George Jacob Raab was the popular Supervisor of the Fourth Ward of Flint, whose claim to public consideration is well founded upon his bravery and loyalty as a soldier, who served his country faithfully in the late war, and who was in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. As a supplementary work, he handles at present time Stanley's remarkable book.
Mr. Raab was born on March 17, 1846, in Wetzler, Germany, in the Province of Nassau, the son of Abraham Eberhardt Raab and Elizabeth Catherine Zimmerman.
His father was a tailor by trade and a farmer by calling; he was also a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. Late in life he came to America and spent his last days in Flint; he was seventy-nine years of age at the time of his decease. Abraham Eberhardt Raab brought his family to America in the spring of 1855, making the voyage on the sailing vessel "Republic" in which they were confined for forty-two days, being overtaken by a calm that lasted three weeks. The family was then located in Wyoming County, N.Y., in the town of Strykersville, where the father was employed as a tanner. In 1858 they removed to Flint, Genesee County, Mich., and here Mr. Raab was employed at his own trade, that of a merchant tailor, and lived until 1890 when he removed to Caro, which is now his place of residence. He is sixty-eight years old.
Catherine Raab died in 1876 leaving two children, of whom George is the elder; the younger, Jacob is in the furniture business in Flint. George's family was one of the pioneers in the Fourth Ward, which was then all woods. George attended private school at first then the ward school and later the union schools. At the age of fourteen years, he was apprenticed to learn the cabinetmakers' trade under William Miller, with whom he remained until the fall of 1863 when he enlisted in Company F, Fourth Michigan Calvary. He was mustered in at Detroit and joined his regiment at Nashville. In the spring of 1864, the regiment joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga. He was in many skirmishes and the cavalry he was with participated in many battles. He was taken sick after the engagement of Kenesaw Mountain, in July 1864, and was sent to the hospital in Chattanooga, thence to Columbia, and on being sent back to his regiment, was with a mounted squad that did scout duty throughout that fall. In the spring of 1865, under Col. P. Pritchard, they were at the engagement at Selma, Ala., Double Bridge, and Macon, Ga., and participated in the capture of Jefferson Davis, on May 10, of the same year. George was one of the one hundred and twenty-eight picked men selected for that important duty. He brought back with him from the war a hand mirror, taken from the wardrobe of Jefferson Davis, and he wore the Confederate ex-President's felt hat until the close of the war. Mr. Raab was mustered out of service at Nashville, on August 15, 1865. From injuries received in the army, he now draws a pension of $24 per Month.
Returning to Flint after the war, he again resumed his trade and in 1867 removed to Lawrence, Van Buren County, where he started a furniture store and conducted it for four years. While there, on May 9, 1869, he was married to Miss Hattie E. Tomlinson, who was born in Branch County. She is the daughter of Alex. E. Tomlinson, an English gentleman, was one of the early pioneers of that portion of the State.
In 1871 Mr. Raab sold out his effects and interests in Lawrence and returned to Flint. He resumed his trade and helped finish the State School for the Deaf. In 1872 he went to Holly and for four years was engaged in the furniture trade there, but was again attracted back to Flint and this time opened a grocery store at the foot of Hazelton Street, in partnership with John Zimmerman. They were burned out two years later and then in partnership with his brother Jacob, started a cabinet-making shop, running it until 1884, and then opened a grocery at the corner of Asylum and Glenwood Avenues, and with Richard Hughes as a partner. They continued in business for two years, when he sold out, and has since been engaged in handling sewing machines. For the past five years, he has been on the road constantly. The open-air exercise was beneficial to his health, which has never been robust since his army service. He now handles Stanley's book in this county.
George and his wife are the parents of six children, M. Bertha, a teacher in the county; Myrthis A., a teacher in the city schools; Alice C.; Irving; Ethel E. and Arthur.
He has been the Supervisor of the Fourth Ward since 1883. Socially he belongs to the Odd Fellows and also to the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Mason and in his political liking is a true Republican.
