James Miner Skaggs

Notes:

DISAMBIGUATION RE JAMES M. SKAGGS, father of Ora Ella Skaggs

• James Miner Skaggs,
born about 1839, (also officially used the name Miner Skaggs) was mistakenly named as spouse of Elizabeth Compton with a name of James Minor Skaggs, and displayed as such on this site for a long time. This connection has been disproven.
--James Miner Skaggs enlisted with the Union for the Civil War 19 Aug 1861 and served in Company K, 25th Regiment, Indiana Infantry (note his gravestone...went in as a Private, and was a Private when he died. He died of measles in the line of duty on either 23 or 27 Oct 1861 (official war records give both dates). Documents accompanying the pension application verify his service and his death.
--He was originally buried in the Civil War Cemetery at Otterville, Missouri, and later reinterred at Jefferson City National Cemetery, in St. Louis, Missouri.
--His parents were Thomas T. Skaggs & Barbara Ellen Rose. I've found no record of his ever being married or having children.

• James Monroe Skaggs (of Kentucky) has at times been suggested as Ella's father.
--He was (reportedly) the son of Thomas Davis Skaggs & Jamima Jane Williams and married Mary Agnes Morrison, having five children with her (not Ella or her known siblings).
--He was reported as buried at Rock Creek Church Cemetery, Rock Creek, Grayson County, Kentucky.

• James M. Skaggs, born about 1839, listed in the 1870 U.S. Census of Rochester Mills, Coffee Precinct, Wabash County, Illinois, shows him with wife Elizabeth and four children: Polly, Ella, Lena and Thomas W.
--The record of his daughter, Lena's application for a pension for herself and siblings as his dependents (i.e.-Skaggs, Lena et al), lists his (Civil War) service with the Union as with Company B, 63rd Regiment, Illinois Infantry. He survived the war and lived until 1878, having children born to him by Elizabeth as late as 1874.
--The application for a headstone (applied for later on related to his military burial) verifies his service and shows he was buried in Rochester Cemetery, Keensburg, Illinois.
--The Illinois Statewide Marriage Index (Vol.197,pg.9) shows SKAGGS, JAMES M. married to COMPTON, ELIZABETH on 1861-10-31, Wabash County, Illinois, just days before James Miner Skaggs died during the war.
--The Illinois Statewide Death Index (Vol.1,pg.7,Cert.89) shows SKAGGS, JAMES M. as having died 1878-05-25 in Rochester, Wabash County at the age of 42 (indicating his birth approximation from census records may be off a few years).


Died:
James Miner Skaggs was originally buried in Otterville, MO