Hardin Carroll was born July 15, 1846, in Bay, Gasconade County, Missouri.[1]  He was the youngest child of George and Nancy (Haines) Carroll. Growing up, Hardin worked on his family’s farm and attended school when his schedule allowed.[2]

            The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, and from that point Hardin watched as friends and neighbors left home to fight. Hardin even saw three of his older brother’s head off to war. George enlisted in the 6th Missouri Calvary. Hezekiah and Lorenzo in Company F, 34th Missouri Militia, and Company E, 1st Missouri Militia respectively.[3]  When the war broke out Hardin was only 14, and was the only son left at home to help run the family farm. As the war progressed, I am sure he gave much thought to signing up, but he held off for almost four years. In 1863, George, his father passed away. His mother, Nancy, and he, moved in with Nancy’s brother Luster Haines. Uncle Luster had three sons old enough to help him on his farm, so as soon as Hardin’s mother was settled in, he took the opportunity to join the war before it ended. Hardin volunteered on March 20, 1865, in Hermann, Missouri. He enlisted on April 3, 1865, at that time he was 5’5”tall, with brown hair, grey eyes, and a dark complexion. He was mustered in as a replacement in Company I, of the 50th Missouri, on April 27, 1865.[4]

            Hardin was sent to Benton Barrack’s in St. Louis, for training. During the Civil War, Benton Barracks was an encampment for Union troops located in north St. Louis County, 4-5 miles from the city of St. Louis. The facility, located on the outskirts of St. Louis, could accommodate 30,000 soldiers. There were five barracks buildings, each 750 feet long and 40 feet wide. The camp also contained kitchen sheds, warehouses, cavalry stables, parade grounds, and a large military hospital. The hospital itself could serve two to three thousand patients. Around the camp there sprang up a cluster of saloons, restaurants, photograph galleries, and brothels. Many of the photographs taken of soldiers in uniform before going to the battlefields were made at these photo studios at Benton Barracks.

            Benton Barracks was situated on what was once the old State Fairgrounds. The land was owned by John O’Fallon who rented the land to the U. S. Army. This area is now part of the city of St. Louis, in the location of Fairgrounds Park. (Grand Ave. and Natural Bridge Rd.)    Camp Benton, which, began operations in 1861, had numerous functions: Besides running a military hospital, it was a troop containment area (replacing Jefferson Barracks after it was converted to a hospital), a parole encampment, and a camp for contraband or refugee slaves. Refugee Unionist (whites) found sanctuary here too. There is also some evidence that a few Confederate guerilla POWs were housed here for a short duration, some awaiting the sentence of execution, in the camp guardhouse.[5]

After Hardin finished his training, he was assigned guard duty at Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis, Missouri.[6]  Before the war the prison used to be McDowell Medical College and was run by Dr. Joseph McDowell, a renowned St. Louis physician. As it turned out Dr. McDowell was a southern sympathizer, and early in the war he fled St. Louis and offered his services to the Confederacy. During the war southern sympathizers’ property was usually repurposed without their consent. McDowell Medical College soon became a barracks then eventually a prison. Gratiot Street Prison was unique in that it was host southern sympathizer’s, saboteurs, political prisoners, and even Union deserters. They were all incarcerated in the same building sometimes in the same rooms together.[7]

Hardin performed his duty as a guard at his assigned times and spent his off-duty hours back at Benton Barracks. Benton Barracks was a crowded facility, and even with the huge buildings there was not enough space to house Hardin and the other newcomers inside. According to Hardin he “camped out in crowded tents, often getting wet, and had to sleep on ‘dog fennel’ carpets on the ground.”  Towards the end of July, Hardin came down with a high fever and ‘severe aching of the body’. By August 5, 1865, his short tour of duty was over, and he mustered out of military service.  When he arrived back home, Hardin stayed with his brother Hezekiah and his family.  Hardin’s condition worsened and he developed pneumonia. He slowly recovered, but by then he had become mostly blind in his left eye. [8]

            In August 1870, Hardin was living in Third Creek, Gasconade, Missouri, with his mother Nancy, back on his Uncle Luster Haines farm. Hardin was working as a laborer.[9]

            On February 4, 1872, in Herman, Gasconade, Missouri, Hardin married Nancy Stovall.[10]  She was the daughter of John Stovall and Mary Branson.[11]  Later that same year on May 28, their son Luster was born.[12]  Followed by Andrew Jackson on September 6, 1873[13], and their first daughter Nancy Elizabeth in 1875. By 1876 the growing Carroll family was living in Cong, Gasconade, Missouri, where Hardin was working as a farmer.[14]  Then on September 16, 1878, Nancy gave birth to a daughter, Lillian Ann.[15]  Sometime around 1880 their daughter Nancy Elizabeth Carroll passed away, she was only five years old.[16] 

