PRINCETON: Civil War vet gets tombstone after 100 years

By Nellie Peyton, Special to Packet Media Group
   Samuel Davis Agin, who served two tours of duty in the Civil War, was recognized on Saturday, Sept. 29, in the Princeton Cemetery, after having been buried there for nearly a hundred years in an unmarked grave.
   His story was brought to light by two distant cousins who discovered their common ancestor, and each other, through online research.
   When John Kowal of New York City began researching his ancestry, he discovered his great-great-grandfather had fought in the Union Army.
   ”I always thought we were a family of immigrants,” Kowal said. “I had no idea we went back so far.”
   Jacki Bolton, from Wrightstown, was doing similar genealogical searches when she came across Mr. Kowal’s blog. It revealed the two were distant cousins, each descended from a different son of Samuel Agin. As they began to communicate, they decided they wanted to pay tribute to their common ancestor, who seemed to have been a well-known veteran in his time.
   There was just one problem: his tombstone was missing.
   ”To try to capture his story was really meaningful to me,” Mr. Kowal said.
   When he learned about Mr. Agin from Ancestry.com, he wrote to the National Archives requesting his military records and pension records.
   As chronicled on Mr. Kowal’s blog, Mr. Agin was a farmer from Hopewell who was 20 years old when he joined the 21st Regiment of the New Jersey Infantry. He was sent straight to Antietam, and fortunately arrived after the bloodiest battle in the country’s history.
   He was able to return home nine months later, and when he enlisted again in September 1864, he fought until the end of the war. He died on Aug. 11, 1915.
   When Mr. Kowal visited Princeton Cemetery in June 2011, he and his sister scoured the graveyard for their great-great-grandfather’s name, but it was nowhere to be found. Though the cemetery office was closed, former superintendent Mr. Sutphen happened to be home when they knocked, and was able to help.
   ”He first pulled out these old dusty blueprints, and then a little leather-bound notebook with handwritten records from a hundred years ago,” Mr. Kowal said.
   In it, Mr. Agin was listed, but when they followed the map to his plot, it was just a patch of grass.
   Mr. Kowal speculates that perhaps the grave marker was knocked down by a car, since the plot is right next to the driveway. However, he also said that at the time it would not have been uncommon for someone to be buried without a headstone at all, if the family could not afford it.
   Ms. Bolton and Mr. Kowal decided to apply to the Veterans Administration for an official Civil War grave marker, which was installed a few months later.
   The service held on Saturday in Princeton was a dedication of Mr. Agin’s new tombstone on the 150th anniversary of his service in the Union Army. The ceremony included a color guard of uniformed Civil War re-enactors from the General James A. Garfield Camp Number 4, who marched in and did a graveside salute.
   Joseph Seliga, past Department Commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, spoke about the purpose of his corporation after Mr. Agin’s record of service was read. This ceremony was the third his camp has conducted in honor of New Jersey Civil War veteran, and he hopes to hold many more.
   ”We have taken this on as a task for the 150th anniversary of the war,” said Mr. Seliga. “We want to make sure that people don’t forget about the service of veterans — that’s our principle purpose.”
   About 14 family members were present, many of whom had never met one another. Mr. Kowal’s sister Mary said she was “amazed” at what her brother had been able to dig up about their family history.
   Both Mr. Kowal and Ms. Bolton expressed pride for their ancestor, and for what they had done in commemorating his service.
   ”It’s been an opportunity to bring people together,” Mr. Kowal said.