Durham - Thomas Wise
THOMAS WISE DURHAM
Written by : Karen Bazzani Zach
Thomas Wise Durham was the second son and fifth child of Jeremiah Brisco Durham (born 27 June 1806 Mercer County, Kentucky who was in turn a son of John J. and Celia Bonham Durham). His mother was Minerva Payne Walker (19 Nov 1807 Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky died 13 June 1889 in Topeka, Kanasa where her husband had passed away seven years earlier, 25 Feb 1882).
On Leap Year Day, 1840 in Montgomery County, Indiana, Thomas Wise was born. He died on the 28th of August in 1925 at Sawtell, Los Angeles, California at the National Home for Soldier and is buried at Angelus Rosedale Cem - 1831 W. Washington Blvd. His marriage to Amanda Montgomery took place on the 8th of July in 1869. Three children blessed their home, two young men, Claude set to marry a millionaires daughter when he became sick at work (Santa Fe Company) and never recovered, dying on Sept 5, 1897 in the Topeka Hospital. It is not known for sure what happened to Claude's brother, Fred, who was in the US Hospital Corps in Wyoming at the time of Claude's death. Thomas Wise was also absent when his son died. Owner of a couple of large mining claims near Dood City, Arizona, he was in the mines 40 miles away from the nearest telegraph office.
Thomas had helped farm his father's land for a few years, then went to Indianapolis, Indiana for some time, finally moving out west. Besides the two boys there was a daughter Dorothy who married Frederick Topp, but they had no children. If Fred died young also, then I have a sneaky suspicion there were no grandchildren for the Durham's. He was a member of the 11th Ind Inf Discharged with the unit on Aug 5, 1861 in Indianapolis. This was basically a reorganization and he would spend, as the title says, "Three Years with Wallace's Zouaves." He was 5'9" tall, had ruddy complexion. The Zouaves were in such battles as Ft. Henry; Ft. Donelson; Shiloh; Corinth; Champion's Hill and several more. When mustered out, Durham was a Lt.
While writing of himself, "I could write many pages in regard to my life and experiences as a boy, but I will sum the whole thing up by saying I was just a common backwoods farmer boy, was raised very strict by my parents, had to work hard, had many hardships and disadvantages, was chuck full of mischief, never did any thing dishonorable, would never allow a man or boy to run over me, which caused me to have a good many fights - and was fortunate enough to never get licked - was very stout and quite an athlete and even now in my 72d year I can stand flatfooted and kick near 7' high. Since grown to manhood my usual weight has been from 180-195 #."