SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Capt. John C. Quimby, Page 207

CAPT. JOHN C. QUIMBY, of Sheboygan, a veteran soldier of the War of the Rebellion, was born at Sebec, Piscataquis County, Me., June 15, 1838.  His father, Eben Quimby, was a native of New Hampshire, and his father, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was also a native of that State.  The grandfather removed to the State of Maine when his family of three sons and two daughters was still young.  All of that generation of the family have passed away.  Eben Quimby was twice married, his second wife, the mother of John C., having been Rhoda Packard.  She was descended from an early Massachusetts family.  Her maternal grandfather, Stephen Abbott, was a Major in the American army in the War of the Revolution.  Eben Quimby died before the birth of his son John C.  The wife and mother again married, and died in 1857.  There were two children by the first marriage of Eben Quimby, a son and a daughter.  The former, Nathaniel, was accidentally killed at the age of about twenty-two years.  The latter, Emily, died in 1866, leaving three children.  By the second marriage of the father, there were four children born, two of whom died in early childhood, the subject of this record and an elder brother, Eben C. Quimby, being the only ones who attained to mature years.  The latter met his death by accidental drowning in Boulder County, Colo., September 30, 1889, and at the time of his death was fifty-five years old.  He was a man of ability and large business enterprise.  Obtaining a patent from the Government on the process of enameling sheet-iron, he was in Sheboygan for a time in the interests of that business.  He was long a resident of St. Louis, but in the later years of his life operated mining interests in Colorado.  At his death he left a wife and four children.

    The mother of our subject by her second marriage had four children, all of whom died in very early childhood except the eldest, Henry Dunning, who was accidentally killed at the age of fourteen years, by the discharge of a gun in the hands of a comrade.  As has been seen, a somewhat remarkable fatality has attended the family of Mr. Quimby.  Of the nine children born to his father and mother by both their marriages, he is the only survivor.  And yet the dangers to which he has been subject have been much greater than theirs, as during the major part of the Civil War he was in the army, exposed to all the dangers incident thereto.

    Mr. Quimby enlisted April 25, 1861, in Company K, Second Regiment Maine Infantry.  On the organization of the regiment he was made First Sergeant of the company, taking part in the first battle of Bull Run and the Peninsular campaign.  On the 21st of January, 1862, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant by Gov. Israel Washburn, then Governor of Maine, and on December 29, of the same year, was commissioned Captain by Gov. Abner Cobern.  He was in command of a company, however, before he received his commission as Captain.  At the second battle of Bull Run, he commanded Company B of his regiment.  Then at his own request he was returned to Company K, which he commanded through the Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville campaigns.  He was mustered out of the service with his regiment on June 9, 1863, by reason of expiration of term of service, the Second Maine being a two-years regiment.  In December of the same year he again entered the army as an enlisted man, in the Seventh Battery of Maine Veteran Volunteers.  Of this battery he was made Sergeant, and was assigned to the Ninth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Burnside, joining the army during the battle of the Wilderness.  In the severe battles that followed, including Spottsylvania Court House, Bethesda Church, North Anna and Cold Harbor, Mr. Quimby was an active participant; he was also in front of Petersburgh during the entire siege of that place.  On the 1st of November, 1864, his command occupied Ft. Sedgwick, or "Ft. Hell" as it was commonly called, from the terrific fighting of which it was the scene.  there he remained till April 2, 1865, when Petersburgh was evacuated and the Confederates fled, and then followed in pursuit of Lee until the surrender.  Capt. Quimby was slightly wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill.  On the close of the war, he returned to Maine and was engaged in farming for two years.

    In the year 1868 our subject went to Jefferson County, Mo., and engaged in farming and fruit-growing, but returned to Maine in 1870, and engaged in the lumber business.  In the spring of 1877 he was made Chief of Police of Lewiston, Me., where he was then residing.  the lumber business was continued till his removal to Sheboygan, in 1882, since which time Mr. Quimby has been engaged as Lumber Inspector, in which capacity he is now employed by the city.

    Capt. Quimby was married April 13, 1863, while at home from the army on a leave of absence, to Miss Anna Kendall, a native of Abbot, Me., where her birth occurred August 9, 1838, a daughter of George and Mary (Norton) Kendall.  Capt. Quimby and wife have a son, Carroll, born at Abbott, Me., January 7, 1864, who is now book-keeper for the Mattoon Manufacturing Company, of Sheboygan.  They lost a younger son in early infancy.

    In his political views, Capt. Quimby was a Republican till 1876, since which time, as issues have changed, he has voted for men representing such principles as he believed were for the best interests of the county.  Our subject is a man of culture and extensive reading.  His well-filled library contains many volumes, compiled by various officers of the army, relative to the great Civil War, and few men are better informed with regard to the military operations of that event, with which he was identified during nearly the whole of its existence, then he.