SPAULDING, Minor P. - also known as "Spalding" - born January 5, 1843, in Paris, Kent county, Michigan.

By 1860 Miner was working as a farm laborer for and/or living with a wealthy farmer named James Patterson in Paris, Kent county; just two farms away lived Orleans Spaulding and his family (see Samuel Spaulding’s biographical sketch below).

Minor stood 5’8" with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old farmer probably living in Kent county when he enlisted in Company A, along with Samuel Spaulding (to whom he may have been related), on March 3, 1862, at Grand Rapids, and was mustered the same day. Minor was reported absent sick in the hospital in September and was discharged for chronic diarrhea on October 18, 1862, at Fort McHenry, Maryland.

Minor returned to Michigan where he reentered the service in Company E, Tenth cavalry on September 7, 1863, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Paris, Kent county, and was mustered on September 12 at Grand Rapids where the regiment was organized between September 18 and November 18, 1863, when it was mustered into service. It left Michigan for Lexington, Kentucky on December 1, 1863, and participated in numerous operations, mostly in Kentucky and Tennessee throughout the winter of 1863-64. Most of its primary area of operations would eventually be in the vicinity of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.

In March of 1865 he was at the dismounted camp in Knoxville, Tennessee where he remained through May, and on furlough in June and July. By September he was reported to be "in charge" of the military prison at Jackson, Tennessee, was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant on October 2, 1865, to First Sergeant on November 2, and mustered out on November 11, 1865, at Memphis, Tennessee.

After the war, Minor returned to Kent county, and was working as a farmer and living in Paris township when he married Michigan native Loraine H. Cook (1848-1902) on May 12, 1868, at Cascade, and they had at least three children: Carrie (b. 1869), John (b. 1871) and Helen (b. 1875).

By 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and daughter Carrie in Cascade, Kent county. According to one source, due to ill health he moved to Sherman, Texas where he lived for some years and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic post in Sherman. By 1880 he was reported as married but working as a farmer and living with the James Anglin family in Eureka Springs, Carroll county, Arkansas. Curiously, in 1880 Lorraine and their three children were living with her parents in Cascade, Kent county. Minor eventually returned to Michigan and was living in Caledonia, Kent county in 1886 and 1890.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. In 1878 he applied for and received a pension (no. 162570).

Minor was confined to his bed for nearly a year and a half before he died on May 23, 1892, and was buried in Lakeside cemetery in Caledonia; see photo G-13.

At the annual reunion of the association held in December of 1892, the following resolution was read and entered into the records: "Whereas - Minor Spaulding, after having served with honor in Co. A in the old Third Mich Infantry’ and after being discharged by reason of a disability from which he never recovered, yet was so filled with patriotism, that he could not remain quiet, but re-enlisted in the Tenth Mich Cavalry, and served as long as his strength should permit, And Whereas - said comrade, after long and almost continuous illness, since the close of the war, was, by the Great Commander, ordered to the realms above to join the great Grand Army there, Resolved that we tender to his wife, children, and relatives, our sincere sympathy. That we know their great loss of husband, father and protector, is irreparable, but feel that they must know their loss is his gain; that his brave endurance [sic] during life and his noble efforts to provide for his family, must be rewarded in the hereafter; that we fell ourselves identified with the family and join with them in pride at having been connected with so good a man, true, noble, and generous, in every particular. That we cordially invite the wife of Minor P. Spaulding to become an honorary member of our association."

She didn't.

In June of 1892 Loraine was still living in Michigan when she applied for and received a pension (no. 359257).

Information from:

Steve Soper http://www.thirdmichigan.com/

HISTORY AND DIRECTORY OF KENT COUNTY Dillenback & Leavitt

CASCADE TO-DAY. Cascade has been an organized township for twenty-two years, and, according to the census for 1870, Has 1175 inhabitants. Children, between the ages of five and twenty, by report of public schools, 1869 —416. Votes cast at the last April election-227. Property assessed, real estate, $204,107; personal, $32,317. rile following is the present B3oardl of township officers: Supervisor, Edgar R. Jollson; Clerk, Henry C. Denison; Treasurer, Geo. W. Gorham; Justices of the Peace, Geo. S. Richardson, John F. Proctor, Lawrence Meach, Hugh B. Brown; School Inspectors, E. R. Johnson, Chas... Holt; Highway Commissioners, Jonathan W. Sexton, Clinton A. Wood, Chas. M. Dennison: Constables, S. G. Fish, T. J. Hulbert, Minor Spaulding, Warren Streeter.