BIOGRAPHY: George Raab is the son of Eberhardt Raab and wife, who came to the United States from Prussia in I856 and settled in Flint, this county, establishing their home in that portion of the city now comprised in the fourth ward, but which then contained but two houses. There they spent the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of fifty and the father living to the age of seventy-four. They had two sons, George Jacob and Jacob George.
George Raab was nine years old when he came to this country with his parents and he grew up at Flint, becoming a proficient cabinet-maker. In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, and served with that command until mustered out at the end of the war in I865. He was one of the details commissioned to capture Jefferson Davis and still has in his possession a small hand-mirror taken when the vanquished president of the Confederacy was captured. Upon the completion; of his military service George Raab returned to Flint and resumed work at his trade. Presently he went to Holly, where he worked for some time, but afterward returned to Flint, where he began clerking in a furniture store, later engaging in the grocery business and then became the local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. For twenty-five years Mr. Raab has served as a member of the board of county supervisors from the fourth ward, city of Flint, and it was he who introduced the resolution for the erection of the present Genesee county court house. He is an Odd Fellow and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. Mrs. Raab is a daughter of Ernest Tomlinson and wife, both now deceased, who were the parents of eight children, William, John, Warren, Marietta, Myrtis, Orpha, Frank and Harriet. Ernest Tomlinson came to this country from England, married in the East and then came to Michigan, settling near Fulton in pioneer days. He was a well-to-do farmer and was the founder of the town of Sherwood. He died at the age of seventy-five, after which his widow moved to California, where she lived to the age of eighty-five years.
Flint Man is Sole Survivor of Detachment Which captured Jeff Davis at Close of Civil War; Will be 89 in March
Solve survivor of the detail which captured Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy, at the close of the civil war, George Raab recalls his war adventures of 70 years ago as though they were yesterday.
Sitting in his home at Sylvan court he recounts with unflagging zest the story of how the Fourth Michigan cavalry and the First Wisconsin were sent to capture Jefferson Davis, who was supposed to be going to Florida coast and hence to England.
It is a colorful story as he relates it. From the two regiments, 130 men, of whom he was one, were sent ahead to surround Davis's camp early in the morning. The Davis expedition was a small one -including only Mr. and Mrs. Davis, their two children, two of the Confederate cabinet members and some Negro servants, all traveling in an ambulance in which the slept.
Tells of Capture
"When we came up, Jeff Davis came out dressed in a long water proof coat, with a woman's shawl over his head and a water pail over his arm," Mr. Raab recounts." Mrs. Davis called to ask if her "mother" could go to the spring to get some water, but as the confederate president started out, someone in the Union forces called out to Mrs. Davis. 'What in the hell is your mother wearing spurs for?' Davis ad his horse tied in the woods and was going to make a dash for it"
The capture was made near Irwinville. Ga., on May 10, 1865, and concluded with a brief flurry of fighting between the detail and more of their own forces who were mistaken for Confederate soldiers in the early morning. When the union colonel arrived, Davis' young son marched up to his captor and cried. 'When I'm a man, I'll avenge my father.'
The colonel sent a dispatch to the union general at Macon, who sent a brigade to bring back the captives in case an attempt was made to deliver the southern leader. Mr. Raab was one of the ten men assigned to guard the ambulance until the brigade arrived.
Has Davis' Mirror
He still owns a hand mirror from Davis' effects and for a while had a gray felt hat of Davis, which he is sorry that he threw away a little late when he bought a new hat. He also remembers a story to the effect that in Jefferson Davis' trunk when he was captured was $30,000, which a Union soldier buried until he could come back for it later. He is a little doubtful about the truth of that tale, however.
The veteran remembers that the expedition to capture Davis was generally unpopular, since the Confederate army had been allowed to go home safely, and the opinion even of the soldiers who made the capture was that Davis should have received the same treatment.
