John Tatro

Greenwood, Clark Co., Wisconsin

 
This is my biography for John Tatro (my Dad's Uncle).  

By Harry Tatro
 
JOHN TATRO was was of the seventh generation in America, descending from the original immigrant Louis Tetreau who arrived in New France in mid 1660s. In the custom of the French Canadians, the second generation Joseph had been given the "dit" name Ducharme, thus giving descendants the option of use of either name. Early in the 1700s, record keepers had started to sometimes write the name as Tetro, with the accented e and the eau becoming just o. More Anglosized the common phonetic spelling TATRO came into use.
Although he was baptized as Jean Baptiste Ducharme at Henryville, Quebec, on March 5, 1843, this is the person that subsequent family and others have known as "John Tatro". But there is a problem with that record. That baptismal document, written in French, states that he was born on the 23 of January "dernier".  Does that "dernier" mean last January, or does it mean last year? This could be interpreted as January 23, 1842. His Civil War records show that he said he was born January 22, 1841, thus making him a year older than actual. Family has said that this was to allow for his younger brother, Joseph, to enlist at the same time in 1861. Joseph was under eighteen, so the story goes, and had to lie about his age. The story seems to have merit, because their father, Moses, signed (with an X) an affidavit testifying that Joseph had his consent to enlist, but also that he was eighteen years of age. It is interesting that the census of 1850, when there was no reason to lie about his age, rather supports the 1841 year of birth as do some others. However, the 1850 census was taken by English speaking government in the United States, from this family that spoke only French, so there could have been misunderstanding. The baptism was done in French and the priest should have been able to assess the age of the infant. John's death certificate gives the birth as January 22, 1843. The informant was his son, Moses Henry, again when there was no reason to lie about the age. (Marcel Bouthillier, French-Canadian of Marieville, Quebec, says "last January the 23 is 1842" in an e-mail of January 8, 2000, when referring to the baptismal entry.)

John's sister Henriette (who was later known as Harriet) was baptized at the same time as John. Their parents are recorded as "Moyse Ducharme Journalier et Angelique Plante du township de Dunham". Moses was a day-labourer living in the township of Dunham where there was no church at the time and the family had travelled the thirty kilometres to have the children baptized. Shortly, thereafter, the family moved to Vermont, where some of Angelique's relatives lived. In a census, John is recorded as immigrating to the United States in 1843. Moses Tatro and family were briefly unsettled in Vermont where Joseph, Thadeus and Zoa were born, Thadeus on the 4th of October, 1845, and Zoa in 1848. A move from Vermont to Milton, Saratoga County, State of New York, was made between the birth of daughter Zoa   in 1848 and the census, dated the 24th  of September 1850. Most likely the family just happened to be at Milton  on their planned journey  west when the 1850 census was taken.

Moses and family travelled west and took up land in Brooklin Township, Green County, Wisconsin, where they remained about three years then moved further west into Steele County, Minnesota, where John's father acquired farm land and the boys helped with the farm work. John was about sixteen years old when his mother died.

Moses's two older sons, John age 20 and Joseph age 18, signed up in Company E, with a dozen or more other boys, at Owatonna, under Captain Ebenezer LeGro. They were mustered in at Fort Snelling on November 27th, 1861, and remained there for the winter, drilling and causing a disturbance over poor beef supplied by the government contractor. (Lieutenant Robert Winegar wrote, "We made our headquarters at Ottawa, LeSueur County.  I raised some of the men in this place in LeSueur and Cleveland, and some in Nicollet and Sibley counties.  When I had forty-seven or forty-eight I got teams and took them down to Fort Snelling.  After we had been to the fort a few days, Captain LeGro came up from Owatonna with twelve or fourteen men (including twenty-year-old John Tatro his seventeen-year-old brother Joseph) and wanted to join our company.  As LeGro had been in the Mexican War we gave him the captaincy, and I was elected first lieutenant.  When we were here we called our company 'The Sharpshooters,' and we drilled three times a week.  I do not know where LeGro is, and have not heard from him for twenty years.  R. Winegar, Ottawa, LeSueur Co., Minn.)

Demand for more troops discounted the initial intent of frontier service for the 4th Regiment and the boys found themselves aboard the side-wheel steamboat "Sucker State" with band playing, April 20th, 1862, leaving St. Paul bound for St. Louis where they arrived three days later to take up quarters at Benton Barracks. May 2nd they left Benton Barracks, this time on the "John J. Roe" on their way to join Major General H. W. Halleck's army at Cornith up the Tennessee River.
Debarking at Paris Landing, they did their first march out, a distance of 20 miles, in search of the enemy, to the vicinity of Paris, but met no enemy, so returned to proceed on the "Gladiator" on up the Tennessee River. At Brown's Landing the eager lads so crowded forward on the small steamer, already heavily loaded with supplies, that the hurricane and boiler decks broke down injuring several men. May 14th they arrived at Hamburg Landing, Tennessee, and marched the few miles to join Halleck's army on the next day. There the 4th Regiment was assigned to Buford's First Brigade, Hamilton's Division, Army of the Mississippi, and ready to do battle in a serious way.

