Albert Gore
Albert Gore, son of Lamed and Lucinda Bonney Gore, was born in Clarindon,
Ohio, October 10, 1833. He came to West Leroy, Michigan, with his parents in
1836. He attended country school, and graduated from Baptist College in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, and was ordained a Baptist minister. He learned the printer's
trade. He married Candace Hardenburg, licensed schoolteacher, from Emmett
Township, October 3, 1857. To them were born six children. Innis Ellen, Cora,
Phil, Geneviere, Della, Eldon.
According to Civil War records, Albert was First Lieutenant, 66th Illinois
Regiment from September 16, 1861 to June 11, 1862. The regiment was organized
at Benton Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri, from September to December 31,
1861 for three years of service to the Union cause. It was organized under the
special patronage of Major General John C. Fremont and was designed as a
Regiment of "Western Sharpshooters," to be used as skirmishers.
In November, their leader became Colonel John W. Birge and they were
assigned as the Fourteenth Missouri Infantry Volunteers. On December 12, they
were ordered to the field, although not fully organized or equipped but armed with
the Demmick, American Deer and Target Rifle and meager accouterments. In some
records the regiment is noted as "Birge's Sharpshooters," and during Albert's time
of enlistment they were engaged in battles at Mount Zion, Fort Donelson, and the
major battles at Shiloh and Corinth. While the unit was occupying Corinth, under
the command of General Ord, Albert resigned on June 11, 1862, and was honorably
discharged.
He and his brother, Mahlon, were roamers, and in July 1862, they went to Iowa by
train and from there they traveled by covered wagon to Yankton, South Dakota,
where they took up adjacent government homestead claims on a beautiful spot
overlooking the Big Sioux River bottom approximately 3 miles north of the present
site of Richland, South Dakota.
After establishing where his claim would be, Albert bought a few head of cattle and
oxen, put them to graze on the plush prairie grass, and then returned to Michigan
for his wife and two small children, and Mahlon's wife. They shipped their
household goods to New Hartford, Iowa, where Albert purchased a team of oxen
and wagon to take them and their belongings the rest of the way. It was October
when they approached Ida Grove, Iowa that they met refugees leaving the Dakotas
due to the Indian uprising. Albert was informed that Mahlon had been killed by
Indians and warned that he should turn back with the women and children. Sensing
that this was not really the case, they proceeded on, to find Mahlon not only alive,
but working on their log cabin home. The cold Dakota winter prevented them from
developing their lands until the following spring.
Early in 1863, Albert put up a small board house on his claim about 300 yards
north of Mahlon's cabin. The two families worked together to develop both claims
that summer.
The nearest neighbors were about 3 miles south, near Richland. In the fall, Albert
was elected as a representative from the county to the territorial legislature. His
brother was elected chief clerk of the House, so both families spent that winter,
1863-l864, in Yankton, then the capitol. In the spring Mahlon and his wife returned
to the farm, but Albert and his family remained in Yankton.
Albert and his brother helped change South Dakota from a territory to a state. They
were both members of the first legislature in 1863-64. In February of 1865, Albert
was appointed missionary to the Yankton District, being the second missionary in
this field.
His salary for the first three months was $11.00, and the next three months $25.00.
He rode a pony from Yankton to Sioux City, Iowa, a distance of 65 miles, there and
back to preach the dedication sermon of the First Baptist Church built in Sioux
City.
Times were tough in the Dakotas at that time. The grasshoppers had finally moved
on, but drought threatened to ruin the settlers next. If that were not bad enough, the
Indians would also swoop down on them to harass and kill. In the spring of 1865, a
neighboring farmer, Mr. Lamour, was shot and killed by Indians as he stood talking
to another neighbor, Mr. Watson, in the field. Watson dodged two arrows before
taking one in the shoulder. As he ran for home, the Indians stopped to steal his
team of horses, so he escaped.
At the same time, a mile north, two Indians attacked Julius Fletcher and his wife as they
were loading hay. Fletcher was wounded. His wife fought them off with a pitchfork. One
Indian launched an arrow at her, which was deflected by a steel hoop in her dress. She
was cut in the hip by the arrow.
The community was aroused that night and gathered together for protection at the home
of Ira Steward. Among the sentinels was Albert Gore. During all of this a baby was born
that night-Russell Frisbee.
Albert resigned in December of 1865, and returned with his family to Michigan, but did
not stay long as shortly thereafter he went west again, and traveled around with his
family until 1875.
Returning to the state where he initially fought during the Civil War, Albert published the
Independence Messenger at Independence, Missouri, starting the paper in 1867. He soon
incurred the enmity of the local people, who were sympathetic to the southern cause
during the war, and he was often threatened with violence because of his principles. He
was undaunted, however, by these threats and continued with business as usual. In the
autumn of 1868, they moved to the edge of town, where it was quieter. They were not
there for long, when the Ku-Klux Klan visited them in the dead of night as they slept.
They awakened to see their home in flames and barely had time to escape death. They
fled to their neighbor, John St. John, who harbored them for the night. Friends donated
clothing as they had fled with only their lives and their nightshirts.
Shortly after they were burned out, Albert moved the family to Kansas City, where he
was employed as a printer. They stayed there for two years and moved on to La Cygne,
KS. In 1875, he and his family returned to Michigan and took over the old farm for his
mother as his father, Larned, had died. He preached in Augusta and Climax, driving back
and forth. In 1879, he rented the farm and moved to Battle Creek and manufactured the
first wooden pump used in Michigan.
In 1880, his health failed, so he sold the factory and moved his family back to the farm,
and deeded the farm to his wife and went west in search of better health. He located in
Los Angeles, California. He seldom wrote his family during this time, being delinquent
in his correspondence sometimes for several years, therefore, little is known about his
life in California. He entered a government hospital where he died at Sawtelle,
California, July 14, 1920. and was buried in the National Soldiers' Cemetery, near
Westwood, California. He is listed as occupying Plot 40 201R, and having supposedly
served as Lt. in Co. D 65th PA INF. It is noted on the WEB site for the Cemetery that his
service information has not been confirmed. Alfred continues to be an enigma. *
His wife, Candace, died at Battle Creek, Michigan, August 31, 1923.
*I found that as the war went on, and attrition reduced the ranks of the 14th Missouri
Regiment, the original 3 companies from Illinois [part of the 66th IL] were consolidated
into Company D, which may account for the Co. D, but the "65th PA" has to be a
mistake. Is it possible that a sick Albert slurred his speech when giving this information
to a dimwitted hospital scribe? 66th and 65th might then get confused. Trying to explain
the regiment later being renamed to the 14th Missouri would certainly be confusing, and
natives from Missouri, claim to be from "Mizorah." Still does not sound much like
Pennsylvania, though.
By L. L. Kimmel
Revised 22apr2011
Source:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Calhoun County, pp.816-818.
The Media Research Bureau
Family Papers of Ursula Gore Cleaver
Letter from Mahlon Gore, Sept. 10, 1893, to James Gore
http://www.acsnet.com/~jkjar/dt_history.htm#Dakota%20Territory%20History
accessed 22apr2011
Graveyard on the Old Gore farms near Elk Point
Lt. Albert Gore is buried here
Los Angeles National Cemetery (Los Angeles)