Oxford Charter Township recently issued the following announcement.
One of the great things about living in a community like Oxford is the history. It seems like everywhere you go, there's a piece of the past just waiting to be explored, uncovered or rediscovered.
Buried in the township cemetery on the north side of W. Burdick St. is a gentleman who had the distinction of being Oxford’s last surviving veteran of the American Civil War. His name was Samuel C. Adams.
Born in Springwater, New York on Sept. 15, 1845, Adams joined the war effort in January 1864 when he enlisted in Company K of the 21st New York Cavalry. He was honorably discharged on July 5, 1866.
Following the war, Adams married Lavanga E. Wilbur in 1879. The couple came to Oxford around 1884. Adams earned his living as a farmer. He owned land west of Baldwin Rd. and lived in a house on Washington St. in Oxford Village.
Although he didn’t fight in the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), Adams did travel to Pennsylvania in 1938 to attend a reunion for those who did. The reunion marked the 75th anniversary of the famous battle.
When Oxford resident Ross Crawford, a fellow Civil War veteran, passed away at the age of 93 in March 1939, Adams became the township’s last surviving veteran of that brutal and bloody conflict.
It was front-page news in the Oxford Leader when Adams celebrated his 94th birthday in September 1939. The paper reported that although his “eyesight is poor,” Adams “is still able to come up town and gets along well for a man of his years.”
Oxford lost its last living link to the war between the Union and the Confederacy when Adams died at 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 4, 1939. The newspaper reported he “had been ill for only a few days and up until that time was able to come downtown every day.”
Adams left behind five children, 19 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
Original source can be found here.
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