The Confederate leader, who Mr. Raab describes as 'a fine man and no more a traitor than any of the others," was imprisoned in Fort Monroe for two years. The veteran recalls that one of Davis' horses-a dapple gray-was brought back to this vicinity by a Lapeer man, who once rode the steed into Flint.
"War is an awful thing," Mr. Raab said the other day." People used to stand up and shoot at each other and then chat back and forth when the shooting stopped I hope the United States will never get into another war."
89 Years Old
The veteran, who will be 89 years old on St. Patrick's day, enlisted in Flint on Jan 5, 1864, and was discharged Aug 15, 1865, in Nashville. Dr. George W. Fish prominent Flint physician and later United States consul At Tunis Africa was his regiment surgeon and Dr. Fish's oldest son was the company commander.
Mr. Raab came through the war without being wounded, although he declares that a bullet once came so close it blistered his nose. He was thrown from his horse however and suffered a spine injury that has troubled him ever since.
He is the only surviving charter member of Gov. Crapo's post of the G. A. R., of which he was president three times. The post now has only seven members, as compared with 400 soon after the war. Mr. Rabb, who came to Flint when he was 10 years old, lived in the Fourth ward when it was a pine forest. He was a supervisor and assessor in the ward for 24 years. A cabinet maker by trade, he made many of the pieces of furniture which are now in his home.
Name: Georg Raab
Year: 1854 Age: 8
Estimated birth year: abt 1846
Place: New York, New York Family Members:
Relative Cath 29;
Relative Georg 8;
Relative Jacob 6 Source Publication Code: 9983.10
Primary Immigrant: Raab, Eberhardt
Annotation: Date and port of arrival. The original lists from Bremen were destroyed in World War II. These lists were created as arrivals in New York, rather than departures from Bremen. Based on Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York,
National Archives Micr Source Bibliography: ZIMMERMAN, GARY J., and MARION WOLFERT, compilers. German Immigrants: Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, 1847-1854, With Places of Origin. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. 175p. Page: 117
Mr. Raab was born on March 17, 1846, in Wetzler, Germany, in the Province of Nassau, the son of Abraham Eberhardt Raab and Elizabeth Catherine Zimmerman.
His father was a tailor by trade and a farmer by calling; he was also a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. Late in life he came to America and spent his last days in Flint; he was seventy-nine years of age at the time of his decease. Abraham Eberhardt Raab brought his family to America in the spring of 1855, making the voyage on the sailing vessel "Republic" in which they were confined for forty-two days, being overtaken by a calm that lasted three weeks. The family was then located in Wyoming County, N.Y., in the town of Strykersville, where the father was employed as a tanner. In 1858 they removed to Flint, Genesee County, Mich., and here Mr. Raab was employed at his own trade, that of a merchant tailor, and lived until 1890 when he removed to Caro, which is now his place of residence. He is sixty-eight years old.
Catherine Raab died in 1876 leaving two children, of whom George is the elder; the younger, Jacob is in the furniture business in Flint. George's family was one of the pioneers in the Fourth Ward, which was then all woods. George attended private school at first then the ward school and later the union schools. At the age of fourteen years, he was apprenticed to learn the cabinetmakers' trade under William Miller, with whom he remained until the fall of 1863 when he enlisted in Company F, Fourth Michigan Calvary. He was mustered in at Detroit and joined his regiment at Nashville. In the spring of 1864, the regiment joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga. He was in many skirmishes and the cavalry he was with participated in many battles. He was taken sick after the engagement of Kenesaw Mountain, in July 1864, and was sent to the hospital in Chattanooga, thence to Columbia, and on being sent back to his regiment, was with a mounted squad that did scout duty throughout that fall. In the spring of 1865, under Col. P. Pritchard, they were at the engagement at Selma, Ala., Double Bridge, and Macon, Ga., and participated in the capture of Jefferson Davis, on May 10, of the same year. George was one of the one hundred and twenty-eight picked men selected for that important duty. He brought back with him from the war a hand mirror, taken from the wardrobe of Jefferson Davis, and he wore the Confederate ex-President's felt hat until the close of the war. Mr. Raab was mustered out of service at Nashville, on August 15, 1865. From injuries received in the army, he now draws a pension of $24 per Month.
