David was born in Ontario and moved to Wisconsin with his parents in the mid-1850s. There he became a farmer, and according to later pension affidavits was "a rugged, healthy, and able-bodied man, capable of performing any and all duties on a farm."
David enlisted as a private in the 3rd Independent Battery of the Wisconsin Light Artillery Regiment for the Union Army on September 7, 1861 at Berlin, Wisconsin. On October 26, 1862, he was promoted to Corporal. A statement in his service file says that on January 2 [1863?] "Corporal David S. Bedal ... turned the caissens of the Battery, which were moving to far from where the Battery was in position, back to where they should have been stopped, at a critical period of the fight. on September 20, 1863, David was shot in the thigh during the Battle of Chickamawanga, Tennessee. A musket ball remained lodged in his right thigh. David was then moved from hospital to hospital, first at Chatanooga, then Stevenson, Alabama, then Nashville, and finally Jeffersonville, Indiana, where the bullet was at last removed around June 10, 1864. Unable to walk, he was returned to barracks in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of June. The wound was still a raw. He was in Louisville a month or two and served as corporal of the guards, but was unable to do "severe service of any kind." He then went to Madison, Wisconsin, to await discharge. He was mustered out on October 10, 1864 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[From History of the services of the Third Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery : in the Civil War of the United States, 1861-65. Berlin Wis.: Courant Press, 1902, pp. 89-90]
In a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal from Headquarters of the Third Wisconsin Battery, Chatanooga, Tennessee, dated November 4, 1863, published November 14, 1863, Corpl. David S. Bedal is listed among the wounded.
The gunshot wound caused David the muscles in his leg to contract, crippling him. In a pension application, David reports that the winter of his discharge, "I was hauling and the team ran away. Owing to want of use of limb I couldn't get out of the difficulty and consequently had my leg broken." Once healed, his foot turned outward and the muscles contracted. His leg was numb and walking caused pain and stiffness. He was unable to farm as he had before the war or do hard physical labor. The following October, his wife died.
After discharge, David lived for about three years at Berlin, Wisconsin. His obituary makes it seem that he also may have lived in Dover, Minnesota, near his siblings. In any case, he became a teamster and moved to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1869. In the 1870 census for Sioux City, Woodbury Co., Iowa, there is a teamster "George Bedal" of the same age as David listed between two other "Georges."
On April 25, 1871, David claimed a piece of land in Union County, Dakota Terriotry, where he had been living since June 20, 1870. The land was made available through an agricultural scrip from the state of Kentucky. He sold the land on March 28, 1872. He worked as a teamster until 1873, when he became station baggagemaster for the Sioux City Pacific Railroad Company (his obituary says he worked 34 years for the Northwestern railroad.) He remarried in 1873. During his time as a teamster and at least as late as 1879 he made trips back to Green Lake County, Wisconsin, to visit. In one pension application, he asks to be allowed to have a medical examination in Blair, Nebraska, which is where his nephew Marshall Bedal was a doctor. So David clearly stayed in touch with his extended family.
David filed for his Civil War Pension as an invalid on June 2, 1880. In the census for Sioux City, Iowa, of that year, David is listed as a R.R. baggagemaster, with his wife Ella M. and their son Eugene D.
In an 1881 affidavit, David is described as being 5' 11", with a dark complexion, dark eyes, and black hair.
According to the affidavit of a neighbor, Fred W. Sims, David lived from about April 1882 to February 1884 on a farm in Ponca Dixon County, Nebraska. He was unable to do a quarter of what other men could and had to have a hired man at all times. Eventually, he had to give up farming again and move back to Iowa.
In the Sioux City directory for 1889-1890, there is a David S. Bedal employed as a baggageman at the Union Depot.
Finally in 1912 the medical referees ruled that further examination was not necessary. They were convinced that David was totally disabled. However, he had already been pensioned for the his gunshot wound (a flesh wound), they wrote, and the subsequent fracture that had caused his more severe disability could not be attributed to his wound of service origin.
David and his wife Ella lived in Sioux City until their deaths.
