One was a judge in South Dakota.

Another had a son who went to Harvard and donated a prominent park in Corry.

And a third is the archetype for westward expansion.

But first, the most confounding — primarily because spelling in the 19th century was problematic, to say the least.

John M. August — or potentially Angust depending on the source — was born in 1835 and enlisted on Sept. 1, 1861 at Youngsville.

A little over a year later, he would return home after his wounding at Malvern Hill, Va. on July 1, 1862. He was discharged on Nov. 26, 1862 due to those wounds.

Martin A. Butterfield

Butterfield enlisted in the 83rd potentially as young as the age of 15 at Spring Creek in August 1861. His father, Orville, was born in Chautauqua County, NY in 1823.

He was wounded at Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862 — another source says it may have been Bull Run in August 1862. But, either way, he was discharged for those wounds at Carver Hospital in Washington D.C. on March 30, 1863.

Somehow Butterfield wound up in McCook County, South Dakota and two different records — a population record for Canistota, SD as well as an American Law Directory — list him as a “county judge.”

One of his sons, Irl, was a sergeant in the 3rd South Dakota Cavalry during World War I and died from the spanish flu — the world’s last major pandemic — in 1918.

Martin R. Clark

Martin R. Clark was born in Youngsville in 1834 and enlisted there on Aug. 11, 1861.

He was wounded at Malvern Hill, as well, on July 1, 1862 and was discharged the following Dec. 29 at Washington D.C. due to those wounds.

Clark knew his share of sorrow — his wife, Mary Jane, died when she was just 40 (he then lived as a widower for over 40 years) and he lost a son at 20.

The family at some point made its way to Wichita, Kansas, where Clark was buried in 1916 after he died at the age of 81 on Jan. 3.

His son — John Richard — was living with his wife and 10 children in Kansas, as well, when illness, per his findagrave page, forced the family to see a warmer climate.

So to New Mexico they went where John became a rancher until his death several years later.

Nathan P. Cummings

Nathan P. Cummings enlisted at Titusville on July 29, 1861 into Co. A and was wounded less than a year later on June 27, 1862 at Gaines’ Mill.

He was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on March 7 1864. The VRC — initially called the Invalid Corps (the name was changed for morale reasons) — was set up to provide a way for partially-disabled men to handle light duty, freeing up the able-bodied for front line service.

Some 60,000 men served in this capacity and performed a host of duties — guarding railroads, provost marshal duty, enforcing the draft and patrolling Washington D.C.

Perhaps most notably men of the VRC participating in the hanging of several of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination.

Eli Hatton Mead

Mead was born in 1830 and signed up for service on Aug. 23, 1861 at Columbus, Pa.

He would also return in just over a year as he was discharged at Baltimore, Md. on Oct. 26, 1862 for wounds received on June 27, 1862 at Gaines’ Mill.

By 1870, Mead and his wife Alice were living in Corry, where their son was born, Glenn Clayton.

Glenn Mead studied at Harvard — he was Class of 1891 — taught and then went into the law, practicing in Philadelphia per a Harvard Secretary’s Report.

Mead died in 1881 and his son passed in 1954 and they are both buried at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Corry.

Glenn is noted as the donor of Mead Park in Corry.