#59289 Solomon S. Barnhart ( William A. Barnhart • Jacob Barnhart • Jacob Bernhardt • Casper Bernhardt◊ )
Other names for Solomon: Solomon Mays.
Solomon was born 1824 in Chicora, Butler Co., Pennsylvania. He died 8 Sep 1902. He was buried in White Oak Cemetery, Kepples Corners, Butler Co., Pennsylvania.
He changed his surname after his mother married Andrew Mays. Unlike his siblings, he did not change it back on her second marriage to a Barnhart. However, his grandfather's estate referred to him and his family as Barnharts and he used that name in the military. At least some of his children, however, were buried under the name Mays.
When the California Gold Rush broke out, Solomon abandoned his family and headed west. He wasn't successful and eventually returned, broke, to Pennsylvania. Apparently his wife had divorced him for abandonment because he married Elizabeth and had children.
He served with the Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War and became a captain. According to [Barnhart/Warter], his service was with the 42nd Regiment. However, I don't find him on any of their muster lists and, generally, they were formed more toward the east in Tioga, Chester and Carbon Counties, though some companies recruited from Clearfield and Warren Counties. [Babcock] lists First Lieutenant Solomon Barnhart on the muster of Co. B of the 103rd, raised in in Butler and the surrounding counties. This seems to be more accurate. [Babcock] also shows an Isaac Barnhart was a private in the company.
This regiment first saw service in Apr 1862 at Yorktown. By the end of the Peninsular Campaign it had lost half its strength. It was separated from the Army of the Potomac and transported to Newburn, North Carolina to join General Foster's forces. Following this, it spent some time in barracks before joining General Wessells' brigade at Albemarle, North Carolina. They had barely started their fortifications when they were assaulted by 15,000 troops under General Hoke. On 20 Apr 1864, the remaining men surrendered to the Confederates. The officers were sent to prison in Macon, Georgia, while the enlisted went to the infamous Andersonville, where 132 of them died. The regiment was finally mustered out on 25 Jun 1864 with only 81 of its original 487 members alive.
Solomon served for a time as a graduator, an interesting specialty for a school teacher. A graduator's job was to "graduate" tough boys who were disrupting classes and reluctant to leave school. In those days of where even a non-trouble make might earn a caning with a hickory switch, graduating troublemakers was definitely a contact occupation.
In one incident, three young men picked up their teacher and threw him out of the school and ordered him never to return, expecting a more pliable replacement. The school district sent Solomon. He waited until the entire class was inside the school, entered, and closed the door behind him. He informed the class that he had been sent to oversee the graduation ceremony of the three boys.
Those three rushed him but, because they had to file between the desks, reached him only one at a time. He grabbed the first and hurled him against the cast iron stove, collapsing the stove pipe down upon the boy's head. The second was slammed into the blackboard and his arm broken. The third drew up short and then ran out of the school. The parents of the the second boy brought suit against the school district but the judge threw out the suit, to the appreciation of the town's population, who were quite fed up with the boys' behavior. Instead, Solomon was cited for courage and enforcing discipline.
∞ Solomon (relationship status suppressed while one person possibly living) first #59297 Mary.
(Information suppressed while possibly living)
Children of this relationship:
| #59298 | M | i | Garth Mays | |
| #59299 | M | ii | Foster Mays | |
| #59300 | M | iii | Samuel Mays | |
| #59301 | M | iv | William Mays |
∞ Solomon married second #59302 Elizabeth K..
Elizabeth was born 1827. She died 1913. She was buried in White Oak Cemetery, Kepples Corners, Butler Co., Pennsylvania.
Children of this relationship:
| #64943 | F | i | Mary E. Mays | (1855–1953) |
| #59303 | M | ii | Peter I. Mays | (1858–31 Aug 1929) |
| #64942 | F | iii | Luella Jane Mays | (–1911) |
| #64944 | F | iv | Margaret Mays |
Charles A. Babcock, Venango County Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People, (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919). Ref. as [Babcock]. p. 261
Howard D. Barnhart & Janet K. Warter, The History of Casper Bernhardt and His Descendants, revision by Warter, (unpublished, 1998). Ref. as [Barnhart/Warter].
Line Generation: 6
Relationship: Third Cousins Three Times Removed through Casper Bernhardt◊