Returning to Flint after the war, he again resumed his trade and in 1867 removed to Lawrence, Van Buren County, where he started a furniture store and conducted it for four years. While there, on May 9, 1869, he was married to Miss Hattie E. Tomlinson, who was born in Branch County. She is the daughter of Alex. E. Tomlinson, an English gentleman, was one of the early pioneers of that portion of the State.
In 1871 Mr. Raab sold out his effects and interests in Lawrence and returned to Flint. He resumed his trade and helped finish the State School for the Deaf. In 1872 he went to Holly and for four years was engaged in the furniture trade there, but was again attracted back to Flint and this time opened a grocery store at the foot of Hazelton Street, in partnership with John Zimmerman. They were burned out two years later and then in partnership with his brother Jacob, started a cabinet-making shop, running it until 1884, and then opened a grocery at the corner of Asylum and Glenwood Avenues, and with Richard Hughes as a partner. They continued in business for two years, when he sold out, and has since been engaged in handling sewing machines. For the past five years, he has been on the road constantly. The open-air exercise was beneficial to his health, which has never been robust since his army service. He now handles Stanley's book in this county.
George and his wife are the parents of six children, M. Bertha, a teacher in the county; Myrthis A., a teacher in the city schools; Alice C.; Irving; Ethel E. and Arthur.
He has been the Supervisor of the Fourth Ward since 1883. Socially he belongs to the Odd Fellows and also to the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Mason and in his political liking is a true Republican.
BIOGRAPHY: George Raab is the son of Eberhardt Raab and wife, who came to the United States from Prussia in I856 and settled in Flint, this county, establishing their home in that portion of the city now comprised in the fourth ward, but which then contained but two houses. There they spent the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of fifty and the father living to the age of seventy-four. They had two sons, George Jacob and Jacob George.
George Raab was nine years old when he came to this country with his parents and he grew up at Flint, becoming a proficient cabinet-maker. In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, and served with that command until mustered out at the end of the war in I865. He was one of the details commissioned to capture Jefferson Davis and still has in his possession a small hand-mirror taken when the vanquished president of the Confederacy was captured. Upon the completion; of his military service George Raab returned to Flint and resumed work at his trade. Presently he went to Holly, where he worked for some time, but afterward returned to Flint, where he began clerking in a furniture store, later engaging in the grocery business and then became the local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. For twenty-five years Mr. Raab has served as a member of the board of county supervisors from the fourth ward, city of Flint, and it was he who introduced the resolution for the erection of the present Genesee county court house. He is an Odd Fellow and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. Mrs. Raab is a daughter of Ernest Tomlinson and wife, both now deceased, who were the parents of eight children, William, John, Warren, Marietta, Myrtis, Orpha, Frank and Harriet. Ernest Tomlinson came to this country from England, married in the East and then came to Michigan, settling near Fulton in pioneer days. He was a well-to-do farmer and was the founder of the town of Sherwood. He died at the age of seventy-five, after which his widow moved to California, where she lived to the age of eighty-five years.
Flint Man is Sole Survivor of Detachment Which captured Jeff Davis at Close of Civil War; Will be 89 in March
Solve survivor of the detail which captured Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy, at the close of the civil war, George Raab recalls his war adventures of 70 years ago as though they were yesterday.
Sitting in his home at Sylvan court he recounts with unflagging zest the story of how the Fourth Michigan cavalry and the First Wisconsin were sent to capture Jefferson Davis, who was supposed to be going to Florida coast and hence to England.
It is a colorful story as he relates it. From the two regiments, 130 men, of whom he was one, were sent ahead to surround Davis's camp early in the morning. The Davis expedition was a small one -including only Mr. and Mrs. Davis, their two children, two of the Confederate cabinet members and some Negro servants, all traveling in an ambulance in which the slept.
