\osborne\contrib\karmaosb.txt Updated: 9/14/2003
Records on the Family of
Jonathan Osborn of Putnam Co., IN and Putnam Co., MO
Records contributed by Karma Osborn.
Death certificates:
(See Birth, Death, and Marriage Certificates)
James U. Osborn
Mary Josephine Blackman
Mary Pauline (Cochran) Osborn
Marr. certificates, register entries:
(See Birth, Death, and Marriage Certificates)
James Uriah Osborn + Mary Paulina Cochran
Obit. of Jonathan Osborn
[#10502]
(Name of newspaper not included with clipping)
DIED,--Jonathan Osborn, at his home, Galesburg, Putnam Co., Mo., on
Saturday, May 5th, 1877, of Dropsy.
Father Osborn was born February 14th, 1799, in Virginia; emigrated to the
State of Indiana; was married to Mary Ann McDonald, Aug. 11, 1835; came to
this state in 1865; has lived here since, loved and respected by all who knew
him.
He was the father of seven children yet living -- five were present at his
death, and are residents of this county; one, a son, William, lives in
Kansas, a daughter in Iowa.
Father Osborn has been confined to the house for 2 months, suffering much,
more particularly in his last days, but was submissive and died, as he had
lived, a consistent follower of Christ.
He has been an accepted member of the Christian Church for nearly forty
years, having become obedient to the commands of the Gospel in the State of
Indiana. He was not loud in his profession, but a cheerful giver to the
distressed and needy. There was a strong attachment between him and his
family, as the scene at his death-bed plainly proved. His age seemed to
endear him to his devoted wife and loving children, who remained at his side
until Death had done its work. He breathed his last 'mid the tears and moans
of his family. No eyes were undimmed with tears, no heart there but felt sad
at the sight. I can safely say that the bereaved wife and children have the
sympathy of the entire neighborhood. He expressed a willingness to die,
hoping that when the Great Life Giver (Christ) comes to gather his elect, and
raise them to immortality, he would be among them.
<A memorial poem follows, not copied>
D.C. Robinson
(From photocopy, but name and date of the newspaper were not on the photocopy
of the obituary clipping.)
Obit. of William H. Osborn
[#10519]
Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO, Friday, Oct. 29, 1948, Vol. LIII, No. 71.
Funeral of W.H. Osborn To Be at 10:30 Saturday
-----
Body of Joplin's Oldest Soldier, 105, to Lie in State at First Christian
Church for Two Hours Prior to Services -- Honor Guard to Stand at Casket --
Civil War Veteran Dies Two Weeks After Suffering Burns at His Home.
Funeral services for W.H. Osborn, 105 years old, who died yesterday will
be conducted at 10:30 o'clock Saturday morning at the First Christian church
by the Rev. F. Guy Brown, pastor. Burial will be in the G.A.R. plot in
Fairview cemetery, beside the grave of his wife.
The body will be taken from the Hurlbut-Glover chapel to the church at
8:30 o'clock, Saturday morning, there to lie in state until the funeral hour.
An honor guard from the mortuary team of Robert S. Thurman post of the
American Legion will stand guard at the casket at the church until 10:30
o'clock, when the casket will be closed.
Active pallbearers will be from the legion mortuary team. Elder of the
First Christian church and members of the Sons of Veterans will be honorary
pallbearers.
Presidents and past presidents of the W.R.C., the Daughters' auxiliary of
the W.R.C. and the state officers of the G.A.R. and auxiliaries will conclude
the services at the church.
The mortuary team of the legion, under direction of Lieutenant Colonel
Homer S. Piper, commander, will conduct rites at the cemetery, consisting of
a firing squad and "Taps."
Mr. Osborn, Joplin's oldest soldier, died at 9:10 o'clock yesterday
morning at Freeman hospital.
The civil war veteran had been ill since October 14, when he was badly
burned by a gas stove at his home, 2201 Pennsylvania avenue.
Hospital attendants said his injuries proved more severe than was at first
apparent.
Became 105 on May 7.
He was elected only last month as junior vice commander of the Grand Army
of the Republic at a convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was one of six
G.A.R. veterans to attend, and one of only 28 living at that time. Mr.
Osborn made the trip by train.
He celebrated his 105th birthday last May 7. Mr. Osborn once cast a vote
to help elect Abraham Lincoln president.
Mr. Osborn had been in excellent health up until the time he was injured,
and for many years had attended regularly the national and state G.A.R.
conventions.
He recently said he still ate three square meals a day, "and the only
thing that ails me is being a little weak."
