuven, who ran a general store on Main Street. The house remained in the Van Leuven family for many years. The house is a story-and-a-half upright-and-wing house which features typical Greek Revival elements such as gable molding, return eaves, entablature with eyebrow windows, six-over-six windows and a porch across the front of the east wing. The front porch, which has flush siding like that on the porch of the Hibbard Tavern), has been restored to its original appearance with square wood support pillars. Inside, the removal of carpeting revealed wide-board pine floors, and early pine wainscoting was discovered under layers of paint and wallpaper. Throughout the house are early batten doors and two-panel doors with original latches. Much of the old glass in the windows has survived. The west part of the kitchen was once a parlor off the back of the house and was "swung around" to its present location. Upstairs, the master bedroom gets its only daylight from the three small eyebrow windows. There is a small early wood frame barn behind the house.



154 351 N. Main mid 1860's remodeled Hiram H. Van Leuvan, general store

Any record of Commerce street is not complete without mention of a frail, pathetic little figure wholong ago limped her way to and from the shack she called home, but now modernized and comfortable as it never was in her day. Born in Milford February 6, 1881 and cripples by a fall in early childhood hers wasa life of ill health and suffering, altho a cheery smile was one of her characteristics. Her name was Blanche Van Leuven Browne, daughter of Jared and Etta Van Leuven Browne, the latter the eldest daughter of Milford's pioneer merchant, H.H. Van Leuven. She attended school as precarious health permitted andwith her parents would disappear from Milford for months at a time, when it was understood that Blanche was undergoing hospital treatment. Then the family, usually in summer, would reappear accompanied by several youngsters handicapped by deformities similar to her own. Little did we think in those days thatBlanche Browne had a dream project of a hospital-school for children deprived of an education by theirphysical incapacities and that it would some day come true far beyond her imaginings. The family landed finally in Detroit, and items in the Times files from time to time told of the little school she established for crippled children on Kenilworth Avenue. The Times files (sic) has many a reference to the little school, itsdifficulties and discouragements and Blanche Browne's brave efforts to keep the concern afloat.