Tells of Capture
"When we came up, Jeff Davis came out dressed in a long water proof coat, with a woman's shawl over his head and a water pail over his arm," Mr. Raab recounts." Mrs. Davis called to ask if her "mother" could go to the spring to get some water, but as the confederate president started out, someone in the Union forces called out to Mrs. Davis. 'What in the hell is your mother wearing spurs for?' Davis ad his horse tied in the woods and was going to make a dash for it"
The capture was made near Irwinville. Ga., on May 10, 1865, and concluded with a brief flurry of fighting between the detail and more of their own forces who were mistaken for Confederate soldiers in the early morning. When the union colonel arrived, Davis' young son marched up to his captor and cried. 'When I'm a man, I'll avenge my father.'
The colonel sent a dispatch to the union general at Macon, who sent a brigade to bring back the captives in case an attempt was made to deliver the southern leader. Mr. Raab was one of the ten men assigned to guard the ambulance until the brigade arrived.
Has Davis' Mirror
He still owns a hand mirror from Davis' effects and for a while had a gray felt hat of Davis, which he is sorry that he threw away a little late when he bought a new hat. He also remembers a story to the effect that in Jefferson Davis' trunk when he was captured was $30,000, which a Union soldier buried until he could come back for it later. He is a little doubtful about the truth of that tale, however.
The veteran remembers that the expedition to capture Davis was generally unpopular, since the Confederate army had been allowed to go home safely, and the opinion even of the soldiers who made the capture was that Davis should have received the same treatment.
The Confederate leader, who Mr. Raab describes as 'a fine man and no more a traitor than any of the others," was imprisoned in Fort Monroe for two years. The veteran recalls that one of Davis' horses-a dapple gray-was brought back to this vicinity by a Lapeer man, who once rode the steed into Flint.
"War is an awful thing," Mr. Raab said the other day." People used to stand up and shoot at each other and then chat back and forth when the shooting stopped I hope the United States will never get into another war."
89 Years Old
The veteran, who will be 89 years old on St. Patrick's day, enlisted in Flint on Jan 5, 1864, and was discharged Aug 15, 1865, in Nashville. Dr. George W. Fish prominent Flint physician and later United States consul At Tunis Africa was his regiment surgeon and Dr. Fish's oldest son was the company commander.
Mr. Raab came through the war without being wounded, although he declares that a bullet once came so close it blistered his nose. He was thrown from his horse however and suffered a spine injury that has troubled him ever since.
He is the only surviving charter member of Gov. Crapo's post of the G. A. R., of which he was president three times. The post now has only seven members, as compared with 400 soon after the war. Mr. Rabb, who came to Flint when he was 10 years old, lived in the Fourth ward when it was a pine forest. He was a supervisor and assessor in the ward for 24 years. A cabinet maker by trade, he made many of the pieces of furniture which are now in his home.
Name: Georg Raab
Year: 1854 Age: 8
Estimated birth year: abt 1846
Place: New York, New York Family Members:
Relative Cath 29;
Relative Georg 8;
Relative Jacob 6 Source Publication Code: 9983.10
Primary Immigrant: Raab, Eberhardt
Annotation: Date and port of arrival. The original lists from Bremen were destroyed in World War II. These lists were created as arrivals in New York, rather than departures from Bremen. Based on Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York,
National Archives Micr Source Bibliography: ZIMMERMAN, GARY J., and MARION WOLFERT, compilers. German Immigrants: Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, 1847-1854, With Places of Origin. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. 175p. Page: 117
George Jacob Raab was the popular Supervisor of the Fourth Ward of Flint, whose claim to public consideration is well founded upon his bravery and loyalty as a soldier, who served his country faithfully in the late war, and who was in the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. As a supplementary work, he handles at present time Stanley's remarkable book.
Mr. Raab was born on March 17, 1846, in Wetzler, Germany, in the Province of Nassau, the son of Abraham Eberhardt Raab and Elizabeth Catherine Zimmerman.
