The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-09
NURSE BwICKERDYKE DEAD
FAMOUS ARMY ANGEL PASSES AWAY
AT BUNKER HILL, KAN.
known to All the Union Armies of the
Civil WARBLER Work at the Front
Death of AdOIph Kraus.

BUNKER HILL, Kan. Nov. Smother
Bickerdyke, famous for her work among
Union soldiers during the civil war, died
here to-day. aged eighty-four years. Flu
neral services will be held on Sunday,
and on Monday the body will be taken to
Galesburg, Ill. for burial.
Although Mother Bickerdyke's labors were
chiefly performed with the Western armies.
she was known TO veterans all over the
country. Next to the general in command,
she had more authority than any commits
stoned officer on the field. Through Mrs.
Bickerdyke's veins flowed the blood Of the
Knickerbockers and Puritans. Her great
gr-eat-grandfather, Thomas Rodgers. was a
passenger on the Mayhower. Her grand
father, John Rodgers. was a distinguished
soldier i'm the Revolutionary war, and repre-
sentatives of the same family were enrolled
in the war of 1872. Her paternal ancestry
was no less ilustrious. being closely con-
nected with the lovely Mary Ball, who mar
ried Augustine Washington and became the
mother of the first President.
Mrs. Bickerdyke MARY Ann BALD was
born July 10, 1917, in Knox county, Ohio.
near the present city of Mount Vernon. At
the age of sixteen she went to Oberlin to
COiiDlCNC ANA tQGLaNAOAit dNhNAioAho OOCAh
College and working for her board. Later
she moved to Cincinnati. and volunteered
as a nurse in one of the city hospitals dur
ing the siege of cholera in 1881. Here she
acquired that knowledge of medicine and
skill in nursing which made her services of
such great value in after years. She mar
ried at Cincinnati, in 1S47, Robert Bicker-
dyke, a musician who was a member of the
-. 49, .Io.-ol nth Iorn- I ind ON
her trip through this country. Two sons
were born to them-James r. and Hiram.
In 1856 Mr.. and Mrs. Bickerdyke moved 10
Galesburg, Ill.
Mrs. Bickerdyke was a practicing ply
stefan at Galesburg when the war broke
out. A letter from DR.. Woodward, sur
geon of the Twenty-secOnd Illinois In
fantry, which she heard read in church,
induced her TO go TO the front as a nurse.
Ceeded to the regimental hospitals at
Cairo, where everything was in confusion
"a situation which she soon relieved; after
several heated controversies with the Of
ficers in command. On Nov. Z, 1851, follow
ing the battle of Belmont, she was APP
pointed matron OF the large post hospital
at Cairo, and all the hospital stores sent
by the people of Illinois were given to her
trustworthy care. After the battle OF Fort
DOnelsOn she went from Cairo on the first
boat to assist in the removal OF the wound
ed to the hospitals at Cairo, Paducah and
Mound City. She followed the army to
Pittsburg Landing. where 5000 wounded
men were TO be cared for; and thence TO
Iuka and Corinth Miss, where she was
given charge of the military hospitals.
The same experience was repeated at
other points in the South, the accomplished
nurse alternating between the field hos
pitfalls and those established in the large
cities OF the North. She was the accredited
agent Of the Chicago Sanitary Commission,
and also received and distributed the bulk
OF the supplies contributed by the COM
missions of Indianapolis, Cincinnati and
General Grant gave her a pass which
would take her anywhere within the lines
of his department. The pass was removes
as his authority extended.
She was at VicksbuTg and Jackson, Miss,
and in the Chattanooga campaign. Hardly
had the battle of Mission Ridge been
fought before she had established a hospi-
tai at the base of the mountain, where she
received and cared for nearly two thou
sand wounded men. She was the only
woman at work there for thirty days fol-
lowing the battle. From Chattanooga she
went to Huntsville, Ala, where the old
residence of John {. Calhoun became her
headquarters. She was at Beaufort, n. c.,
when Lee finally surrendered his army to
Grant.
After peace had been declared she pro-
eeeded to Washington, and on the day of
the grand review the now famous nurse,
mounted upon a glossy saddle horse, but
wearing a simple calico dress and a sun
bonnet, was a conspicuous figure in the
throng that gathered from all parts of the
country to witness the pageant of victory.
Her services as army nurse closed at Camp
Butler, Springfield. ILL.,. in March, 1866,
when the last Illinois troops were mustered
out.
For a year after the close Of the war
Mrs. Bickerdyke served as housekeeper in
the Chicago Home for the Friendless. In
1867 she conceived the idea of assisting the
ex-soldiers to procure homes in Kansas,
and a wealthy banker furnished her $40, 600
to be used for that purpose. Through this
medium fully three hundred families were
comfortably settled in central Kansas
within the next two years. In this move
ment she had the hearty cooperation of
General Sherman, then in at
Fort Riley.
The next four years were spent i'm New
York, where she worked under the auspices
OF the City Board of Missions. She made
frequent visits torVashington, and was adj
She was instrumental in securing pensions
for over 800 army nurses and for scores of
veterans. Her wonderful memory and care
fully preserved letters and records have
often supplied the needed link i'm the chain
of evidence. In one of her cases before
the department General Logan vouched for
I her by saying: Whatever she wants is
right, and whatever she may say will be
the truth" She has a statement compiled
by the department showing an annual pay
ment through her personal agency Of $780,
0oG pension money.
In 1874 she returned to Kansas to make
her home with her son, and here she had
lived. with the exception OF a few years
given a position in the United States mint.
Having done so much for others, her
friends decided about fifteen years ago that
the government ought TO do something for
troG1ced into and passed by Congress
granting her a pension of s5 a month.
OTHER OBITUARY.