Wesley Wallick

Biography

Wesley Wallick was one of twelve Wallick Civil War soldiers who was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Yet by 1861 only one soldier of the twelve was still resident in the county — such was the magnitude of the Wallick western migration in the mid-1800s. That remaining soldier was Elias Wallick, who did not survive the war, having died at the Battle of Opequon Creek in the fall of 1864. All the others had scattered across the Midwest by the time Fort Sumter surrendered.

Wesley's family had moved to Miami County, Indiana, in early 1841. The Wallicks of Miami County were primarily carpenters and millers by trade and by 1861 they had well-established businesses. Wesley chose not to follow the career path of his kinsmen and pursued other jobs before and after the war. In 1852 he traveled to California with his wife Mary Ann and two young daughters, hoping to strike it rich in the California Gold Rush. It is unknown how much success Wesley achieved as a prospector, panning for gold.

By November 1857, he was back in Indiana operating the Western House Hotel in downtown Peru. Three years later, in 1860, Wesley made another career change and was elected to his first two-year term as sheriff of Miami County.

Wesley was 42 years old when our nation's worst sectional strife exploded into a full-scale war. While many younger members of his family quickly enlisted, he waited to enlist until he had completed his term as Miami County Sheriff. He did serve with the One Week Wallick Warriors in July of 1863, but they were more a militia unit than a committed Federal regiment. It wasn't until late May of 1864 that both he and his nephew, John W. Wallick, enlisted in the 138th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His experience as a sheriff served him well, for he became a lieutenant in Company A; nephew John was a private.

The 138th Indiana was a Hundred-Days Regiment created to help supplement the manpower needs of the Union Army for General Grant's 1864 spring offensive. Most of the regiment's responsibilities were in railroad and supply depot security in Tennessee and Alabama, seeing little or no hostile action.

After Wesley was discharged from the army he returned to Miami County to again run for county sheriff. He was elected to a second term and served his community in that office from 1865 to 1867. For the next twenty-four years he worked in retail as a feed store clerk and in other jobs. Hard times fell on Wesley in his old age, for he concluded his life as a patient at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio. This facility was primarily used as a refuge for three types of veterans: the very sick, the very destitute, and those who wanted to escape their wives and live off the government dole. A fair examination of the record shows that Wesley didn't belong to the latter group.

Research Note

The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers — and a Name Mystery

We know little about the circumstances that brought Wesley to the hospital other than his being admitted by his daughter, Myra Houser, on May 15, 1890. It was not a lengthy stay, for after seven weeks he died of a bladder infection and was quickly buried in the hospital cemetery. His wife of forty-one years, Mary Ann (Fisher), had preceded him in death, passing away on October 17, 1884. She is buried in Reyburn Cemetery, Peru, Indiana — 160 miles from Dayton, Ohio.

All his life he was called "Wesley" by friends, family, and himself. Yet on his headstone application from the Veterans Administration the name John W. Wallick is written instead of Wesley Wallick. Could the soldier who is buried in the Dayton National Cemetery really be John Wesley "the Younger" and not Wesley Wallick "the Elder"? That is an impossibility. John Wesley "the Younger" died in 1889, the year before Wesley, and is buried next to his wife Rebecca in Reyburn Cemetery, Peru, Indiana.

One possible explanation for the name error is that the person who filled out the application didn't realize there were two Wallicks in the 138th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company A — one a lieutenant and one a private. In the Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana 1861–1865, officers and enlisted men are recorded in separate books. 1st Lieutenant Wesley Wallick would have been recorded in the book of officers, whereas Private John W. Wallick would have been recorded in the book of enlisted men. The person filling out the headstone application may have used the wrong book.

Comrades-in-Arms