Family:Stephen Gunn and Margaret Shupe (1)

The children of Stephen and Margaret:

John Gunn was born in December 1826 in Lorain County, Ohio. He died 7 May 1827 and is buried in the Amherst Township Cemetery in Amherst Township, Ohio.

Charles Gunn was born in April 1827 in Lorain County. He died 12 March 1928 and is buried in the Amherst Township Cemetery.

Amaranth Gunn was born in Lorain County in August of 1831. She died shortly after and is buried in the Amherst Township Cemetery. She is buried next to her two older brothers. The gravestone is now very weathered and is impossible to read. Records show that it is the second gravestone from their grand-parents, Jacob Shupe and Catherine.

Jacob Gunn was born 30 Jan. 1830 in Lorain County Ohio.

Ellen Gunn was born in Lorain County Ohio 28 September 1835. Nothing more is known of her.

Daniel R. Gunn was born 25 August 1839 in Lorain County Ohio. He moved to Michigan sometime before 1864. Some of his pension papers say he was 5'8^ tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and light. Another paper says he was 5'7^ tall, light complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. In Feb. 1864 he was living in Easton Township, Ionia County and is listed as being a farmer. On leap year day 1864 he volunteered for the 21st Michigan Infantry in Grand Rapids, Michigan for 3 years. He was paid also a $60 bounty pay. He joined the 21st at Chattanooga, Tennessee on 7 April 1864. On 19 March 1865, while fighting in one of the last battles of the civil war at Bentonville, NC, Daniel took a mini-ball in his left arm, breaking it. The 21st had been digging fox holes when the battle began. Daniel was taken to the Union hospital, a nearby farm house that was converted into a hospital. His left arm was amputated near the shoulder. Daniel was transferred to a hospital in Goldsboro N. C. and was discharged because of disability on 12 June 1865. On the 12th of September he applied for a disability pension which was approved on the 14th of September for $8 per month. On 1 August 1866 Daniel applied and later received an increase in his pension, his address was Easton Township, Ionia County, Michigan. On 15 August his pension was increased to $15 per month. On 10 September 1869 he sold land to his brother Stephen J Gunn in Ottawa County. At this time it lists Daniel as living in Easton Township, Ionia County. Nothing more is known about Daniel except that he is buried next to his brother Jacob's wife Sarah Ann, in Lake Forest Cemetery in Grand Haven, Michigan. Cemetery records seem to be lost for that section that might tell the year that he died. There was a Daniel R. Gunn that attended Michigan State Agricultural College, listed on the 1870 census. The college Daniel was also born in Ohio, but is listed as 29 years old instead of 31 years old. That is only a slight difference, but would a one arm man attend college in the 1870s? He might, if he could no longer farm. In a scrap book in Grand Haven Library a record was found of all Civil War Vets buried at Lake Forest Cemetery. They have listed a Daniel R. Gunn, age 37 years. Since the cemetery records for the section he is buried in is lost, it was impossible to find a date of buriel. If he was 37 years old when he died that would meant he died around 1876-77.

Stephen J. (or Steven) Gunn was born 13 May 1842 in Lorain County, Ohio. He also moved to Michigan, probably in the mid 1850s. He married when on furlough on Valentines Day in 1864 in Kent County Michigan, to Arvilla Jane Shute. Arvilla was born 1 March 1847 in New York to Major Shute and Nancy Drew. Stephen had blue eyes, sandy hair, light complexion and stood 5'10^ tall. Stephen first entered the service on 31 August 1861 when he joined Co. B of the 16th Michigan Infantry. He was discharged on 31 December 1863 but before he left the army he re-enlisted on 22 December 1963. He was mustered back into service on 24 December, while still stationed at Rappabarnook, Va. Stephen claims in an affidavit that in June or July (he believes 27 June) 1862 while in retreat from Richmond Va. to Harrison's Landing, Va., his regiment waded across the Chickahoma River. He claims he was in a state of perspiration and coldness of the river caused him to contact rheumatism for which he suffered the rest of his life. Stephen also lost his right thumb during the war, the time, place and reason I have not been able to determine. The stub, according to a letter from 1880, was very tender and irritable when he worked and became constantly open due to his farming work. Stephen was discharged 8 July 1865 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. After the war, Stephen returned to Easton Township in Ionia for ^7 or 8 years^, then he moved to Grand Haven, Michigan for about four years. He then moved to Campbell in Ionia County until the fall of 1909. In 1909 he moved to Lowell, Michigan. Stephen received a pension for his war injuries and illness'. He also applied for and received increases in his pension from time to time. Once was in 1880 and other times in 1886, 1912, 1915 and 1921. Upon his death in 1922, his wife at the time applied for a widow's pension and asked for a raise in 1925. Stephen and Arvilla had two children. Mine Gunn was born 1 June 1866, Stephen in a affidavit in April of 1915 said she was dead. I believe her death was as a young girl because she is not with the family on the 1870 census. Charlie B. Gunn was born 7 August 1868 (or 1869 on a second record).

Arville died 29 April 1909 in Clarksville and is buried at the Clarksville Cemetery. Stephen next married Evaline McClear on the 18th of December in 1909. They had no children.

Eva was first married to Fred Knott who died in 1887 and is buried in Lansing. They had at least one daughter named Mae who married a Henry Cunningham. Eva's second marriage was to George F. Childs. George was also a civil war vet who was born 12 March 1848 in Vermont to Benjamin F. Childs and Esther Hicks. He died 4 June 1904, they had no children. According to pension records, Stephen's rheumatism caused a disease to the heart and caused Bright's disease. He died in Lowell, Michigan on 4 Feb. 1922. His second wife was still living at the age of 71 in 1925. Nothing more is known of her.

Margaret Josephine Gunn was born 13 September 1844 in Lorain County Ohio. On 21 November 1871, her brother, Stephen, sold land to to a Margaret J. Munger near the same time he sold land to his brother Jacob, his father and bought land from brother Daniel. So it may be safe to guess this was his sister who had married a man named Munger. A Harriet Munger was a witness to this transaction. Nothing more is known about her.

Sources include census records, cemetery records, land records, civil war pension records of male children, History of Western Reserve, marriage records and birth records from Lorain County, Ohio to Lorain County, OH

Researcher: Bob Nordstrand Source: http://www.migrations.org/individual.php3?record=11880