"Per a story told by June Bond Bedal, to her great-niece, Sheryl Jo Bedal"
Mary Ellen Arthur, who lived in NY, decided she wanted to go to California. In those days, girls didn't travel alone, they usually had a chaperone. But Mary Ellen was a very spunky girl who decided to save her money and go anyways. So one day, she got on a train and headed WEST! In those days, they had to pay as they went. Mary Ellen was noticing how very far away she was from home, and she was spending all her money on her trip. Finally, the trained stop, and the Conductor announced that it was the end of the line. Mary Ellen knew that she was NOT in California yet. She looked out the window and saw a sign that said, Sioux City. There were Indians walking around outside and she was scared, all alone and had no more money. She sat crying on the train.
The conductor sent the baggage man, David Smith Bedal, into the train to get the red headed lady off the train. David walked up and sat in the seat in front of Mary Ellen. He just sat there quietly, watching her cry. Mary Ellen then looked up at him and asked him what he was looking at. David told her that he was looking at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. David then told people, that that was how his lovely wife was sent special delivery to him. He called her "Ella" instead of Mary Ellen. She is listed in all paper work, census, pension papers, etc as Ella Bedal.
Aunt June remembers her grandmother, Mary Ellen "Ella" Bedal, as having red hair and full of spunk. Aunt June told me, Sheryl Jo Bedal, that looked like her grandmother, and that I had the same kind of spunk and personality.
Biographical information from family member Sheryl Jo Bedal.
David enlisted as a private in the 3rd Independent Battery of the Wisconsin Light Artillery Regiment for the Union Army on September 7, 1861 at Berlin, Wisconsin. On October 26, 1862, he was promoted to Corporal. A statement in his service file says that on January 2 [1863?] "Corporal David S. Bedal ... turned the caissens of the Battery, which were moving to far from where the Battery was in position, back to where they should have been stopped, at a critical period of the fight. on September 20, 1863, David was shot in the thigh during the Battle of Chickamawanga, Tennessee. A musket ball remained lodged in his right thigh. David was then moved from hospital to hospital, first at Chatanooga, then Stevenson, Alabama, then Nashville, and finally Jeffersonville, Indiana, where the bullet was at last removed around June 10, 1864. Unable to walk, he was returned to barracks in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of June. The wound was still a raw. He was in Louisville a month or two and served as corporal of the guards, but was unable to do "severe service of any kind." He then went to Madison, Wisconsin, to await discharge. He was mustered out on October 10, 1864 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[From History of the services of the Third Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery : in the Civil War of the United States, 1861-65. Berlin Wis.: Courant Press, 1902, pp. 89-90]
In a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal from Headquarters of the Third Wisconsin Battery, Chatanooga, Tennessee, dated November 4, 1863, published November 14, 1863, Corpl. David S. Bedal is listed among the wounded.
The gunshot wound caused David the muscles in his leg to contract, crippling him. In a pension application, David reports that the winter of his discharge, "I was hauling and the team ran away. Owing to want of use of limb I couldn't get out of the difficulty and consequently had my leg broken." Once healed, his foot turned outward and the muscles contracted. His leg was numb and walking caused pain and stiffness. He was unable to farm as he had before the war or do hard physical labor. The following October, his wife died.
After discharge, David lived for about three years at Berlin, Wisconsin. His obituary makes it seem that he also may have lived in Dover, Minnesota, near his siblings. In any case, he became a teamster and moved to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1869. In the 1870 census for Sioux City, Woodbury Co., Iowa, there is a teamster "George Bedal" of the same age as David listed between two other "Georges."
On April 25, 1871, David claimed a piece of land in Union County, Dakota Terriotry, where he had been living since June 20, 1870. The land was made available through an agricultural scrip from the state of Kentucky. He sold the land on March 28, 1872. He worked as a teamster until 1873, when he became station baggagemaster for the Sioux City Pacific Railroad Company (his obituary says he worked 34 years for the Northwestern railroad.) He remarried in 1873. During his time as a teamster and at least as late as 1879 he made trips back to Green Lake County, Wisconsin, to visit. In one pension application, he asks to be allowed to have a medical examination in Blair, Nebraska, which is where his nephew Marshall Bedal was a doctor. So David clearly stayed in touch with his extended family.
David filed for his Civil War Pension as an invalid on June 2, 1880. In the census for Sioux City, Iowa, of that year, David is listed as a R.R. baggagemaster, with his wife Ella M. and their son Eugene D.
In an 1881 affidavit, David is described as being 5' 11", with a dark complexion, dark eyes, and black hair.
