Laboyteaux, Thomas - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

BIOGRAPHY

It has been my understanding that the body of Thomas Laboyteaux was never found.

Thomas Laboyteaux was the son of Peter and Anna LABOYTEAUX, old settlers of Henry County, [IN] east of New Castle. Peter is buried in the Batson Cemetery, Liberty Township, and Anna, his wife, in the cemetery near Greentown, Howard County, Indiana. The family came to Henry county from near Hamilton, Ohio.

Thomas was born July 4, 1836, and was married April 12, 1860, to Ellen M., daughter of Imla and Susan COOPER, of the well known COOPER family, of Harrison Township. Imla was one of four COOPER brothers, Caleb, Imla, William and John, who in the early 'thirties, emigrated, with their families, from near Cadiz, Harrison County, Ohio, to the western part of Henry County, Indiana, from which fact comes the name of Harrison Township and the town of Cadiz. From their first settlement in the county to the present time, the family has played an important part in the commercial, social, political and religious affairs of Harrison Township. Thomas LABOYTEAUX was a farmer, near Cadiz. In the Winter of 1863-4, when Captain Volney Hobson was organizing what became Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry, LABOYTEAUX joined the company and was mustered into the service of the United States, as a private, January 8, 1864. He was a faithful and efficient soldier and, voicing the sentment of his surviving comrades, he was brave and daring. He was captured near Franklin, Tennessee, December 1, 1864, along with Robert W. Gilbreath and Andrew J. McCormack, Sultana survivors, and all were held, as prisoners of war, in Cahaba Prison, Alabama, until March, 1865, when they were released on parole and sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they remained until they boarded the doomed Sultana, homeward bound. LABOYTEAUX, less fortunate than his companions, was lost and his body never recovered.

When Private LABOYTEAUX went into the army, he left his family, consisting of his wife and two children, living in Cadiz. The children were Agnes, born February 10, 1861, and Leonora, born September 24, 1864. Mrs. LABOYTEAUX has ever since her husband's death retained his name, residing continuously with her daughters, in Cadiz, where the family is universally respected and esteemed.

SOURCE: Hazard's History of Henry County Indiana, 1822-1906, Military Edition, Volume I, page 614. - George Hazzard, author and publisher, New Castle, IN, 1906.

What has been interesting to me about Peter, father of Thomas of the Sultana incident, is that Peter is buried beside my gggg grandfather, John J. at Batson Cemetery. And Peter's wife, Anna Batson is not buried in Batson cemetery. If my Laboyteaux theory is correct, I have to go back to the emigrant Gabriel to find a common ancestor with this Peter. This Peter was descended from Gabriel's son Paul and I am descended from Gabriel's son Peter. Whew. As far as I know, our family does not have all the names of the children of my gggg grandfather, John J. as listed in the 1820 census. We know of a John, Josiah, and Hiram (my ancestor), but there is another unnamed male born between 1815 and 1820.

This was from a letter I wrote to someone this fall.

Regards, Beth Zaring bethzaring@hotmail.com

I do not know where the above 7 Jun 1865 date came from.  In the Civil War

Pension file for Thomas' widow, Ellen Minerva Cooper (under Declaration for

Widow's Army Pension filed in Henry Co., Indiana 11 Jul 1865) is the following:

Thomas "was killed on board of the Steamer Sultana by reason of the

explosion and loss of said steamer in the Mississippi River, about eight miles above

Memphis, Tennessee on 27 Apr 1865."