            In 1890 the Federal Government started offering Military Pensions to veterans of the Civil War who were suffering due to injuries or sickness they may have contracted while serving in the military. Hardin filed for just such a pension on May 28, 1890. He said that he was working as a farmer and living in Cuba, Crawford, Missouri. His physical description was 6’ tall, and 150lbs. In his Declaration for an Original Invalid Pension, he stated that he suffered from exposure during his military service and contracted rheumatism, neuralgia, and a fever which resulted in damage to his left eye. On February 12, 1891, Hardin was ordered to Rolla, Missouri, with three other local veterans, to have medical examinations.[17] After the medical examination, exhaustive correspondence, and filing of affidavits, on April 17, 1891, Hardin was awarded a $6.00 a month pension.[18]

            According to claims Hardin made during the pension process, it was clear that he was not able to work at manual labor on a full-time basis. With a family to provide for the $6.00 a month helped, but on October 26, 1891, he filed for an increase in his pension. Again, Hardin underwent medical examinations, filed affidavits, and responded to voluminous correspondence. The seeking of an increase of his pension backfired. His more recent medical exams put his health in a more positive light, and on April 13, 1894, the Pension Bureau notified him by registered letter that he was being dropped from the pension rolls. Hoping to convince the Pension Bureau that his poor health was indeed bad enough to warrant a pension, on October 22, 1894, he visited two different doctors that had treated him over the years. They completed Physician’s Affidavits which were immediately submitted in his defense. Having received no response, on January 5, 1895, Hardin filed the necessary paperwork requesting a new pension.[19]  On July 2, 1896, the Carroll’s officially became empty nesters, when their oldest son Luster married Cora Mae Souders.[20]  Undoubtedly the reduction in the size of their household helped financially, but as time passed Hardin’s health continued to decline. He’d developed heart problems after a bout with the flu, and later he started having kidney problems. His persistence finally paid off when on May 31, 1900, his pension was reinstated at $6.00 a month. Less than a month later, on June 23, 1900, he filed for an increase.[21]

            Around this time Hardin and his wife were living  close to their son Andrew, and daughter Lilly and their families. Hardin was working as a farm laborer, which most likely meant he was working for his son and son-in-law.[22]  In a little less than a year, on June 12, 1901, his pension was raised to $8.00 a month.[23]  Sadly, on June 17, 1903, Hardin’s wife Nancy died from Bright’s Disease, an inflammation of the kidney’s closely tied to high blood pressure and heart disease. Nancy was 60 years old. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Oak Hill, Crawford, Missouri.[24]

            Hardin lived alone for a couple of years, and then started making some improvements to his property, putting up fences, etc. He admitted to spending a lot of his time visiting with others and, had decided to ‘get down to hard work’, which showed better results. His hard work resulted in the sale of his property, which allowed him to move in with his daughter and son-in-law Albert Carry. They lived on Brushy Prairie. Hardin was well known in the area, and due to his proclivity for socializing was affectionately known as ‘Uncle Hardin’.[25] That socialization must have paid off, because on February 10, 1907, he married Nancy Jane Ertson Stovall. She was the widow of Hardin’s first wife’s brother Thomas Stovall.[26] He had died on July 3, 1904. Thomas had been a Civil War veteran too, only he served in the 15th Missouri Cavalry, on the Confederate side.[27] By all accounts Hardin was happy in his second marriage.[28] For the rest of his life Hardin did the necessary paperwork to maximize his pension benefits. On November 13, 1909, his pension was increased to $12.00 a month. On July 18, 1912, his pension was raised to $13.00 a month. And on July 15, 1913, his pension was raised to $15.00 a month.[29]

This extra money must have come in handy, because late in the year of 1914, Hardin started building a house near Vieman, Missouri. And by early March of 1915, Nancy and Hardin moved into their new home.[30]

            Sadly, their time together in the new home would prove to be too short. On February 17, 1916, Hardin Carroll died at his home of heart problems brought on by rheumatism. He was buried the next day in an unmarked grave next to his first wife, in Oak Hill Cemetery, Oak Hill, Crawford, Missouri.[31]

            Nancy Carroll, Hardin’s second wife applied for a Widow’s Pension but was denied since she married Hardin after he started receiving his pension. She was not eligible for a pension from  her first husband Tom Stovall, because he served in the Confederate Army. Eventually she applied for and was accepted as a resident at the Old Soldiers Home in St. James, Phelps, Missouri. Nancy lived out the rest of her life there, dying of heart disease at the age of 77 years old on June 26, 1930. She was buried the next day in the Soldiers Home Cemetery.[32]

 

                                   

 

 

      

                  

               

 

[1] Military and Pension Records

[2] 1860 Federal Census

[3] Military Records

[4] Military and Pension Records

[5] Missouri Civil War Museum Archives

[6] Military and Pension Records

[7] Missouri Civil War Museum Archives

[8] Military and Pension Records

[9] 1870 United States Census

[10] Marriage Record

[11] 1850 United States Census

[12] Death Certificate

[13] Death Certificate

[14] 1876 Missouri State Census

[15] Death Certificate

[16] Military Pension Record

[17] Newspaper

[18] Military Pension Record

[19] Military Pension Record

[20] Marriage Record

[21] Military Pension Record

[22] 1900 United States Census

[23] Military Pension Record

[24] Newspaper

[25] Newspaper

[26] Marriage Record 

[27] Military Records

[28] Newspaper

[29] Military Pension Record

[30] Newspaper

[31] Death Certificate

[32] Death Certificate

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