The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-08-20

erly of Absaraka, was the first cousin
to J. Summerfield Staples, who was
the substitute for Abraham Lincoln
during the Civil war.
There have recently been published
In the Sunday papers a series of war
time special stories and one of them
contained an illustrated sketch of Lin
coins substitute and his father. Mr..
Staples of Fargo has copies of the or
iginal photos from which the cuts for
she article were made. He values then,
very highly. The article accompanying
the illustrated features is as follows:
Lincolns substitute" is the UNI
adorned commentary of the formal war
record of j. Summerf1eld Staples.
In cemetery at Stroudsburg. Pa. is
simple marble slab which contains
bare mention of the fact that it
marks the last resting place of this
same Staples, the Representative re-
cruit."
During all those years of strife and
bloodshed, when the south hurled its
cnivalry against the flower of northern
manhood, two men did their duty as
best they knew. One was Lincoln the
great emancipation. History has placed
him among the greatest of men the
world has produced Another was this
same Staples, who fought with the Sec
ond District of Columbia Volunteers as
best 20 could.
For a time it seemed as if history
was going to slight Staples After the
war he went quietly back to Monroe
county, fine, healthy specimen OF
manhood, and was a useful member Of
the community until his death, some
years ago. He made no stir, he claimed
no plaudits for doing his duty.
But now, 1t seems, history is about to
make amends for it's neglect. and be-
fore many years a fitting monument
may mark the last resting place of the
representative recruit"
The line of Staples is older THAI
Monroe county. After the Revolution
airy war, the founder of the family In
pennsylvania settled in the picturesuue
county that borders the Delaware ana
is at the height of its beauty at the
Water Gap--that one place where the
great glacier which is said 10 have
FORMED the channel of the river broke
through the high hills which form a
ridge along the eastern section of the
continent.
Naturally, therefore, the name Of
Staples is not strange TO the inhabit-
ants Of Monroe county 1t has been
borne there for four generations by the
sturdy types of men who have made
the nation.
Typical of these hardy people was
John l.. Staples, father of the man who
was 70 be Lincolns representative in
the real fighting He was a wheel
wright. Certainly, in his time. his was
useful occupation. But il bv no
means represented his sphere of activi-.
ty' He had vigorous mind and gift
of expressing il that would not be con-
fined to the making Of wheels.
Worked and Preached.
Those were the days before unions
and a lot of other things that We now
are accustomed to had come into exist
ence. So it was deemed not the least
strange that with his trade of wheel
wrighting, the elder Staples should
combine the duties of a preacher.
The pulpit of the Methodist Episcop-
al church claimed him, and by the time
the war broke out his identity as
minister had overshadowed his original
work as a wheelwright.
BY that time his son, j. Summerfield.
was a Swapping" boy around the
twenties, in fact, about as fine a speci-
men of growing manhood as could be
imagined
The father enlisted in the Union
army as a chaplain. When ne went to
want to follow in his footsteps.
Like the parent, he was a wheel
wright. He had worked with his father
and he could not bear to stay at home
while the elder was part and parcel or
the army that was fighting for freedom.
From this point there is some uncer-
tainty. Just how he came to be Lin
coins substitute is not altogether clear.
One version, and that, perhaps, the
most credible, is that of his father
who died only few years ago. Ac-
cording to this, while Chaplain Staples
was in or near washington the boy
came down to him for the purpose of
enlisting
Fired with the ambition of youth,
young Staples conceived the idea or
representing the president at the front.
Through his position, the chaplain had
no trouble in getting to see Lincoln,
and took the lad along with him.
Then, as this version goes on, the
president was much struck by the lads
spirit and originality in volunteering to
act as his substitute. and gave his i'm.
mediate sanction to the enlistment on
these terms. He patted the boy on the
head, saying:
You viii be one OF the lucky ones"
This at any rate proved true. Staples
served four years with the District Of
Columbia men, and any one who came
out Of such four years of lighting as
well as he went into 1t could certainly
be called lucky.
Another version ascribes his selec-
ton as Lincoln's substitute to chance.
According to this one, 1t had been de-
termined, for the moral effect it would
have, to select a man who would per-
sonally represent Lincoln at the front.
Once this was decided on, 1t was bur
reasonable that the substitute should
be such as to reflect credit upon his
sponsor. Accordingly the adjutant
general was directed to secure the
finest young fellow who could be found
in washington. BY accident, then, the
adjutant is said to have run across
Staples,
At once he was struck by the chaps
physical perfection. Bred as he was
among the hills where the long. hard
winters develop all the strength and
stamina that is latent in the human
frame, there is no doubt that he was
striking boy.