According to the affidavit of a neighbor, Fred W. Sims, David lived from about April 1882 to February 1884 on a farm in Ponca Dixon County, Nebraska. He was unable to do a quarter of what other men could and had to have a hired man at all times. Eventually, he had to give up farming again and move back to Iowa.
In the Sioux City directory for 1889-1890, there is a David S. Bedal employed as a baggageman at the Union Depot.
Finally in 1912 the medical referees ruled that further examination was not necessary. They were convinced that David was totally disabled. However, he had already been pensioned for the his gunshot wound (a flesh wound), they wrote, and the subsequent fracture that had caused his more severe disability could not be attributed to his wound of service origin.
David and his wife Ella lived in Sioux City until their deaths.
"Per a story told by June Bond Bedal, to her great-niece, Sheryl Jo Bedal"
Mary Ellen Arthur, who lived in NY, decided she wanted to go to California. In those days, girls didn't travel alone, they usually had a chaperone. But Mary Ellen was a very spunky girl who decided to save her money and go anyways. So one day, she got on a train and headed WEST! In those days, they had to pay as they went. Mary Ellen was noticing how very far away she was from home, and she was spending all her money on her trip. Finally, the trained stop, and the Conductor announced that it was the end of the line. Mary Ellen knew that she was NOT in California yet. She looked out the window and saw a sign that said, Sioux City. There were Indians walking around outside and she was scared, all alone and had no more money. She sat crying on the train.
The conductor sent the baggage man, David Smith Bedal, into the train to get the red headed lady off the train. David walked up and sat in the seat in front of Mary Ellen. He just sat there quietly, watching her cry. Mary Ellen then looked up at him and asked him what he was looking at. David told her that he was looking at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. David then told people, that that was how his lovely wife was sent special delivery to him. He called her "Ella" instead of Mary Ellen. She is listed in all paper work, census, pension papers, etc as Ella Bedal.
Aunt June remembers her grandmother, Mary Ellen "Ella" Bedal, as having red hair and full of spunk. Aunt June told me, Sheryl Jo Bedal, that looked like her grandmother, and that I had the same kind of spunk and personality.
Biographical information from family member Sheryl Jo Bedal.
David was born in Ontario and moved to Wisconsin with his parents in the mid-1850s. There he became a farmer, and according to later pension affidavits was "a rugged, healthy, and able-bodied man, capable of performing any and all duties on a farm."
David enlisted as a private in the 3rd Independent Battery of the Wisconsin Light Artillery Regiment for the Union Army on September 7, 1861 at Berlin, Wisconsin. On October 26, 1862, he was promoted to Corporal. A statement in his service file says that on January 2 [1863?] "Corporal David S. Bedal ... turned the caissens of the Battery, which were moving to far from where the Battery was in position, back to where they should have been stopped, at a critical period of the fight. on September 20, 1863, David was shot in the thigh during the Battle of Chickamawanga, Tennessee. A musket ball remained lodged in his right thigh. David was then moved from hospital to hospital, first at Chatanooga, then Stevenson, Alabama, then Nashville, and finally Jeffersonville, Indiana, where the bullet was at last removed around June 10, 1864. Unable to walk, he was returned to barracks in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of June. The wound was still a raw. He was in Louisville a month or two and served as corporal of the guards, but was unable to do "severe service of any kind." He then went to Madison, Wisconsin, to await discharge. He was mustered out on October 10, 1864 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[From History of the services of the Third Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery : in the Civil War of the United States, 1861-65. Berlin Wis.: Courant Press, 1902, pp. 89-90]
In a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal from Headquarters of the Third Wisconsin Battery, Chatanooga, Tennessee, dated November 4, 1863, published November 14, 1863, Corpl. David S. Bedal is listed among the wounded.
The gunshot wound caused David the muscles in his leg to contract, crippling him. In a pension application, David reports that the winter of his discharge, "I was hauling and the team ran away. Owing to want of use of limb I couldn't get out of the difficulty and consequently had my leg broken." Once healed, his foot turned outward and the muscles contracted. His leg was numb and walking caused pain and stiffness. He was unable to farm as he had before the war or do hard physical labor. The following October, his wife died.
After discharge, David lived for about three years at Berlin, Wisconsin. His obituary makes it seem that he also may have lived in Dover, Minnesota, near his siblings. In any case, he became a teamster and moved to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1869. In the 1870 census for Sioux City, Woodbury Co., Iowa, there is a teamster "George Bedal" of the same age as David listed between two other "Georges."
