A Farmer, Dad and Hero. Week 3 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Simon F. Deal was the son of well respected farmer John Deal and Barbara Gruber, and grandson of German immigrants Conrad and Maria (Korrin) Diehl. He was tall for the time period 5'10", with brown hair and brown eyes. He married Eliza Ann Beckwith, the youngest of 10 children and from a very well established New England family.
He wasn’t famous, just a plain farmer but we lucked out as his descendants because he wrote a diary. At first it’s all about relatives and farming. He mentions the small New York towns that he regularly traveled to, the small things he bought, just day to day minutia.
Then the Civil War comes and he and several men in the area enlisted in January 1864. He wrote about the training, the conditions and then the war. The weather was abysmal and the conditions terrible-he mentioned all of the men getting sick-and included a pithy comment that the doctors were worse than the sickness.
He served in 8th NY Heavy Artillery and fought in the battle of Harper’s Ferry and the Battle of the Wilderness (Cold Harbor, VA). He was fatally wounded during the battle and taken prisoner of war. They exchanged him and he ended up dying June 17, 1864 at the Union Hospital in Richmond, VA, a mere 6 months after he’d enlisted.
He left behind his young wife, a two year daughter (my g-g-grandmother Mattie) and a baby son he never met, born two months after his death.