Sitting by a Warm Fire

     While sitting by the fire in our room at the Timber Lodge and watching the snow come down I started to think of our ancestors who couldn't get out of the weather and probably didn't enjoy the snow as much as we enjoy it.
     The Mannen family was visited by tragedy with two weather related deaths about a year apart.  In March, 1863 Henry Harrison Mannen was serving with the 94th Illinois Volunteers in Missouri.  He was sent out to forage for food for his company near Mountain Store, Missouri.  He accidentally fell into a stream and as a result  got pneumonia and died.  [This is an example of the hard times that the Civil War soldiers went through. Twice as many soldiers died from illness and disease as from battle wounds.  It is also a shame that the soldiers had to forage for their own food.]
     News of this reached his sister, Annetta Rebecca Mannen Baylor back in Downs, McLean County, Illinois and must have affected her terribly. Another brother, Thomas M Mannen was serving in the 12th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. A year after Henry died, Annetta was traveling to town to get word of Thomas and got caught in a sudden spring storm, took ill and died.  Henry left a widow and young son, while Annetta left her husband with two very young children.  Annetta was my 2nd great-grandmother.
    Below is an image of a letter from the army surgeon verifying his death.  This document is in the widow's pension file.  Henry's widow, Sylvia was attempting to get help from the government to help raise Henry's son.

Letter from army surgeon verifying Henry's death^1,

Link to image of Henry's Tombstone

Link to Annetta Baylor's Tombstone

1.   "Mannen, Henry H (WC80217) › Page 8 - Fold3.com." 2012. 9 Oct. 2013 <http://www.fold3.com/document/287474497/>