On April 25, 1871, David claimed a piece of land in Union County, Dakota Terriotry, where he had been living since June 20, 1870. The land was made available through an agricultural scrip from the state of Kentucky. He sold the land on March 28, 1872. He worked as a teamster until 1873, when he became station baggagemaster for the Sioux City Pacific Railroad Company (his obituary says he worked 34 years for the Northwestern railroad.) He remarried in 1873. During his time as a teamster and at least as late as 1879 he made trips back to Green Lake County, Wisconsin, to visit. In one pension application, he asks to be allowed to have a medical examination in Blair, Nebraska, which is where his nephew Marshall Bedal was a doctor. So David clearly stayed in touch with his extended family.
David filed for his Civil War Pension as an invalid on June 2, 1880. In the census for Sioux City, Iowa, of that year, David is listed as a R.R. baggagemaster, with his wife Ella M. and their son Eugene D.
In an 1881 affidavit, David is described as being 5' 11", with a dark complexion, dark eyes, and black hair.
According to the affidavit of a neighbor, Fred W. Sims, David lived from about April 1882 to February 1884 on a farm in Ponca Dixon County, Nebraska. He was unable to do a quarter of what other men could and had to have a hired man at all times. Eventually, he had to give up farming again and move back to Iowa.
In the Sioux City directory for 1889-1890, there is a David S. Bedal employed as a baggageman at the Union Depot.
Finally in 1912 the medical referees ruled that further examination was not necessary. They were convinced that David was totally disabled. However, he had already been pensioned for the his gunshot wound (a flesh wound), they wrote, and the subsequent fracture that had caused his more severe disability could not be attributed to his wound of service origin.
David and his wife Ella lived in Sioux City until their deaths.
"Per a story told by June Bond Bedal, to her great-niece, Sheryl Jo Bedal"
Mary Ellen Arthur, who lived in NY, decided she wanted to go to California. In those days, girls didn't travel alone, they usually had a chaperone. But Mary Ellen was a very spunky girl who decided to save her money and go anyways. So one day, she got on a train and headed WEST! In those days, they had to pay as they went. Mary Ellen was noticing how very far away she was from home, and she was spending all her money on her trip. Finally, the trained stop, and the Conductor announced that it was the end of the line. Mary Ellen knew that she was NOT in California yet. She looked out the window and saw a sign that said, Sioux City. There were Indians walking around outside and she was scared, all alone and had no more money. She sat crying on the train.
The conductor sent the baggage man, David Smith Bedal, into the train to get the red headed lady off the train. David walked up and sat in the seat in front of Mary Ellen. He just sat there quietly, watching her cry. Mary Ellen then looked up at him and asked him what he was looking at. David told her that he was looking at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. David then told people, that that was how his lovely wife was sent special delivery to him. He called her "Ella" instead of Mary Ellen. She is listed in all paper work, census, pension papers, etc as Ella Bedal.
Aunt June remembers her grandmother, Mary Ellen "Ella" Bedal, as having red hair and full of spunk. Aunt June told me, Sheryl Jo Bedal, that looked like her grandmother, and that I had the same kind of spunk and personality.
Biographical information from family member Sheryl Jo Bedal.
David enlisted as a private in the 3rd Independent Battery of the Wisconsin Light Artillery Regiment for the Union Army on September 7, 1861 at Berlin, Wisconsin. On October 26, 1862, he was promoted to Corporal. A statement in his service file says that on January 2 [1863?] "Corporal David S. Bedal ... turned the caissens of the Battery, which were moving to far from where the Battery was in position, back to where they should have been stopped, at a critical period of the fight. on September 20, 1863, David was shot in the thigh during the Battle of Chickamawanga, Tennessee. A musket ball remained lodged in his right thigh. David was then moved from hospital to hospital, first at Chatanooga, then Stevenson, Alabama, then Nashville, and finally Jeffersonville, Indiana, where the bullet was at last removed around June 10, 1864. Unable to walk, he was returned to barracks in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of June. The wound was still a raw. He was in Louisville a month or two and served as corporal of the guards, but was unable to do "severe service of any kind." He then went to Madison, Wisconsin, to await discharge. He was mustered out on October 10, 1864 at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
[From History of the services of the Third Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery : in the Civil War of the United States, 1861-65. Berlin Wis.: Courant Press, 1902, pp. 89-90]
In a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal from Headquarters of the Third Wisconsin Battery, Chatanooga, Tennessee, dated November 4, 1863, published November 14, 1863, Corpl. David S. Bedal is listed among the wounded.
