Name: John G. Godley Company: C
Corporal; promoted Sergeant.
Birth
Date: November 1837
Place:
Lincolnshire, England
Mustered In
Date: February 17,
1862
Rank: Corporal
Age: 24
Residence prior to
military service: Lincolnshire, England (until 1854); Long
Island, New York; Chemung County, New York; Richland City, Wisconsin;
Clifton, Grant County, Wisconsin (1860); Albert Lea Township, Freeborn
County, Minnesota
Vocation prior to
military service: book-keeper
Death
Date: August 2,
1917
Place: Freeborn
County, Minnesota
Burial: Freeborn
County, Minnesota
Mustered Out
Date: February 16,
1865
Rank: Sergeant
Age: about 27
Residence following
military service: Albert Lea, Freeborn County, Minnesota
Vocation following
military service: Farmer
John G. Godley Biography and Civil
War Narrative
John G. Godley was born in
Lincolnshire, east-central England, in August 1837. His parents were
both born in Scotland. Lincolnshire was also the birthplace of
scientist Sir Isaac Newton, poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and religious
leaders John and Charles Wesley. While still in Lincolnshire he worked
as a book-keeper for two and a half years. He crossed the Atlantic to
America in 1854, eventually becoming a resident of Albert Lea Township,
Freeborn County, Minnesota. A biography published in a "History of
Freeborn County" (1882) recounts Godley's migration:
... in 1854 [he]
came to America, settling on Long Island. He moved from there to
Chemung county, New York, and a year later came to Richland City,
Wisconsin. In 1857, he moved to this township, and claimed land in
section eighteen, where he "batched" it six months and returned to
Wisconsin. In 1860, he came again to his claim [in Albert Lea
Township]...
The 1860 census shows John Godley
still living in Wisconsin on July 12th. He lived and worked with
38-year-old Peter Clayton as a Farm Laborer in Clifton, Grant County.
Peter's family included his wfe Frances (age 35), and seven children.
On February 17, 1862, 24-year-old John G. Godley from Albert Lea,
Minnesota, enlisted in Company C of the 5th Minnesota Volunteer
Infantry Regiment. Company
C was sent for garrison duty to Fort Ripley, located on the west bank of the
Mississippi
River, fifty miles north of St. Cloud, Minnesota. They were under the command
Captain Francis Hall,
assisted by Lieutenant
Timothy J.
Sheehan and 2nd Lieutenant Frank Fobes.
On June 19, a
detachment of 50 men under the command of Lieutenant Sheehan
were ordered to report to Fort Ridgely, near New Ulm, Minnesota, to
assist in keeping control while the Indians in the area awaited their
annuity payment. The remaining 30 men continued on at Fort Ripley. In a
report of events at Fort Ripley, Lieutenant Fobes described the fort:
The
fort consisted of several one-story frame
buildings, situated so as to form three sides of a square, the fourth
side being the Mississippi River, which at this point runs from east to
west. On the southwest corner upon the river bank, and the northeast
corner diagonally opposite, were block houses, built of logs, with
port-holes from which the cannon could command the four sides,
providing there had been gunners to man them all. Between the buildings
forming the fort were openings from ten to twenty-five feet wide,
through which any one might enter the inclosure unobstructed, except on
the east side, where a stockade had been built of logs placed on end.
But in August
troubles began with the Chippewa Indians under the leadership of Chief
Hole-in-the-Day. The Indian Agent in the area, Major Lucius C. Walker
requested assistance in protecting the U.S. government's agency near
Crow Wing. Fobes and twenty men, including John Godley, proceeded to
Crow Wing, some 7 miles north of Fort Ripley, and met Major Walker
there. Walker reported that an Indian attack on the agency was expected
at any time and issued orders for Fobes and his men to arrest Chief
Hole-in-the-Day. Fobes mentioned Godley in his account of the
subsequent events:
Thinking
we might find him at his house, we started in that direction.
