On February 29, 1824, Harriet Maria Kingsbury died at the age of two years and six months. Little did her parents know then that on November 30 of that same year, they would welcome another child into the world, Augustus W. Kingsbury. It would be a year of sorrow followed by bittersweet joy.
William Kingsbury, Jr. and his brother Eleazer emigrated from Connecticut to Homer in 1820. William was a veteran of the War of 1812 who saw considerable fighting, and both men followed in their father’s footsteps and set up a tanning business when they arrived in Homer. Their father, William Kingsbury, Sr., was widowed in 1826, and he moved to Homer in 1830. After a time, Eleazer decided to purchase a farm and leave the tannery, leaving it to his father and brother to carry on without him.
William Kingsbury, Jr. married Hilpah Winchell, and they had three children: Harriet Maria, Augustus W., and Henry Clay. Little is known of the early years of Augustus, though we do know that he attended the Cortland Academy. He married Mary Aurelia Fish of Mecklenburg, Schuyler County, New York, on January 28, 1852, and they had two children. Their son William H. was born in 1853, and their daughter Frances J. was born in 1855.
Augustus worked at the tannery with his father, and according to the 1855 map of Homer, that was located on Water Street in the village. Tanneries were a vital part of a community because the leather created by them was used for saddles, harnesses, shoes, and more for the daily needs of a growing population. The process to create finished leather was labor intensive as well as dirty and smelly. Tanneries were located near water because of they required large quantities of it for production, and the solutions used throughout the tanning process were dumped into streams, thus polluting them. One of the key elements required for tanning was bark from trees, though not just any trees would do. Oak and hemlock were used, but hemlock was preferred. Vast expanses of trees were girdled for their bark or even worse, cut down, stripped of bark, and left to rot on the forest floor. We don’t know where the Kingsbury tannery obtained the bark necessary for their operation, but they did own some property in Homer, so it’s possible they logged their own land. Augustus was sometimes listed as a farmer in the census and directories, but in the nineteenth century, you had to be a farmer if you wanted to eat. Most men had a trade and farmed some land to feed their families as well.
The American Civil War was an event that left no family or individual untouched by the depth of its devastation. Augustus W. Kingsbury enlisted in the Union Army and mustered in as a commissary sergeant on September 19, 1862, for three years. He was a member of the 157th New York Infantry, a unit raised mostly out of Cortland and Madison Counties, though there were several men from Chenango County who also belonged to this unit. The 157th was at Gettysburg and suffered 307 casualties of the 431 men they brought to the field that day. The casualties included 27 dead, 166 wounded, and 114 missing. There are two monuments to the 157th at Gettysburg as well as a position marker to indicate their place on the battlefield on July 1, 1863.
Augustus received a promotion to first lieutenant and quartermaster on July 14, 1863, and he “followed the fortunes of the army until after Lee’s surrender.” He resigned his commission in Georgetown, South Carolina on April 1, 1865, and returned to Homer due to a family illness. One can only guess who was ill, but it is quite possible that his wife Mary was the reason for his return because she died on August 30, 1866, more than a year after he came home. His father and mother followed in 1867 and 1869, respectively.
Personal information about Kingsbury is sparse, but it is known that in 1869, he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as the postmaster of Homer, and he served in that capacity for the duration of the term. In 1879, his son William H. died, providing another heartache for Augustus to endure. In 1887, Kingsbury was elected to the position of justice of the peace and continued in that role for a number of years. He was a member of the Masons Homer Lodge No. 352 as well as of the Union Veteran Lodge. He attended several reunions of his regiment over the years.
After a short illness, Augustus W. Kingsbury passed away a couple of months before his ninetieth birthday. His daughter Frances never married, and she had continued to live at home.
That Augustus operated a tannery indicates that he was not afraid of hard work. That he enlisted in the Union Army tells us that he believed that our country was worth fighting for. That he served as a civil officer tells us that he believed in fairness. That he toiled in the fields to provide food for himself and for his family lets us know that he was a good provider. The historic record may be scant when it comes to Augustus W. Kingsbury, but you can still learn a lot about his life with the little that was recorded. Kingsbury is at rest at Glenwood Cemetery along with his wife Mary and their children, William and Frances. ~Tabitha Scoville, CCHS Director