The gunshot wound caused David the muscles in his leg to contract, crippling him. In a pension application, David reports that the winter of his discharge, "I was hauling and the team ran away. Owing to want of use of limb I couldn't get out of the difficulty and consequently had my leg broken." Once healed, his foot turned outward and the muscles contracted. His leg was numb and walking caused pain and stiffness. He was unable to farm as he had before the war or do hard physical labor. The following October, his wife died.
After discharge, David lived for about three years at Berlin, Wisconsin. His obituary makes it seem that he also may have lived in Dover, Minnesota, near his siblings. In any case, he became a teamster and moved to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1869. In the 1870 census for Sioux City, Woodbury Co., Iowa, there is a teamster "George Bedal" of the same age as David listed between two other "Georges."
On April 25, 1871, David claimed a piece of land in Union County, Dakota Terriotry, where he had been living since June 20, 1870. The land was made available through an agricultural scrip from the state of Kentucky. He sold the land on March 28, 1872. He worked as a teamster until 1873, when he became station baggagemaster for the Sioux City Pacific Railroad Company (his obituary says he worked 34 years for the Northwestern railroad.) He remarried in 1873. During his time as a teamster and at least as late as 1879 he made trips back to Green Lake County, Wisconsin, to visit. In one pension application, he asks to be allowed to have a medical examination in Blair, Nebraska, which is where his nephew Marshall Bedal was a doctor. So David clearly stayed in touch with his extended family.
David filed for his Civil War Pension as an invalid on June 2, 1880. In the census for Sioux City, Iowa, of that year, David is listed as a R.R. baggagemaster, with his wife Ella M. and their son Eugene D.
In an 1881 affidavit, David is described as being 5' 11", with a dark complexion, dark eyes, and black hair.
According to the affidavit of a neighbor, Fred W. Sims, David lived from about April 1882 to February 1884 on a farm in Ponca Dixon County, Nebraska. He was unable to do a quarter of what other men could and had to have a hired man at all times. Eventually, he had to give up farming again and move back to Iowa.
In the Sioux City directory for 1889-1890, there is a David S. Bedal employed as a baggageman at the Union Depot.
Finally in 1912 the medical referees ruled that further examination was not necessary. They were convinced that David was totally disabled. However, he had already been pensioned for the his gunshot wound (a flesh wound), they wrote, and the subsequent fracture that had caused his more severe disability could not be attributed to his wound of service origin.
David and his wife Ella lived in Sioux City until their deaths.
"Per a story told by June Bond Bedal, to her great-niece, Sheryl Jo Bedal"
Mary Ellen Arthur, who lived in NY, decided she wanted to go to California. In those days, girls didn't travel alone, they usually had a chaperone. But Mary Ellen was a very spunky girl who decided to save her money and go anyways. So one day, she got on a train and headed WEST! In those days, they had to pay as they went. Mary Ellen was noticing how very far away she was from home, and she was spending all her money on her trip. Finally, the trained stop, and the Conductor announced that it was the end of the line. Mary Ellen knew that she was NOT in California yet. She looked out the window and saw a sign that said, Sioux City. There were Indians walking around outside and she was scared, all alone and had no more money. She sat crying on the train.
The conductor sent the baggage man, David Smith Bedal, into the train to get the red headed lady off the train. David walked up and sat in the seat in front of Mary Ellen. He just sat there quietly, watching her cry. Mary Ellen then looked up at him and asked him what he was looking at. David told her that he was looking at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. David then told people, that that was how his lovely wife was sent special delivery to him. He called her "Ella" instead of Mary Ellen. She is listed in all paper work, census, pension papers, etc as Ella Bedal.
Aunt June remembers her grandmother, Mary Ellen "Ella" Bedal, as having red hair and full of spunk. Aunt June told me, Sheryl Jo Bedal, that looked like her grandmother, and that I had the same kind of spunk and personality.
Biographical information from family member Sheryl Jo Bedal.
Gravesite Details
Interment Date 2/12/1924
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