Jennie Lincoln in the Civil War

 

Photo credit: Jennie Lincoln at about age 12; from Pierson Family Papers, 1821-1996
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

The name of Miss Jennie E. Lincoln appeared several times in the Sandusky Register in 1863 and 1864. She served as the Secretary and Treasurer of the Relief Society. The Relief Society gathered donations of food and money, to provide aid to Civil War soldiers, as well as to the families on the home front.

 An article which appeared in the December 1, 1863 issue of the Sandusky Register reported on donations of food and money which were collected from the residents of Sandusky, Perkins Township, Castalia, Oxford Township, Kelleys Island and Put in Bay. One hundred six families, including three families of color, were provided food from the generous donations of local residents. All the families to whom food was given had either a son or husband who was in military service for the Union.  A portion of the article appears below:

In January of 1864, several soldiers from the 122^nd New York Volunteer Infantry arrived in Ohio, where they would become guards at the Confederate Prison at Johnson’s Island.

Some of the citizens of Sandusky housed the soldiers from New York. The Relief Society prepared a banquet for the soldiers. Captain Lucius Abel Dillingham, of Company I of the New York 122^nd Volunteers, fell in love with the secretary of the Relief Society, Jennie Lincoln.

Capt. Lucius Abel Dillingham
Photo Credit: Archives of Michigan 

 Lucius A. Dillingham and Jennie E. Lincoln were wed in Sandusky, Ohio, in November, 1865, after the close of the Civil War. By 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Dillingham resided in Coldwater Michigan with their daughter Clara. Clara Dillingham, later Mrs. John Pierson, became well known as the author of several children’s books.

Capt. Lucius Abel Dillingham died in Stanton, Michigan in 1911, and his wife Jennie passed away in 1916. Both are buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Stanton, Michigan.