Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-01-05
FAMILY OF PATRIOTS.
Five Generations Served Their COun-
try as Soldiers.

The One-Armsd Father, a Former Brat
tIeboro Man, Now Asks for Pension
---HIs Two sons Died In the spanish
American war.
A Washington special to the New York
| Tribune says a case of inherited patriotism
and sacrifice of the men of family for
| their country's defence has come before
the war department for consideration OF
crippled veteran, whose father, grandfath-
er and reat-grandfather gave their lives,
two to preserve the Union and one to Sc
cure American independence, and who has
now given the lives of his two sons, his
sole means of support, to free Cuba and
achieve the destiny of the United States.
The record of facts is as follows:
Owen X. Vesper, Is years old, enlisted
in May, 1861, from Royalton, Vt, as
private in Company f, Sd Vermont in
fantry. In September of the same year
his aged father enlisted as recruit in the
same company to be with his only son. In
1862, while the regiment was in the Chick
ahominy swamps, near Richmond, the
father succumbed to the vicissitudes OF the
campaign and died at Harrison's Landing,
Just after the Seven Days battles. The
boy became one of the best soldiers in the
regiment, serving through the Antietam
and Fredericksburg campaigns, Burn
sides mud march, the Charlottesville and
Gettysburg campaigns, and back through
Virginia to Rappahannock Station. Yes
per was always conspicuous in the cele-
brated Sd Vermont which went into ser
vice in 1861 with SSl of the hardest Green
Mountain men, and after receiving 92S re-
cruits during the war was mustered out in
Tel, =, toto 4 81, /, Of
There was not soldier in the regiment
whose services were not distinguished,
meritorious, and heroism was such a com
monplace matter with the Vermonters that
officers were not called upon to be contin-
ually sending in reports to headquarters of
conspicuous instances. Vesper reGnlsted
as veteran volunteer, and OIL May 5,
1864, at the Wilderness, he lost his right
arm above the elbow in action, and in con-
sequence was transferred to the veteran
reserve corps and served until the close of
the war. On his return home he married,
and two sons were born to him. With the
assistance of his devoted wife, and in spite
of his own infrmity, by dint of diligence
night and day he educated the boys, and
Just as they reached manhood and were be-
coming the sole dependence of their par
ents, the Spanish war began. The old
martial spirit, transmitted from the grand
father and father, asserted itself, and they
joined the I'd Massachusetts,, going through
the battles at Santiago with that regiment.
There the younger, Paul, died in the in.
fected camps on August 10, and his elder
brother, Lieut.. Harry j. Vesper, died on
the transport Mobile on the way home and
was buried at sea.
Thus has a family of patriots been an
initiated in their country's service. Owen
Vesper's great-grandfather was a soldier of
the Revolution under Washington. His
grandfather, soldier of the war of 1912,
was taken prisoner by the British, and
died upon release. His father in the civil
war was buried at Harrison's Landing.
He gave his own right arm at the Wilder
ness and then gave his two sons in the
Spanish war;
This story has a local interest, as Mr..
Vesper lived in Brattleboro several years
Immediately after the civil war His wife
was Ann Patterson of West Brattleboro.
The Vesper boys often visited at Mrs.
Sabrina Miller's in West Brattleboro, where
their mother lived previous to her mar
rage. The Vesper boys were cousins of
Mrs. H. o. Coolidge of Brattleboro. Mr..
and Mrs. Vesper live in Springfield, Mass.