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The following is an article by Jennifer Wilt that originally appeared in "The Doddridge Independent" newspaper of March 5, 2021, and is included here with the author's permission.

A Tale of Two Grandfathers

My past articles about siblings Benjamin Jaco and Emeretta Tucker were the product of documents that I found at the West Virginia State Archives in Charleston. Prior to being donated to the Archives, these old documents and related memorabilia were stored away in a trunk in the attic of Emeretta’s daughter Julia. Upon Julia’s death, her daughter Joette inherited this treasure trove of information and later donated it to the Archives. Along with her donation, Joette included a brief history that she had written about her two grandfathers, Henry Reddehase and Nimrod Bennington. It is her story, entitled “Echoes of the Civil War: A Reconstructed Family History,” that I want to share with you today. 

The Backstory
Alberta Joette Bennington was the great-granddaughter of Doddridge County’s legendary Luke Jaco, through his illegitimate daughter Emeretta “Emma” Tucker. Emeretta married German immigrant Henry Reddehase in 1871 and immediately settled in Taylor County where Henry worked for the railroad. They had at least six children, the oldest being Julia born in 1872. Julia married Thomas Bennington of Ritchie County in 1893. Thomas and Julia Reddehase Bennington eventually settled in Parkersburg where they lived until their deaths in 1930 and 1950 respectively. 

Julia’s daughter Joette Bennington was born in 1899 in Taylor County. In 1920 she married Glen Edwin Mealy of Parkersburg, and they had at least four children. Son Joseph Harrison Mealy died in 1945 while serving overseas in World War II. At some point after her husband’s death in 1954, Joette and at least two children moved to Riverside, California, where she died in 1979. She is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Parkersburg.

It was in the 1970s while living in California that Joette Bennington Mealy wrote the history of her family that I’ll be sharing with you. Joette belonged to the Riverside Genealogical Society and it appears that it was the suggestion of society president Jo Warner that prompted Joette to compile this paper. 

Pandora’s Box
Joette writes of how her mother Julia inherited the trunk in 1941 when her mother Emeretta died. Joette goes on to describe exactly where the trunk had been stored in her mother's house in Parkersburg ever since Emeretta had come to live with them in the 1920s:

“Our house had a huge attic in which a room had been made to accommodate a maid or housekeeper of the minister from whom we had purchased the house. It had a clothes closet, gas lights, gas stove and a door with a lock on it. The trunk was put in the clothes closet, the door closed, the door to the room locked and that was that. Mother and Grandma had the key.”

Joette then describes what was in the trunk when she inherited it after Julia’s death in 1950. Joette knew growing up that her German-born grandfather Henry Reddehase had fought for the Union during the Civil War, but was unaware that her great-grandfather Frederick Reddehase had served alongside him in the 6th W.Va. Infantry. 

“I'll never forget that day - it was like opening Pandora's box. Of course great grandfather's papers were in German and we couldn't read them; however, it was then that I learned that he had fought for the Civil War along with his son, as his enlistment and discharge papers were in English.

“...But not until I found ‘the trunk’ did I get this volume of correspondence, war records, deeds, marriage certificates, gun holsters (no guns!), odds and ends of keepsakes, bills and receipts. I think my grandfather Henry kept every piece of paper he put his name on.”

Grandfather Henry Reddehase
It was from these papers that we learn that during the Civil War Henry Reddehase was stationed in Wood and Ritchie counties guarding the railroads, bridges and tunnels on the Northwestern Virginia Railroad (now the North Bend Rail Trail). Most notably, he was present during the Jones-Imboden raids that occurred there in the Spring of 1863. These raids demonstrated the vulnerability of the railroad to Rebel attacks, so blockhouses and stockades were soon built at strategic points to help protect the railroad. Joette learned from one of the documents in the trunk that “As a Sergeant, my grandfather Henry became Commander of Blockhouse No. 10 at West Union (in Doddridge County), which is about half way between Grafton and Parkersburg.”  I have to wonder if Henry’s assignment to that position may have been influenced by the fact that his wife Emeretta was a Doddridge County girl.

Joette also writes that in 1904 as a train engineer, her father Thomas Bennington was injured in a train collision in tunnel #6 in West Union, near where her grandfather Henry Reddehase had been stationed. Joette writes that “My father who became an engineer on that run was badly burned in a wreck in that tunnel. Someone had forgotten to throw a switch.”  Three years ago in this column, I devoted an entire article to the story of that horrific wreck in the tunnel near Central Station, including the serious injuries to engineer Thomas Bennington of Grafton.

Grandfather Nimrod Bennington
Joette’s grandfather on her father's side was Nimrod Bennington, born in about 1821 in Rockbridge, Virginia. There he married Susan Elizabeth Hardbarger in 1848. Sometime prior to 1857, Nimrod and Susan moved from Rockbridge, Virginia to Ritchie County, (West) Virginia. Susan’s parents, Thomas and Rachel Hardbarger, and many of her siblings came with them, settling in the Washburn and Burnt House communities. Nimrod Bennington and Susan had seven children, the youngest being Joette’s father Thomas.

