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Morris Waldo: 1829-1902

Posted December 29, 2020

If you walk through Section B at Fort Howard cemetery, you will see a family headstone with “Waldo” on one side and “Henderson” on the other. Buried there is me, Morris Waldo, my second wife, Margaret, daughters, Helen and Della, my in-laws and my great grandson, William Jackson, along with other dear relatives.

One stone or monument I wish was there is my first wife’s, Anna Eliza Waldo. Had it not been for her and her bravery, I may not have survived the Civil War. In 1861 I enlisted in Company E of the First Wisconsin Calvary and was sent to St. Louis in the Spring. I went with the regiment to Cape Girardeau and Bloomfield. While there, I was taken sick with typhoid fever. My wife Anna, though thin and frail herself, left Wisconsin and our young daughter, Mary Adele (Della,) to care for me. The detachment was obliged to leave Bloomfield, and my wife, the quartermaster’s wife and I were carried in a mule wagon to Greenville where we joined the regiment. Anna was taken ill with typhoid fever at that time
and we were moved to Patterson about ten miles distant, where she died and was buried. I was still sick from typhoid fever but remember, vaguely, being held up by comrades as Anna was lowered into the grave. The next day one of the fiercest battles was fought there in the old fashioned church yard where she was buried, so no trace of her grave could be found and her body was not brought home.

Though I survived the war and returned home, I often thought of Anna and the sacrifice she made for me. My one good fortune was that our daughter, Mary Adele (Della) looked and acted so much like Anna and she brought me much joy. Both she, and her husband, James Henderson are buried near by.