May 18th the Union forces, 100,000 strong, advanced to Farmington where they threw up earthworks a short distance from the Confederate fortified position surrounding Cornith. The area was heavily treed, and streams and swamps had to be corduroyed for transport from their supply bases at Hamburg and Pittsburgh. At frequent times there were trains of as many as 1200 teams on the make-shift roads. Halleck received criticism for his caution in delay but this could have spared the lives of many men. On May 30th they found that the enemy had evacuated Cornith. The retreat was pursued 20 miles to Boonesville. The Union men returned to 5 miles from Cornith to set up camp on a hill in the pine woods by a very pure, and very welcome, water supply at Clear Creek. From the swamps and heat, one third of the troops had contracted typhoid or some other form of fever and there were many deaths.

In late June there was a march toward Holly Springs as far as Ripley, then a return to Clear Creek. The men carried 100 rounds of ammunition plus their other things so being heavily loaded many more were disabled in the severe heat.

In August they marched to Jacento 20 miles and established a camp. There they learned of the Sioux uprising back home and many wanted to return to undertake the initial intent of their enlistment, to protect the settlers in the frontier. But that was not to be.

September 18th they proceeded to Iuka, Mississippi, where Price's Confederate army had taken occupation on the 14th. In the Battle of Iuka on the 19th, the 4th Regiment of Minnestota Volunteers, comprised of 408 men present, came under heavy fire. As they left the field of battle after dark, they came upon their comrades of the Ohio Regiment who mistook the Minnesota boys as the enemy and fired a volley upon them killing  and wounding many. The disgusted 4th Regiment marched on to the rear and slept on their arms in an old field that night. The enemy, believing that they were badly out-numbered, fled during the night. They had lost 1516 killed and wounded while the Federals lost 790. The 4th lost 3 killed and 44 wounded. During the battle at Iuka, Mississippi, September 19, 1862, Joseph was slightly wounded. They returned to Jacinto the next day and on October 1st and 2nd moved back to camp three miles south of Cornith.

Next day, October 3rd, the enemy, with a force of 22,000, marched onto Cornith with the intent of securing the two rail lines crossing at that point and vital as supply routes. Union forces fought fiercely until  11 pm in a temperature that had reached to 108 degrees in the shade during the day. By noon the next day a third of the Confederate men were casualties and what was left retreated toward Ripley.  The Federals lost 2500 killed and wounded. Losses to the 4th Regiment were two killed and ten wounded. The Confederates were pursued to Hatchie, then a return to Cornith was made October11th.

Early in November they left Cornith marching for Grand Junction. They found lots of good food along the route and many Negroes came into their lines. The people were friendly as they marched to La Grange, then to Moscow where they spent ten days resting. As they marched on to the Tallahachie River, the weather turned wet and cold with rain and mud underfoot.

On December 21st, at Oxford, where the Confederates had captured supplies, elaborate preparations were made to do battle when numbers of the enemy were reported to be approaching. All set for combat, it was discovered that the troops approaching were, in fact, Union forces coming to join the army. Learning of the mistake, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding, was reported to have sat his horse without comment at the farcical situation of the "Battle of Oxford".

In the beginning of February 1862, camp was moved to Memphis where they remained for four weeks, then went down river some 300 miles to Bunch's Bend, Louisiana, to prepare for the attack on the strong-hold of Vicksburg. The siege there raged on through April, May and June. July 4th saw the surrender of Vicksburg, and to celebrate the victory, the 4th Regiment's splendid brass band led the troops on a march through the city. Of the 4th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers there were only 291 men present on duty with the balance of 631 sick or wounded and in hospital. Grant rewarded the men with a number of promotions.

September 12, 1863, Grant's army left Vicksburg for Chattanooga. Reaching there the 4th Regiment  was first to cross the Tennessee River to commence the Chattanooga Campaign in Tennessee. The main battle took place November 23rd to 25th against the Confederates 50,000 troops entrenched on Missionary Ridge. Confederate losses were 361 dead,  2160 wounded and 4,146 missing (mostly captured). Grant's losses were 753 dead, 4,722 wounded and 349 captured. The 4th Regiment lost only one man. The Confederates were driven from the field giving the Federals a base from which to launch their Atlanta Campaign and the belief that final victory was possible in 1864.

