William M. Buck

SMITH

Posted By: Keith Buck (email)
Date: 2/10/2003 at 23:32:34

William M. Buck was born in Jackson Co., Ohio to Jesse & Margaret Buck. The family moved briefly to Cass Co., Michigan and then to Greene Co., Illinois before settling in Appanoose Co., Iowa in 1843. Located in southern Iowa on the border with Missouri, Appanoose County consisted of rolling farmland. Over a period of years, William's father, Jesse, bought land along the Chariton River and in 1860 the total value of his land was $1,760 at a time when the average landowner in the county owned just $500 in land.

In 1854, William married Laura Ann Smith, whose family lived in and around Moravia, to the northeast of Jesse’s property. The wedding was held at the home of Laura's brother, Harvey Smith, which was between Moravia and the Appanoose County seat, Centerville. By 1860, when Jesse died, William & Laura had three children, two daughters and a son. William and his brothers and sisters had a falling-out with their mother, Margaret, over how much of her husband's property she was to inherit. Jesse's will, made one day before he died, divided his property equally between Margaret and their six children. Instead, Margaret decided that she should receive her dower's right, plus one seventh of the remainder. (In those days, women were not allowed to own property. As a safeguard, however, they had the right of "dower" which meant that their husband could not sell any property without her approval, and on his death, at least 1/3 of the property was hers). The matter ended up in county court in Centerville, and in the end Margaret lost her case.

By the time the Civil War began with the shots fired on Fort Sumter, William and Laura had added twin daughters, America and Marinda, to their family. Marinda survived only a day, but America brought to four the number of children to support. Nonetheless, when a volunteer infantry regiment was formed from men from Appanoose County, William enlisted.

When he went to Centerville on the 26th of July, 1862 to enlist in Company G of the 36th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, William Buck was 31 years old with a wife and five children at home, all under the age of 8. Standing 5'9 1/2", William had blue eyes and dark hair. A farmer, he would have been in good physical condition. With so many dependents at home, the $25 bounty and $2 premium that William was paid for enlisting would have been welcome. William then returned home to await the mustering of the regiment, which occurred at Camp Lincoln, near Keokuk, Iowa on the first of October 1862. Captain Thomas M. Fee, commanding officer of Co. G, was later a respected lawyer in Appanoose County.

While the regiment was still organizing, it was struck by a measles epidemic which took the lives of nearly 100 of the men. William apparently contracted the measles, but survived in a weakened state. In November 1862, the nearly 1,000 officers and enlisted men of the 36th Iowa Volunteer Infantry was ordered to Helena, Arkansas by way of Memphis, Tennessee. While in Tennessee, William became even more ill, contracting mumps and typhoid fever, and was hospitalized. By February of the following year, he had been judged more or less permanently disabled by his illnesses, and on 22 February 1863 was discharged on a Payment Certificate of Disability. This was a fairly common fate, as during the Civil War far more soldiers died or were disabled due to illness than to enemy fire. He returned to Appanoose County a broken man, unable to do a full day's work.

This did not prevent William & Laura's family from growing, however, and in the next eight years they had four more children, two boys and two girls. In late 1870, William and Laura packed their eight children into a wagon and headed for southern Nebraska, 360 miles from their home and the rest of the Buck family in Iowa.

No doubt using his share of his father's estate, William bought land in Nuckolls County, Iowa, not far from Oak, Nebraska near the border with Kansas. Here, three more sons and a daughter were born over the next ten years, including Amos Kile Buck, born 28 July 1881.

In 1891, responding to the second great landrush in Oklahoma, William and Laura again packed up their four youngest children and headed southeast to Lincoln County, Oklahoma, settling outside the small town of Carney. It was here, on 28 May 1900 that William finally died, succumbing to the illnesses that ravaged him during his brief period of service to the Union.