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East Liverpool has a Relief Corps, the members of which this winter are holding a series of quiltings for the benefit of the city hospital. War stores are frequently told at these all day quiltings, and judging from a bunch of the stories published in the Morning Tribune, there must be a very noticeable sprinkling of Beaver County ladies among the members.
The following are some of the reminiscences related that have to do with Beaver County:
One, the daughter of a river captain, told laughingly of her own sufferings for Old Glory. We lived in Bridgewater, Pa. During the campaign in our procession of floats it was always my duty to hold the big flag. One day as we drove pasta corner known then as Copperhead Corner, a woman grabbed the flag and commenced to tear it. Jerking it away from her the sharp end of the staff wounded me.
"While attending Beaver College, the Union girls made little silk flags and wore them. One day a girl sprang at me, snatched my flag off and tramped it under her feet. I clenched my fist and hither in the face. Called before President Taylor to account for it I told him just what I did and why. I did not then understand why he put his handkerchief to his mouth and turned to his desk for a time. Presently he said quietly, "did you not know that was unladylike?" and excused me. My victim left school and did not return for some time.
Furlough weddings were quite common. A New Brighton romance was mentioned in which the daughter of a wealthy man enamored with a soldier boy of little means was threatened with disinheritance if she did not stop correspondence. She left home, took domestic service in another place. One evening when her lover was there on furlough and the minister happened to be at the house the lady who knew their story suggested marriage. As soon as the ceremony was performed she telegraphed her father and asked forgiveness. He wired where to meet him and he gave her an expensive wedding outfit, forgave them and never regretted it. They were happy. The soldier later proved well qualified for business and amassed wealth.
A company of Union soldiers came one day to Beaver Grade, seven miles from Beaver, Pa., looking for deserters. Squire Potter's wife and cousin were alone in the house. One of them spied the cavalry men coming in the distance. "Oh, Lord," she called to the other, "here comes the rebels!" After quick consul they decided to hide the cousin's horse in the cornfield and themselves in the crib. Naturally the first thought of the soldiers was corn for their horses. As they broke the crib door the ladies screamed, "Spare our lives but take old Sal!" Their delight at finding they were Union soldiers was unbounded, and no boys in blue never sat down to a better supper than was prepared for them."
I have the letters father and mother wrote each other while he was in the army. In one she told him how the baby seemed to grieve for him. "She carries your picture next to her heart and often cries and says I want to see my papa." The answer is so touching. He told mother what a comfort and support it was to him to think of her having family prayers each morning with the children. He was in the hospital when he wrote it.