According to military records on file at the National Archives, Nimrod Bennington enlisted in the 20th Virginia Cavalry, Confederate Army, in June 1863. Joette writes:

“...The death of Stonewall Jackson on May 10, 1863 must have aroused the spirit of many more North Western Virginians who had migrated from Eastern Virginia over the mountains to greener pastures, so it is evident that my Rebel grandfather, Nimrod Bennington, could not withstand the persuasiveness of Colonel [William L.] Jackson, and when more men were needed for this Provisional Army, he enlisted at Camp North West near Huttonsville. ...

“As I review these facts that have come to my knowledge in the last few years, I wonder how was he persuaded to leave a wife and 5 children, a new home that he had made for them in Ritchie County, West Va. - he was 44 years old - of course he already had three brothers fighting for the South in various places in Virginia - was he like General Lee who chose to fight for his land and people? Did my grandfather feel he should follow his brothers in fighting for his great grandfather’s land in Virginia, near Clifton Forge, Virginia? I’ll always wonder.”

Nimrod’s Second Family
Joette goes on to tell how her grandfather Nimrod Bennington was treated after the war when he returned home to Ritchie County, now in the new state of West Virginia. 

“...In 1865, the war ended and he could go home, which he did - but he was not welcome. He tried twice but was not allowed to remain. Feeling was too high over his decision to fight with the South. …

“The second time he came back was the last - he was hounded out of the county. His wife must have been torn to pieces because she must have loved him very much - my father was born in 1867. He never saw his father.”

So for his ill-fated choice of joining the Confederacy, Nimrod Bennington was forced to leave behind his pregnant wife and six children in Ritchie County. But Nimrod did not live out the rest of his life in lonesome solitude. In 1870 Nimrod married Martha Frances Rader in Pendleton County, West Virginia. 

While looking through military records online, I found that Nimrod had served in the 20th Virginia Cavalry with Claude Goff Rader, brother of Nimrod’s second wife Martha. Perhaps Nimrod knew Martha from his time in the military or maybe he went to visit Claude after he left Ritchie County and that’s where he met Martha. Either way, in their marriage record, Nimrod shaved 8 years off his age and gave his marital status as widower, despite the fact that his first wife Susan was still alive and well in Ritchie County. We have to wonder whether Nimrod was lying just to the County Clerk or to Martha as well. Nimrod Bennington and Martha Rader Bennington had at least five children and eventually settled in Rockbridge, Virginia, where both the Bennington and Rader families were originally from. 

Nimrod a 40-year Mystery
We know from other sources that Nimrod Bennington died in 1892 at age 71. But this was not known to his abandoned family back in West Virginia. Joette continues:

“For over 40 years, no one in the family knew where he had gone. Then around 1907, through some correspondence with Hardbarger cousins...my father’s brother John learned that some Benningtons were living in Grottoes, Virginia, might be related. He wrote to the Postmaster in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia and got an address. Then he and my father went to Virginia to see them. They learned that Nimrod had married again … and had 5 more children.

“We have learned through recent correspondence that the women of that second family were quite perturbed about their status quo. Nimrod had never divorced Susan. My father and Uncle John recognized their father from pictures similar to those which his first wife had. …

“To my knowledge - just two of Nimrod’s grandchildren by his first marriage are living. Maude Cain Weaver, the youngest daughter of his oldest daughter. … When I wrote to her that we had found where her grandfather was buried in an unmarked grave in the brambles of a cemetery in Virginia, she wasn’t a bit sympathetic about it. She said it was a good place for him! Her mother, being the oldest daughter of the deserted family, had known the suffering he had caused her mother.”

“Well, I am the other granddaughter - I am the oldest daughter of Nimrod’s youngest son, Thomas, who never saw his father. My feelings are mixed about my grandfather. I’m sure he suffered too.”

A Different Kind of Suffering
The suffering that Joette alludes to is not the kind that usually comes to mind when considering the consequences of war. The American Civil War was unique in that it was not just fatalities and injuries and destruction and the stress of battle that affected both soldiers and citizenry. The Civil War was also political in its origins and objectives, and different people had different points of view, within communities and even within families. Rifts within families were severe and often permanent.

The story of Joette’s outcast grandfather Nimrod Bennington is an example of that. For his decision to join his brothers in fighting for the South, his Ritchie County community, and perhaps much of his family there, didn’t want him back after the war. A full century later, when Joette said that she had mixed feelings about her grandfather, she was probably just being kind.

(c) Jennifer Wilt 2021
All Doddridge County history articles in this series are the sole intellectual property of Jennifer Wilt, and are printed in the Doddridge Independent with her permission.

Other local history stories by Jennifer Wilt can be found on the website of the Doddridge County Heritage Guild.
https://www.doddridgecountyheritageguild.com/

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