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Biography of
by Pat Darling Their children at this time were:
Newcomb was old enough that he would not have had to enlist. He was fifty-one at the outbreak of the war, six years older than the maximum age expected to serve. His oldest son was just fourteen, below the minimum age at which a young man could enlist, and then only with parental permission. They both must have been anxious to serve, as they both lied about their age. Newcomb said he was forty-one, and son Jacob suddenly became eighteen. No one questioned this. They both enlisted and served in Company A of the 17th New York Infantry. Newcomb served as an engineer, being the Master mechanic for the unit, and Jacob as musician, specifically, a drummer. Less than eight months after enlistment, Newcomb was discharged on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability. He explained in his pension application that he had caught cold when helping to dig a well at Fort Ellsworth. Then, after he helped mount cannons in a heavy rainstorm, it became worse. As a result, his head swelled, his eyes ran, and there was a roaring in his head. The doctor diagnosed neuralgia, which left him with deafness and pain in his head and eyes. He was confined to his tent for seven to ten days. The Regimental Surgeon gave him medicine for the pain, but when this didn’t alleviate the problem, he went to the Brigade Surgeon, who wanted to “peel his scalp from the skull bone and scrape the skull.” Fortunately his friend, Col. Lansing, told the surgeon he would not have his friend butchered. Therefore, the Brigade Surgeon forced a medical discharge on him. Instead of returning to his family in New York, he started peddling, walking door to door, city to city, and state to state all over the east, for three years. Nothing has ever been learned of his second wife and the children, except for Jacob. Jacob was discharged in 1863, just two years and one month from the date of enlistment. Why didn’t he look up his father? Didn’t their paths ever cross? Jacob married in 1871 in New Jersey, where he lived out the remaining years of his life, dying just eleven years after his marriage. When Jacob died in 1884, Newcomb was living in Michigan. He was found in 1870 in Lawton Van Buren Co. Michigan. However, the period preceding this, from 1864, when he ceased peddling, until he appeared in the 1870 census, is a blank. Had he seen his son since the war? What brought him to Van Buren County? Several relatives had lived there, and he may have joined them, or he may have gone because he found a carpentry job, the only profession he was able work in at this time. In 1870 he was living with his daughter, Mariah, but they both had moved to Allegan County shortly after the census, and both remarried. Mariah married in 1872, and Newcomb in 1875. His new wife, Emma Lee, was just sixteen years old. Where Newcomb lived with his new wife is unknown. They were not found in Allegan County in the 1880 census. In 1882 Newcomb first filed for a pension. Perhaps his young wife deserted him, and he now had no means of support. He did not get the pension, but continued on, doing the best he could to support himself, and two years later moved to Grand Haven, Ottawa County, Michigan, where he lived out his remaining years. As time went by, his condition worsened, partly due to age, and in 1890 he applied for an Invalid Pension. His Affidavit claims that he is utterly incapacitated for manual labor, and has been for the past eight years. By this time he was eighty years old, and well deserving of a pension. Affidavits from friends stated that he was very old, blind and deaf, and the object of much concern and sympathy in town. Apparently he was finally successful in receiving the pension, although the pension record does not state so. In 1899 the Pension Agency sent the usual letter to the Commissioner of Pensions stating that “Newcomb B. Glazier, Private, A 17 N.Y. Inf., who was a pensioner on the rolls.... and was last paid at $12.00, to Dec. 4, 1898, has been dropped because of death.” Those terse words, indicating the end of a long and interesting life, relieved the Pension Department of any further worry about this man that had served his country at the expense of his health. Newcomb died just before his 89th birthday. His obituary stated it was unknown if he had any relatives. Related Genealogy Resources: Search OneGreat Family for Glazier Surname New England Early Genealogy for Glazier Surname Family Tree Connection for Glazier
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