The son of Samuel & Elizabeth (Gettmaker or Geltmaker) Lynch, in 1850, he lived in Perry County, but in 1860, was an plumber (meaning gas fitter) living in Carlisle, Cumberland County. He stood 5' 5" tall and had light hair and blue eyes. He married Anna M. Roney c. 1860 and fathered Annie E. (b. 05/04/61), Margaret Laura (b. @1865), and Charles (b. @1868).
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted in Carlisle August 5, 1862, and mustered into federal service at Harrisburg August 11 as a private with Co. A, 130th Pennsylvania Infantry. On the march from Washington DC to the regiment's first posting at Fort Albany, Virginia, he suffered sunstroke and shortly after that was injured at Fort Marcy when a felling tree landed on him. He thereafter was considered "unfit for duty" and left behind when the regiment took the field. He fell under the untutored medical care of the 130th Pennsylvania's acting hospital steward, Samuel B. Pannebaker, who administered "calomel and quinine." William thus took no part in the battle of Antietam but did rejoin the regiment (at his insistence, he claimed decades later) at Bolivar Heights, (West) Virginia, whereupon he contracted typhoid fever and dysentery and lay on the ground sheltered only by a tent so ragged that it let in the rain pour through. Again unable to accompany the regiment when it left on October 30, 1862, surgeons ordered him home to Carlisle where he sought treatment from a civilian physician. He was discharged by surgeon's certificate January 16, 1863, at Harrisburg, for "chronic spinal irritation which has resulted in partial paralysis rendering it impossible for him to leave his bed," a reference to the injury sustained when the tree fell on him. A comrade noted that William still looked "used up" the following May.
By 1870, he was an attorney living in Philadelphia, but he abandoned Anna and moved to Kansas in 1871. The couple divorced March 12, 1873. Two days later, he married Michigan-born Laura Ann Armstrong near Cedarvale, Howard (now Chautauqua) County, Kansas, fathering Clarence Wilbur (b. 01/02/74), William A. (b. 04/01/76), Edwin H. (b. 1879), Mary Maude (b. @1886), Daniel Raymond (b. 1890), Arthur Harold (b. 01/09/94), and three others who died. He lived in Chautauqua County and for a time was city attorney. He complained of ongoing "chronic diarrhea," and, in 1882, a surgeon reported his weight at meager 106 lbs. In September 1910, he announced that he was returning to Pennsylvania to visit his daughters from his first marriage but instead moved to St. Cloud, Osceola County, Florida, without telling his Kansas family where he had gone.
On July 28, 1916, he entered the Soldiers' Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, discharged the following December 17, but reentered, date unknown. Meanwhile, Laura had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she obtained a divorce decree on November 7, 1916, amid charges that William was "disagreeable" and "miserly" and "beat the children," even threatening their lives, assertions some of their children denied and others confirmed. Descriptions of his sometimes violent and bizarre behavior around the time he left Kansas suggest that he may have been suffering from depression, a common symptom during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, which his pension records list as a contributing factor in his death.
The couple reconciled in 1919, a move surely motivated more by Laura's need for an income than any yearning for companionship. He thus returned to Kansas where he lived with his ex-wife at their son's home. Deteriorating health and advancing senility forced him back into the soldiers' home system, which he re-entered at Hampton, Virginia, October 1, 1920. There he remained until his death from "volvulus" (bowel obstruction).
Laura, who had so eagerly sought a divorce, now began a long and unsuccessful legal battle to reverse the divorce decree so she could receive a widow's pension. In the doing, she left behind a large pension file filled with complex legalities, a file that can only be obtained from the Veterans' Administration through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted in Carlisle August 5, 1862, and mustered into federal service at Harrisburg August 11 as a private with Co. A, 130th Pennsylvania Infantry. On the march from Washington DC to the regiment's first posting at Fort Albany, Virginia, he suffered sunstroke and shortly after that was injured at Fort Marcy when a felling tree landed on him. He thereafter was considered "unfit for duty" and left behind when the regiment took the field. He fell under the untutored medical care of the 130th Pennsylvania's acting hospital steward, Samuel B. Pannebaker, who administered "calomel and quinine." William thus took no part in the battle of Antietam but did rejoin the regiment (at his insistence, he claimed decades later) at Bolivar Heights, (West) Virginia, whereupon he contracted typhoid fever and dysentery and lay on the ground sheltered only by a tent so ragged that it let in the rain pour through. Again unable to accompany the regiment when it left on October 30, 1862, surgeons ordered him home to Carlisle where he sought treatment from a civilian physician. He was discharged by surgeon's certificate January 16, 1863, at Harrisburg, for "chronic spinal irritation which has resulted in partial paralysis rendering it impossible for him to leave his bed," a reference to the injury sustained when the tree fell on him. A comrade noted that William still looked "used up" the following May.