After three weeks at Bridgeport the army went on to Huntsville, Alabama, to relieve the troops there. Huntsville was an important point on the supply line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and one of the most beautiful cities in Alabama. General Ormsby McKnight Mitchel had marched into that point on April 11th, 1862, capturing many locomotives and two siege guns and a quantity of papers left by the retreating Confederate troops under P. G. Beauregard. The 4th Regiment of Minnesota went on an expedition to the Tennessee River to destroy ferry boats being used by the enemy. On the way back through the lush countryside, they gathered a large drove of animals and poultry, enough for the whole brigade for a welcome change of diet.

At Huntsville, on January 1st, 1864, John Tatro, along with about three quarters of the 4th Regiment, reenlisted for another three year's service. March 5th they started for home by rail cars on "veterans' furlough". Arriving at Winona, they took a boat to Reed's Landing near Wabasha, then rode wagons to Red Wing in very cold weather, to arrive at St. Paul March 20th for a thirty day furlough.

They left St. Paul on April 24th on the steamer "Itasca" to return to Huntsville. where they remained until June 22nd. They now had come under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman who was undertaking his famous push to the sea. At the Battle of Altoona, Alabama, on October 5th, John Tatro with the rest of E Company, was detailed to hold the pass during the night. At nine in the morning the enemy charged up under the works and there was fierce fighting until mid afternoon. The 4th Regiment then numbered 450 and had a loss of 13 killed and 31 wounded that day.

The march through Georgia met with little resistance and Sherman's army reached Savannah on the 10th of December. The 4th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers lost three men before that city surrendered on December 21st.
At the Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina, the 4th Regiment perhaps was lucky to have the task of building up three lines of breastworks during the three days before the Confederates, with 21,000 men fell back on March 21st. While the men worked, most of the shots in their direction passed harmlessly overhead and they had only three men wounded. By this time the men were mostly barefoot and clothed in rags. They made camp two miles from Goldsborough and marched out from there on April 10th to Raleigh, following General Joseph E. Johnston's retreating force. Johnston surrendered on April 26th.

April 29th they marched on toward Richmond, arriving there May 10th, then on to Washington. On the 24th of May, 1865 the 4th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteer Infantry led Sherman's army of 65,000 through the streets of Washington. The war was finally over.
In all there had been 1602 officers and men of the 4th Regiment of Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. John Tatro stayed through to the end having been promoted to Corporal and then to Sergeant. He took his discharge at St. Paul July 19, 1865. After two years of service, due to injury (probably received at Vicksburg), Joseph transferred to Company K of the 23rd Regiment Veterans Reserve Corp. Years later his nephew, Henry Lynn Tatro, would tell of the circumstances of that injury to his Uncle Joe. Joseph was loading his musket when an enemy bullet glanced off of the metal ram-rod and took off part of his ear. Looking around at his comrades he exclaimed, "Jees Christ boys that's sharp shooting!" Joseph Tatro was mustered out on October 15, 1864, no doubt, well pleased to be home with his father on the farm.

When the census was taken in June 1865 both Civil War veterans, John and Joseph were at home with Moses and his new wife Ann Eliza, brother Thad and Eliza's relatives Albert Whipple and Chas. Knowlton.
Twenty months after discharge on July 19, 1864, from serving the Union in the Civil War; in Owantonna, Minnesota, on March 3, 1866, John at twenty-two years of age, married Maria Cass who had just passed her fifteenth birthday. She was the daughter of Jehiel and Sarah Cass who were neighbors of his parents on their farm north of Owatonna. A little over a year latter their son Moses Henry was born on March 12, 1867. He was the first of eleven children born into the family. John spent the remainder of his long life as a farmer in several different areas.

The 1870 census shows John Tatro in Lemond, Steele County, Minnesota, and Maria in Sumerset with her son Herbert Tatro. His brother Joseph and family were also in Lemond. July 5, 1870, census of Sumerset, Steele County, Minnesota, has John, Maria and three children; Moses, Herbert and "Eliza".

The 1880 census of Wolcott, Rice County, Minnesota. records John "Taters" age 35, a farmer, born in Canada. All of the family are "Taters". Maria age 30, Moses 13, Herbert 11, Eliza 9, Mary 7, Frank 5. (Some Tatro males have been called "Spud".)
John had land at Medford (Fordville) near his father in 1882 and is mentioned as an early resident of Elkmount Township in "History of Fordville and Surrounding Area" by G. K. Ness. His military records say that he lived at Warren, Minnesota, from May 1885 to June 1891; Greenwood, Wisconsin, 1897 to February 1911; San Bernadino, California, from February 1911 to May 1912. Apparently, his second wife Johanna had accompanied him on this stay in California, but in his Declaration for Pension dated 24 May 1912 he is in "the town of Comstock" post office Radium, Marshall County, Minnesota.