Just as we got outside the village we discovered him in company with
another chief, whom we succeeded in capturing, together with a six-shot
Colt rifle, the property of Hole-in-the-Day. Suspecting what our
intentions were, Hole-in-the-Day took to his heels, the soldiers in hot
pursuit, through the woods. Having a better knowledge of the paths
around the marshes, he succeeded in reaching his house in time to give
the alarm to his squaws and Indian friends, who made their escape
across the river in canoes. Sergeant D. K. Stacy and Privates Horning
and Godley came up just in time to see them land, and give them the
command to halt. This order not being obeyed, a bullet was sent after
them, which fire was promptly returned. Several shots were exchanged.
When Horning shot, Hole-in-the-Day fell. We afterward learned that he
was confined to his tepee for several days, and we supposed he was
wounded, though we could never learn positively, for an Indian
considers it a great disgrace to be wounded, and will keep it secret if
possible.
About the end of August, additional reinforcements arrived in the form
of three companies from the 6th and 7th Minnesota regiments. They were
immediately followed by a negotiating party consisting of the
Commissioner of Indian affairs, President Lincoln's private secretary,
and about thirty others from Washington and other Eastern cities. Following
their service at Fort Ripley, Company C joined the rest of the 5th
Minnesota on December 12, 1862,
near Oxford, Mississippi.
From mid-May to early July 1863, the
5th Minnesota participated in the
Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, serving in Mower's
2nd Brigade in the 3rd Division (Tuttle)
of the 15th Army Corps (Sherman),
Army of the Tennessee (Grant).
While Godley was in the regiment, the
5th Minnesota also participated in the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee
(December 15-16, 1864) and many other smaller
campaigns and engagements. Godley served as Chief Clerk in the
Quartermaster's department for two years and six months.
Early in 1864, members of the 5th
Minnesota were given the option of re-enlisting as veterans. Since
Godley did not re-enlist, he was mustered out on February 16, 1865 at
the conclusion of his term. In 1866 John Godley sold his first
Freeborn County farm and bought another one containing 240 acres. On
April 15, 1868, he married Miss Maggie Slater. She was born March 1843
in England and also came to America in 1854. In May 1870, John and
Margaret had a daughter they named Anna M. The 1870 U.S. Census
enumerated on August 25 shows John and Margaret Godley living in the
Town of Albert Lea, Freeborn County, Minnesota. Thirty-five-year-old
John works as a farmer, Margaret is 25 years old, and daughter Anna is
about four months old. The 1880 census lists John G., Margaret, and
Anna Godley continuing to live and farm in Albert Lea. Also living with
them are a servant, Mattie Jenson, and two laborers: James Clitton and
Andrew Christenson.
In the summer of 1880, C. C. Andrews interviewed 42 wheat farmers in
the midwest United States. One of the farmers he interviewed was John
Godley of Albert Lea. He published the results of his investigation for
the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a report called The Conditions and Needs of Spring Wheat
Culture (Special Report No. 40, 1882). Godley's statement was
published on pages 63-65 and gives insight into his farming operations
(segments in brackets are Mr. Andrews' comments):
[The
situation of Mr. Godley's farm of 240 acres is uncommonly attractive,
being a mile and a half south of the city of Albert Lea, on ground
sufficiently elevated to command an extensive view of the surrounding
country, which is almost wholly under cultivation, and dotted with farm
buildings and groves. The soil varies from 1 to 3 or 4 feet depth of
loam, with yellowish clay subsoil, twelve feet below which one comes to
bine clay. Mr. Godley is a native of England, from whence he evidently
brought some ideas and habits of farming. His statement in regard to
wheat culture was substantially as follows:']
My land has been cultivated from
seven to ten years. For the last three or four years I have not raised
less than 13 bushels of wheat to the acre, but before that the yield
was 22 bushels per acre.
The variety of wheat has been
"Scotch Fife." The seed was purchased here, and I have raised the same
sort right along. I have, however, cleaned the seed by passing it three
or four times through a fanning mill, and in addition, the use of a
sieve by hand to get out the small kernels and cockles.
I cannot say that I have a system
of rotation, though I have tried rotation as far as I could. Have never
raised wheat continuously on the same land for more than three years.