By 1870, he was an attorney living in Philadelphia, but he abandoned Anna and moved to Kansas in 1871. The couple divorced March 12, 1873. Two days later, he married Michigan-born Laura Ann Armstrong near Cedarvale, Howard (now Chautauqua) County, Kansas, fathering Clarence Wilbur (b. 01/02/74), William A. (b. 04/01/76), Edwin H. (b. 1879), Mary Maude (b. @1886), Daniel Raymond (b. 1890), Arthur Harold (b. 01/09/94), and three others who died. He lived in Chautauqua County and for a time was city attorney. He complained of ongoing "chronic diarrhea," and, in 1882, a surgeon reported his weight at meager 106 lbs. In September 1910, he announced that he was returning to Pennsylvania to visit his daughters from his first marriage but instead moved to St. Cloud, Osceola County, Florida, without telling his Kansas family where he had gone.
On July 28, 1916, he entered the Soldiers' Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, discharged the following December 17, but reentered, date unknown. Meanwhile, Laura had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she obtained a divorce decree on November 7, 1916, amid charges that William was "disagreeable" and "miserly" and "beat the children," even threatening their lives, assertions some of their children denied and others confirmed. Descriptions of his sometimes violent and bizarre behavior around the time he left Kansas suggest that he may have been suffering from depression, a common symptom during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, which his pension records list as a contributing factor in his death.
The couple reconciled in 1919, a move surely motivated more by Laura's need for an income than any yearning for companionship. He thus returned to Kansas where he lived with his ex-wife at their son's home. Deteriorating health and advancing senility forced him back into the soldiers' home system, which he re-entered at Hampton, Virginia, October 1, 1920. There he remained until his death from "volvulus" (bowel obstruction).
Laura, who had so eagerly sought a divorce, now began a long and unsuccessful legal battle to reverse the divorce decree so she could receive a widow's pension. In the doing, she left behind a large pension file filled with complex legalities, a file that can only be obtained from the Veterans' Administration through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The son of Samuel & Elizabeth (Gettmaker or Geltmaker) Lynch, in 1850, he lived in Perry County, but in 1860, was an plumber (meaning gas fitter) living in Carlisle, Cumberland County. He stood 5' 5" tall and had light hair and blue eyes. He married Anna M. Roney c. 1860 and fathered Annie E. (b. 05/04/61), Margaret Laura (b. @1865), and Charles (b. @1868).
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted in Carlisle August 5, 1862, and mustered into federal service at Harrisburg August 11 as a private with Co. A, 130th Pennsylvania Infantry. On the march from Washington DC to the regiment's first posting at Fort Albany, Virginia, he suffered sunstroke and shortly after that was injured at Fort Marcy when a felling tree landed on him. He thereafter was considered "unfit for duty" and left behind when the regiment took the field. He fell under the untutored medical care of the 130th Pennsylvania's acting hospital steward, Samuel B. Pannebaker, who administered "calomel and quinine." William thus took no part in the battle of Antietam but did rejoin the regiment (at his insistence, he claimed decades later) at Bolivar Heights, (West) Virginia, whereupon he contracted typhoid fever and dysentery and lay on the ground sheltered only by a tent so ragged that it let in the rain pour through. Again unable to accompany the regiment when it left on October 30, 1862, surgeons ordered him home to Carlisle where he sought treatment from a civilian physician. He was discharged by surgeon's certificate January 16, 1863, at Harrisburg, for "chronic spinal irritation which has resulted in partial paralysis rendering it impossible for him to leave his bed," a reference to the injury sustained when the tree fell on him. A comrade noted that William still looked "used up" the following May.
By 1870, he was an attorney living in Philadelphia, but he abandoned Anna and moved to Kansas in 1871. The couple divorced March 12, 1873. Two days later, he married Michigan-born Laura Ann Armstrong near Cedarvale, Howard (now Chautauqua) County, Kansas, fathering Clarence Wilbur (b. 01/02/74), William A. (b. 04/01/76), Edwin H. (b. 1879), Mary Maude (b. @1886), Daniel Raymond (b. 1890), Arthur Harold (b. 01/09/94), and three others who died. He lived in Chautauqua County and for a time was city attorney. He complained of ongoing "chronic diarrhea," and, in 1882, a surgeon reported his weight at meager 106 lbs. In September 1910, he announced that he was returning to Pennsylvania to visit his daughters from his first marriage but instead moved to St. Cloud, Osceola County, Florida, without telling his Kansas family where he had gone.