John, age 58, born 1842, in French Canada, is recorded in the 1900 census in Hegland Township, Polk County, Minnesota, with only daughter Elsie age 18, born February 1882 in Minnesota, and Bertha age 11 born November 1888 in North Dakota. His wife Maria had died on January 2, 1897, not quite aged 46 years leaving young children. John did remarry to (a widow?) Johanna (or Joanna, sometimes Joannah) Newcomb, in Crookston, Polk County, Minnessota, on July 17, 1900, but it did not turn out to be a happy relationship. In his pension papers dated January 2, 1915, John reported, "My wife has left me". She was the daughter of Harold and Sarah (Spencer) Newcomb and had been the previous wife of Israel Perkins Cummings who then farmed in Lincoln Township, near Whitehall, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin. Israel was 25 years older than Johanna, had raised a family of seven children to adulthood with a previous wife.  Joanna and I. P. Cummings were the parents of four children who were all born in Whitehall, Wisconsin: Olive C., b.18 Jun 1872; Asa S., b. 3 Aug 1874; Sarah J., b. 16 Jul 1878; and David "Wilbur", b. 21 Aug., 1880. Olive and Asa died young, and the two others were grown young adults when John became their step-father. In that same January 2, 1915, document, John says she was married "twice before don't know names" of former husbands.

John had 40 acres of land, shown on a 1905 map, the sw 1/4 of the ne 1/4 of section 7, Eaton Township, about 5 miles west of Greenwood, Clark County, Wisconsin. At the time of the 1910 Federal Census, John was residing in Greenwood, Wisconsin, with his wife Johanna, only.  January 21, 1911, John sold his property in Greenwood (furniture, stoves, dishes, tinware, buggy, garden tools, etc.) While living in Greenwood, John was an active member of the Greenwood, Clark County, Wisconsin, John A. Eaton GAR (post #213). (The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the American Civil War.)
When the 1920 Federal Census was taken, he was living with his son Moses Henry Tatro in Polk County, Minnesota. This son had lost his wife eight years earlier, but still had two sons and two daughters, all adults, at home. His thirty-two years old sister Bertha, was also there. In 1914, when they still lived in Marshall County, Minnesota,  this is the family with whom the young school teacher, Grace Elizabeth Attix, had boarded, and to where Thad's son, Henry Lynn Tatro, came to help with the harvest and met that teacher, who became his wife. (Grace and "Lynn" are parents of the author of this biography)

John died on April 1, 1923, in Colburn Township, near Gilman, Wisconsin, aged 80 years. In his THE MCELMURRY GENEALOGY Duane H. McElmurry says: Elsie's older brother Moses was an early Colburn Township settler who relocated to Campbell County, South Dakota, in 1929. This is John's eldest son, Moses Henry Tatro. John's daughter Elsie Pearl Tatro married George Leslie McElmurry who lived out his life in Colburn Township. John died at the home of his son Moses Henry Tatro. His remains were returned to be buried with his first wife in the Greenwood Cemetery, at Warren, Marshall County, Minnesota.
 
Harry A. Tatro

 

Family Photos

Research Notes

I am quite puzzled over this second wife of John Tatro. I gather the family has not taken much interest in her, seems the relationship did not turn out well. Do you know who her first husband was? There were two Israel Perkins Cummings, father and son of his first wife, Mary Priscilla Hale. Some have her spouse of the father, he being 25 years older than her. Although a little younger, the son is much closer to her age. The father did die in 1898, in time for her to be a widow to marry John Tatro in 1900. To be spouse of the son, they would have need to be divorced, for, apparently, he had another wife and children later. It seems she and John parted company. What happened to Johanna?  Harry Tatro.

A little more search and I have the answer: The 1880 census of Lincoln, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, shows clearly that "Joanna" age 36 is wife of Israel P. Cummings age 61 and Israel P. Cummings son age 34 is single. The "old man" and young wife have only their daughter Sarah J. age 1 listed. That raises another question - what happened to their two previous children, Olive born in 1872, and Asa born in 1874?  Harry Tatro.

Sources

Census, Tax, Family, Court, Military Records, GAR References, and Newspaper Accounts. 
 

Contributors

Jennifer Castro (family member); Marsha Hosfeld, Janet Schwarze, Harry Tatro (family member; and Crystal Wendt.