Mr. Osborn and his wife, since deceased, became ill of pneumonia about six
years ago, and both recovered. A Close friend said that was the last time
the civil war veteran was known to have been ill. Mrs. Osborn later was hurt
fatally in a motor car accident.
An active man, Mr. Osborn was an elder emeritus of the First Christian
church.
He is survived by one son, Guy S. Osborn of Kenilworth, Ill., a suburb of
Chicago, who has been notified of his father's death and is enroute to
Joplin.
The body was received by the Hurlbut-Glover mortuary.
Mr. Osborn was born in Putnamville, Putnam county, Indiana, May 7, 1843.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Osborn, were married in Terre Haute, where
he operated a tavern. His wife, then a young girl, had accompanied a group
of relatives and friends who made up a covered caravan from Rockville, Mo.,
to Terre Haute. The couple later moved to Putnamville and eight children,
one of them William H. Osborn, were born there. The family moved in a few
years to north Missouri.
Enlisted in Indiana.
Mr. Osborn enlisted as a private in Company B, 117th regiment, Indiana
infantry, at Springtown, Ind., July 15, 1863.
After the civil war, Mr. Osborn went to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to work in
the retail department of a wholesale and retail hardware store. He became a
member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was active in the organization
ever after, attending many national and state encampments and becoming
commander of the Missouri department.
A national encampment that Mr. Osborn sincerely regretted having to miss
was held at Columbus, O., in 1880. He was living in Fort Leavenworth at the
time and planned to attend the Columbus meeting, but had to pass up the trip
at the last moment. His brother, James Osborn, did go. It was at that
encampment that General William Tecumseh Sherman, noted federal general who
led his forces in the march through Georgia and to the sea, made his
memorable statement, "War is hell."
It was in addressing the assembled union veterans in a review of the war
that the historic words were uttered by the general. President Rutherford B.
Hayes also addressed the veterans, and Mr. Osborn always bemoaned the fact
that he could not be present.
From Fort Leavenworth, Mr. Osborn went to Harris, a new town in north
Missouri, and there operated a hardware and implement store until early in
September, 1893, when he sold out to make the "run" for land in the "Cherokee
Strip," a tract of land in the old Cherokee nation of Oklahoma, opened for
homesteading by the government. Each person participating in the "run" was
privileged to stake off 160 acres of land and hold it -- if he could -- for
homesteading. Mr. Osborn mad the race on a pony and settled a tract near
Hennessy, at the southern limits of the 60-mile strip of land and, after much
difficulty, succeeded in holding it. He sold the land a few years later and
engaged in the mercantile business at Cherokee, Okla. Disposing of that
business, he moved to Enid, Okla., then to Siloam Springs, Ark., and then to
Joplin in 1925.
An Active Career.
In recalling his experiences at homesteading, Mr. Osborn was reminded
that an uncle, Uriah Osborn, did a bit of it himself. He homesteaded a
half-sectionof land in Illinois and bought an adjoining half-section that is
the present site of the city of Danville.
Mr. Osborn led an active career from boyhood, and was surprisingly active
up to his death. On his one-hundredth birthday, he rose early, greeted a
host of relatives and friends and during the forenoon visited Joplin senior
high school, where he presented a sabre to the best drilled senior cadet of
the school's reserve officers training corps. Then, to make it a full day,
he observed "open house" at his home throughout the afternoon.
Similar celebrations were observed on his subsequent three birthdays.
<part of line obscured> one hundred-and-fourth birthday, he was attending a
national encampment at Cleveland, O and the day
<part missing on photocopy>
anniversary, he entrained for St. Louis to attend a three-day session of the
state encampment of the G.A.R.
The centenarian-plus was elected state commander of the Missouri
department of the G.A.R. at Excelsior Springs in 1942 and was re-elected at
St. Louis in 1943. He has been re-elected each succeeding year. He and Mrs.
Osborn, who died as the result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident
July 8, 1945, made the 425-mile round trip to the Excelsior Springs
convention by bus.
As the sole survivor of the G.A.R. in Joplin, he also was the last member
of the "Last Man's Club," which was organized here by several Union army
veterans a number of years ago. He repeatedly was honored by the American
Legion post of Joplin, whose members held him in highest reverance, and by
affiliated organizations of the G.A.R. He also was an honorary member of the
"Last Man's Club" of the Joplin American Legion post.
[The obituary is accompanied by a photograph of William H. Osborn, with a
caption that reads: W.H. Osborn(above), 105-year-old civil war veteran and
national junior vice commander of the G.A.R. who died yesterday morning in
Freeman hospital following burns suffered at his home October 14. The above
photograph was taken on the eve of his 105th birthday last May 7.]