After three years of wheat, have changed to corn or oats. Have not
plowed deeper than 7 inches on account of grubs, but would have done so
if the ground had permitted. I harrow the ground before seeding, put
the seed in with a broad-caster, and afterward harrow once, twice, or
three times. Never have rolled the ground after seeding. Do not think
rolling is now practiced about here ; those who tried it had
discontinued the practice. Wheat with us is ready to cut from the 22d
of July to the 18th of August, generally—say, about the last week of
July. It should be cut when the kernel is doughy and there is no milk
in it. My practice is to stack just as soon as I got through cutting,
and sometimes while cutting. As near as I can judge the sweating in the
stack is over in the course of three weeks. I have found that in a week
or ten days after stacking the wheat is in such a state that it cannot
be thrashed. It adheres closely to the husk. Am of the opinion it pays
to put the wheat through a fanning-mill before taking it to market. The
buyer will deduct at least a pound of wheat per bushel if it is not
well cleaned.
Have not heard of the use of salt
on wheat land about here. Where wheat is to follow a crop of corn there
is danger of over-manuring the corn crop. In that way I once nearly
spoiled 30 acres of wheat, the yield being only 11 bushels per acre. I
have never tried clover as a rotation with wheat, nor have I tried
wheat after timothy. I do not know of anything that troubles wheat
about here but hot weather, which causes it to ripen prematurely, and
hot weather immediately following wet weather. There were a few
chinch-bugs about here last year, but none this season. There are,
however, many this season on sandy land about three miles from here.
The best thing I have done on my
land was to produce corn and pork. For corn I plow the land in the
spring. Have tried plowing in the autumn and in the spring, and for
corn prefer the latter. The manure is spread on first, and some of it
could be hauled in winter, but the greater part of my farm-yard manure
I use on grass land. Generally I have from 30 to 50 acres in corn each
year. The average yield is 35 bushels to the acre, or, say, from 35 to
50 bushels per acre of shelled corn—the Yellow Dent variety. The marker
I make myself, and use two horses with it, marking the ground in checks
so that the hills will be 4 feet apart each way. In planting I prefer
the hand planter, as the corn is more effectively covered by that. One
man will plant and cover with the hand planter from 5 to 8 acres a day.
Planting by hand has the further advantage of making straiglier rows,
so that the plowing between the rows can afterward be done more
successfully. I harrow immediately after planting, and then two or
three times afterward, and until the corn is three inches up. Plow it
four times, twice each way, continuirgthe plowing as long as I can
without breaking the corn down. Always hoe my corn once, not in the
old-fashioned thorough way of forming hills, but to chop out the weeds.
In this way a man can go over 2 acres in a day. The corn is harvested,
say, from the first to the middle of October. Sometimes cut it up,
sometimes husk it on the hill, yet generally cut and shock 10 to 15
acres.
I now have 60 hogs of Berkshire
and Poland China breeds crossed (pure Poland China hogs are black and
white color, and Berkshires are black with four white feet and white
stripe in the face). It is scarcely any more to take care of 50 hogs
than of 10; and I would think a man ought to take care of 50 on a farm
of 160 acres. Ten bushels of shelled corn will produce 100 pounds of
pork on feet. Where there is pasture, say, of clover, pork can be made
on less corn. If the com is shelled and soaked twenty-four hours, which
is the way I feed it, then 8 bushels will produce 100 pounds of pork. I
have tried unground barley, boiled, and found it excellent food for
pigs. I feed my hogs with some corn all through the summer, and from
this time (on August 32) give them all they will eat.
[Mr. Godley's hogs were as fat and
flue a lot of hogs as I ever saw. They had an excellent pasture, in
which were a few acres of ground adjoining the piggery well shaded by
oaks. In the chamber over the piggery were one hundred or two hundred
bushels of corn in the ear, also an excellent corn-sheller. ]
My corn sheller cost $33 here. It
was intended to be run by horse-power. One of these $10 shellers, which
I formerly had, I found useless. I feed шу hogs twice a day, and now
give them as much as they can eat. The price of hogs alive is now a
little over 5 cents per pound.
At the time of the 1900 census, John and Margaret Godley lived at 626
East Park Avenue in Albert Lea and had been married 32 years. Their
daughter Anna (age 30) continued to live with them. The census also
indicates that another child had been born to them at some point but
was no longer living. John and Margaret continued to live at the same
residence in 1910, but Anna had moved out.
John G. Godley died on August
2, 1917, in Freeborn County. Margaret died almost nine years later on
June 25, 1926, also in Freeborn County.
John G. Godley
