Alpheus was a much older brother of Andrew Jackson Dann, and enlisted for one year in the Union Army, in 1864. The Spaulding letters make anecdotal mention that he enlisted ahead of a draft notice, therby collecting a "bounty" of almost one thousand dollars. A typewritten page of history from Dianne Spencer states that he left Union six weeks after the birth of his daughter Mary Evangeline and travelled north to join Company F of the 12th NY cavalry. The soldiers were loaded into open box cars for the trip south. The history passed down through the family is that he caught cold on the long trip and was returned north. He died of pneumonia in a military hospital in Elmira NY.
Alpheus was 37 years old at the time of his enlistment, was married, and was a successful farmer. He had married Margaret Barker, and had several children, listed below:Anna: b.1852-1853? d. 1876. Married Wesley Barrow.
Ambrose M.: 1854...1875 died of typhoid fever as a young man.
Cassius M.: 1859...1864 died as a child, either in a house fire or from a fall into scalding water.
Clayton A. 1862... 1929
Mary Evangeline 1864...1958 ; married Gilbert D. Scudder and lived in Coopers Plains, NY area.
THE CHILDREN OF ALPHEUS AND MARGARET DANN:
