Skip to main content

Civil War Veteran?

 

This is a photo of our ancestor, Joseph F. Motier.  In records, he is sometimes called Joseph Motie and sometimes his middle initial is listed as G, but I think that may be confusion with cursive handwriting.  I think his middle initial is F for Francis, his father's first name. Joseph was born in 1818 in Portage Des Sioux, St. Charles County, MO.  Motie's ancestors were French, both from French Canada and France. 

Joseph spent most of his adult life living in Iowa, both in Dubuque and Davenport.  He was a brick mason and later a contractor.  As is apparent from having a professional photograph taken in the mid 1800s, he was a man of means.  He built a home which was listed on the historic register.  It is no longer standing, but has a wikipedia entry!  See here: Wikipedia Motie House

Here's the home listed with the National Parks: Motie House

Motie married an Irish immigrant, Mary McGuire, and together they had many children, but his youngest was a daughter named Eleanor "Lillie" who married Edward M. Keating in 1893 in Chicago. Eleanor and Edward had nine children, including Louis Joseph, who is my grandfather.

In 1863 when the Civil War was raging and the Union was faltering, many men received draft notices, including Joseph Motie.  The record below is a listing of men from his district in Iowa who were called up at that time.  As you see, Motie's age is not listed but it includes the notation "Claims to be over age." Cousin Brian told me that men up to age 45 were eligible for the Union draft. Well, did Motie have to serve or was he too old? I figured that if he did serve, we'd be able to find his military records, so I did some digging and found nothing. 

My brother Ed says that many Civil War records were destroyed in a fire in the St. Louis area, so maybe his records were lost... but I did find his obituary from 1880 (see below) and that does not include any mention of military service.  Interestingly, some documents have Motie's birth year as 1818 and others (including his obituary) as 1820.  If he birth year was 1820, he would have been eligible for the army in 1863, if he birth year was March 1818, he would have been too old.  I have concluded that Motie did not serve.  Anyone have thoughts?  Please share!



 


Comments

  1. Jane KeatingApril 1, 2023 at 4:39 PM

    More great information on the Motier side. The house is very nice and how cool it is on the National Register. It would have been neat to see pictures inside. I would tend to agree with you that he probably didn't serve in the Civil War because his obit made no mention. It would be interesting to read obits of other men who did serve to see if their obits mention their Service.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Veteran's Day Salute: Rev. Laurence H. Keating

    In honor of Veteran's Day, I want to salute one of our family veterans, Rev. Laurence Henry Keating (1907-1987).  Father Laurence was a Lieutenant Colonel with the U.S. Army serving as a Chaplain in the 7th Armored Division. He served in four battles or campaigns in World War II and earned a purple heart, a bronze star, and numerous other medals.  Father Laurence was fairly well known throughout the family, so I hope you will all find this information about his military service to be interesting. Laurence was the 7th child of Eleanor Motie Keating and Edward M. Keating. My grandfather, Louis, was one of his older siblings. Laurence, Irma, and John were the youngest three and grew up in Palos Park, a suburb outside of Chicago. I am not sure why the Keating family moved from the city to the suburbs (really rural at that time), but they did.  My father believes the family moved to Palos for the children's health, grandpa's sister, Mary Felicite*, may have had h...
3 comments
Read more

Mother's Day Salute: A photo of Bridget Creagh

  In honor of Mother's Day, I am focusing on one of the many fantastic Mothers in our family history. This year, I am choosing Bridget Creagh Keating, the mother of my dad's grandfather, Edward Michael Keating, and the mother of Mary Keating Motie, the grandmother of Ann O'Brien.    (For those of you who would like to know connections to Felicite, Bridget was the mother-in-law to two of Felicite's grandchildren, Eleanor and George. Did Bridget know Felicite? They could have overlapped in Davenport, perhaps crossing paths at the Catholic church, but...probably not.)   Bridget was born in Carrigaholt, County Clare, Ireland on February 1, 1838 to parents James Creagh and Margaret Gibson.  Bridget had several siblings including Margaret, Martin, Mary and Michael.  The big Irish famine was in 1847, so Bridget was a young girl when that happened.  Far western County Clare was devastated by the famine, so Bridget and her family were absolutely impacted by tha...
1 comment
Read more

Felicite is back home!

This painting of our great great grandmother, Felicite Constant Motier (1780-1873), crossed the Mississippi River from Illinois and returned to Missouri on March 27, 2024. This painting is now part of the permanent collection of the Missouri History Museum and Research Library. Here is a summary of Felicite Constant Motier's life, as we know it from historical records.  Some facts are easy to find and verify, others are not. I assume and hope that facts are corrected and updated by future family historians.  Felicite was born in the St. Louis area in 1780* to French-speaking parents Gabriel Constant and Marie Duplanty.  Marie was born in Quebec; Gabriel in Strasbourg, France.  Gabriel and Marie married in Quebec and made their way through New France, first to Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit;  then to Cahokia, Illinois; and finally to farm in St. Louis/Carondolet, Missouri.  (*Felicite may have been born in 1786, JoAnn Brennan found Felicite's baptismal record...
3 comments
Read more