On July 28, 1916, he entered the Soldiers' Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, discharged the following December 17, but reentered, date unknown. Meanwhile, Laura had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she obtained a divorce decree on November 7, 1916, amid charges that William was "disagreeable" and "miserly" and "beat the children," even threatening their lives, assertions some of their children denied and others confirmed. Descriptions of his sometimes violent and bizarre behavior around the time he left Kansas suggest that he may have been suffering from depression, a common symptom during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, which his pension records list as a contributing factor in his death.
The couple reconciled in 1919, a move surely motivated more by Laura's need for an income than any yearning for companionship. He thus returned to Kansas where he lived with his ex-wife at their son's home. Deteriorating health and advancing senility forced him back into the soldiers' home system, which he re-entered at Hampton, Virginia, October 1, 1920. There he remained until his death from "volvulus" (bowel obstruction).
Laura, who had so eagerly sought a divorce, now began a long and unsuccessful legal battle to reverse the divorce decree so she could receive a widow's pension. In the doing, she left behind a large pension file filled with complex legalities, a file that can only be obtained from the Veterans' Administration through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted in Carlisle August 5, 1862, and mustered into federal service at Harrisburg August 11 as a private with Co. A, 130th Pennsylvania Infantry. On the march from Washington DC to the regiment's first posting at Fort Albany, Virginia, he suffered sunstroke and shortly after that was injured at Fort Marcy when a felling tree landed on him. He thereafter was considered "unfit for duty" and left behind when the regiment took the field. He fell under the untutored medical care of the 130th Pennsylvania's acting hospital steward, Samuel B. Pannebaker, who administered "calomel and quinine." William thus took no part in the battle of Antietam but did rejoin the regiment (at his insistence, he claimed decades later) at Bolivar Heights, (West) Virginia, whereupon he contracted typhoid fever and dysentery and lay on the ground sheltered only by a tent so ragged that it let in the rain pour through. Again unable to accompany the regiment when it left on October 30, 1862, surgeons ordered him home to Carlisle where he sought treatment from a civilian physician. He was discharged by surgeon's certificate January 16, 1863, at Harrisburg, for "chronic spinal irritation which has resulted in partial paralysis rendering it impossible for him to leave his bed," a reference to the injury sustained when the tree fell on him. A comrade noted that William still looked "used up" the following May.
By 1870, he was an attorney living in Philadelphia, but he abandoned Anna and moved to Kansas in 1871. The couple divorced March 12, 1873. Two days later, he married Michigan-born Laura Ann Armstrong near Cedarvale, Howard (now Chautauqua) County, Kansas, fathering Clarence Wilbur (b. 01/02/74), William A. (b. 04/01/76), Edwin H. (b. 1879), Mary Maude (b. @1886), Daniel Raymond (b. 1890), Arthur Harold (b. 01/09/94), and three others who died. He lived in Chautauqua County and for a time was city attorney. He complained of ongoing "chronic diarrhea," and, in 1882, a surgeon reported his weight at meager 106 lbs. In September 1910, he announced that he was returning to Pennsylvania to visit his daughters from his first marriage but instead moved to St. Cloud, Osceola County, Florida, without telling his Kansas family where he had gone.
On July 28, 1916, he entered the Soldiers' Home in Johnson City, Tennessee, discharged the following December 17, but reentered, date unknown. Meanwhile, Laura had moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she obtained a divorce decree on November 7, 1916, amid charges that William was "disagreeable" and "miserly" and "beat the children," even threatening their lives, assertions some of their children denied and others confirmed. Descriptions of his sometimes violent and bizarre behavior around the time he left Kansas suggest that he may have been suffering from depression, a common symptom during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, which his pension records list as a contributing factor in his death.
The couple reconciled in 1919, a move surely motivated more by Laura's need for an income than any yearning for companionship. He thus returned to Kansas where he lived with his ex-wife at their son's home. Deteriorating health and advancing senility forced him back into the soldiers' home system, which he re-entered at Hampton, Virginia, October 1, 1920. There he remained until his death from "volvulus" (bowel obstruction).
Laura, who had so eagerly sought a divorce, now began a long and unsuccessful legal battle to reverse the divorce decree so she could receive a widow's pension. In the doing, she left behind a large pension file filled with complex legalities, a file that can only be obtained from the Veterans' Administration through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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