Among the settlers of the town of Humphrey were two extended families who would pay a disproportionate share of the Union butcher's bill. Not only would these families suffer more than their fair share of casualties, but one would be among the county's earliest wounded in action and the other would contribute one of the very last to be killed in action.

Not all of these men appear in the statistics for the town of Humphrey because some joined in a neighboring town or county but most were born and raised in Humphrey and all had strong family ties there.

On January 29, 1864 Lyman Wilber wrote to his uncle Nathen Wilber, who seems to have been the family patriarch in that era, as follows:

"Camp in Lookout Valley Nashville Ten
January the 29 1864

Dear Ouncle and Aunt

As I have a few lesuare moments to my self I thought that I would improve them in writing to you. I guess you have thought that I dident think much of my relation because I did not write. The reason I have not writen before is that I am ashame to write for I cant spell nor write so enney one can read it but I thought that I would write and if you can't read it jest send it back and I will read it for you.

It is very pleasant hear to day. It is jest as warm as I care about having it but I expect to see some warm days next summer. I allmost dread to see summer come. I supose you have sean some cold weather up there by what I have heard. Well it was some what cold hear if I am enney judge. Thare was a number froze to death in Chatanauga abought fore miles from hear but wee have got a veary warm place in the valley and wee have got us little log houses and every thing is slick around us. Wee keep our streats swep so it looks veary nice but it will soon play out for I think that wee will halft to march before long but I hope not. I schould not care so much about it if I was agoing to march home but this marching up to be shot at it hant a veary pleasant thing. I notice but Ouncle it dont make so much diferrence if you are prepard to meat our god in peas that is what I look at but I hope and pray that I may live so hapy that if wee never see each other on earth again that I can meat you around the throne of god but I hope and trust that I schall have the privelage of seeing all of my friends again before I die. Neu of poor Oscar is dead and goan home to rest. I recieved a letter from Milo and he is well and injoying himself. Well I have not sean Charles in some time but he was well the last time I see him. He is down to the landing about fore miles from hear. Wee have some drilling to do and some fatigue duty to do jest anough to keep us healthy. Now Ouncle as this paper is most scribled over I will halft to close by sain write and you will oblige me veary much.
From Mr. Lyman C. Wilber
To Ouncle Nathen Wilber"

The "poor Oscar" he referred to was his first cousin Oscar F. Wilber who had been mortally wounded at Chancellorsville and had died July 31, 1863. The life and death of Oscar Wilber has been eloquently memorialized in "Poor Oscar is Dead and Gone Home to Rest" America's Civil War, November 1996 by Mark Dunkleman. Also referenced is another first cousin, Milo, who had been captured at Gettysburg and exchanged. Another cousin, Charles Wilber, also mentioned in the letter, had been captured at Chancellorsville and exchanged. Lyman, himself, had less that a month to live. On February 25, 1865 he would fall victim to the ubiquitous "soldier's disease". His brother Philo Wilber would be mortally wounded during the Appomattox campaign on March 29,1865,expiring April 20, 1865 after all fighting had ended, thus becoming one of the final victims of four years of fraticidal conflict.⁽¹⁾

Before being struck down with the mortal wound on the killing ground at Chancellorsville, Oscar Wilber's two most compelling concerns were the wellbeing of his mother and a certain heifer. The journal article by Dunkleman poignantly tells of Oscar's concern for his mother but neglects the heifer. On November 27, 1862, Oscar wrote to his mother regarding the heifer:

"Mother I am Sory that you had to Sell that heifer you wrote that Nathan Sed he Would take what he give for her Mother by her back if you have to pay ten Dollars for her Mother tell Nathan that i haint got Eny pay yet Nor i dont know when We shall get Eny but i think that We Shall Soon tell him that I Will pay him out of that Money that I let him have if he Want to do so or if he dont Want to Do So tell him When i get some More Money i Will pay him out of that Mother you Need the use of that heifer Next Sumer if i had of been at home i Would Not had her Sold i thaught a good Deal of her Mother be Shure and by her back for Me if he Will Sell her and if i Never get home you Shall have her to remember Me if grand Mother has got Eny hay to Sell i Will trade one of them Notes for hay if she haint got Eny to Sell then by Some of Some one Else it May be that uncle Nathan would like to Sell Some"

On February 26, 1863 he wrote directly to his uncle Nathen:

"Nathan you wrote that you would winter that heifer and sell her to me for sixteen dollars. I will pay you 16 dollars for her and you may winter her. You may tell Wallace that I have bought her."

A letter inexplicably dated 15 days earlier to his mother contains another reference to his bovine:

"Mother i wrote to uncle Nathan that i Would take that heifer i give him 16 dollars for her and he is to Winter her for Me".

In all, this notable family contributed eleven or twelve members to the Union armies. Lyman's third brother, Darius, survived the soldiers' disease and had been discharged for disability in 1863. Another cousin, Wallace (brother of Oscar and recorded in these pages as Horace), claimed to have served in the 154th. There is no record of his service, but with eleven brothers, brothers-in-law, and cousins having worn the Blue uniform his confusion is perhaps understandable.

The other Wilber relatives who served were Myron Canada who had married a Wilber sister; Danford Hall, wounded at Chancellorsville who would marry a Wilber sister in 1867; Sanford Kinyon, a Wilber nephew who was killed on Rocky Face Ridge May 8, 1864; George Wordern Benjamin, married to a Wilber sister, was discharged for disability in 1863; and Edmund Tracy, first cousin of Darius, Milo and Philo, was taken prisoner at Chancellorsville and died of typhoid May 24, 1863.

The town of Humphrey is divided by a mountain and on the other side of the mountain lived another remarkable family. Five Wilcox brothers fought for the Union plus a first cousin and a brother-in-law. Hiram Wilcox and the first cousin, Calvin Chamberlain, both died in uniform. Hiram died of scarlet fever shortly after he joined the 94th infantry and Calvin Chamberlain was captured at Gettysburg and died at Andersonville August 4, 1864.

Three of the remaining Wilcox brothers and their brother-in-law Joseph Gooden were all wounded. Edwin was wounded October 31, 1864 at Hatcher Run; Isiah was discharged for disability in February of 1863 with a broken leg; Melbourn was wounded at Gettysburg; and Joseph Gooden was among the first Cattaraugus County casualties at Fair Oaks. ⁽²⁾

Of these seven brothers, brother-in-law and first cousin only Augustus Wilcox survived the war unwounded but according to his diary and letters to his wife, he too suffered throughout his service with the "soldiers' disease".

An epilogue of sorts: perhaps it was inevitable a generation later Ethel Rachel Odell (a Wilber descendent) married a Wilcox, thus her granddaughter Phyllis Beebe who did most of the research for this essay is descended from both families.

⁽¹⁾ While there were five members of the 64th Infantry, the "Cattaraugus regiment", killed at Farmersville on April 7th, since Philo Wilber expired two weeks later he may, indeed, have been the last Cattaraugus resident who died as a result of wounds received in action.

⁽²⁾ The first significant Cattaraugus County casualties were suffered by the 37th Infantry, which lost 95 killed, wounded and captured at Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. However, only two companies in this regiment were recruited in Cattaraugus County. The Wilcox family did not incur its first wound in action until June 1, 1862 when the 64th Infantry had 173 killed, wounded and captured at Fair Oaks, among them Joseph Gooden.