His father was a tailor by trade and a farmer by calling; he was also a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. Late in life he came to America and spent his last days in Flint; he was seventy-nine years of age at the time of his decease. Abraham Eberhardt Raab brought his family to America in the spring of 1855, making the voyage on the sailing vessel "Republic" in which they were confined for forty-two days, being overtaken by a calm that lasted three weeks. The family was then located in Wyoming County, N.Y., in the town of Strykersville, where the father was employed as a tanner. In 1858 they removed to Flint, Genesee County, Mich., and here Mr. Raab was employed at his own trade, that of a merchant tailor, and lived until 1890 when he removed to Caro, which is now his place of residence. He is sixty-eight years old.
Catherine Raab died in 1876 leaving two children, of whom George is the elder; the younger, Jacob is in the furniture business in Flint. George's family was one of the pioneers in the Fourth Ward, which was then all woods. George attended private school at first then the ward school and later the union schools. At the age of fourteen years, he was apprenticed to learn the cabinetmakers' trade under William Miller, with whom he remained until the fall of 1863 when he enlisted in Company F, Fourth Michigan Calvary. He was mustered in at Detroit and joined his regiment at Nashville. In the spring of 1864, the regiment joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga. He was in many skirmishes and the cavalry he was with participated in many battles. He was taken sick after the engagement of Kenesaw Mountain, in July 1864, and was sent to the hospital in Chattanooga, thence to Columbia, and on being sent back to his regiment, was with a mounted squad that did scout duty throughout that fall. In the spring of 1865, under Col. P. Pritchard, they were at the engagement at Selma, Ala., Double Bridge, and Macon, Ga., and participated in the capture of Jefferson Davis, on May 10, of the same year. George was one of the one hundred and twenty-eight picked men selected for that important duty. He brought back with him from the war a hand mirror, taken from the wardrobe of Jefferson Davis, and he wore the Confederate ex-President's felt hat until the close of the war. Mr. Raab was mustered out of service at Nashville, on August 15, 1865. From injuries received in the army, he now draws a pension of $24 per Month.
Returning to Flint after the war, he again resumed his trade and in 1867 removed to Lawrence, Van Buren County, where he started a furniture store and conducted it for four years. While there, on May 9, 1869, he was married to Miss Hattie E. Tomlinson, who was born in Branch County. She is the daughter of Alex. E. Tomlinson, an English gentleman, was one of the early pioneers of that portion of the State.
In 1871 Mr. Raab sold out his effects and interests in Lawrence and returned to Flint. He resumed his trade and helped finish the State School for the Deaf. In 1872 he went to Holly and for four years was engaged in the furniture trade there, but was again attracted back to Flint and this time opened a grocery store at the foot of Hazelton Street, in partnership with John Zimmerman. They were burned out two years later and then in partnership with his brother Jacob, started a cabinet-making shop, running it until 1884, and then opened a grocery at the corner of Asylum and Glenwood Avenues, and with Richard Hughes as a partner. They continued in business for two years, when he sold out, and has since been engaged in handling sewing machines. For the past five years, he has been on the road constantly. The open-air exercise was beneficial to his health, which has never been robust since his army service. He now handles Stanley's book in this county.
George and his wife are the parents of six children, M. Bertha, a teacher in the county; Myrthis A., a teacher in the city schools; Alice C.; Irving; Ethel E. and Arthur.
He has been the Supervisor of the Fourth Ward since 1883. Socially he belongs to the Odd Fellows and also to the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Mason and in his political liking is a true Republican.
BIOGRAPHY: George Raab is the son of Eberhardt Raab and wife, who came to the United States from Prussia in I856 and settled in Flint, this county, establishing their home in that portion of the city now comprised in the fourth ward, but which then contained but two houses. There they spent the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of fifty and the father living to the age of seventy-four. They had two sons, George Jacob and Jacob George.
George Raab was nine years old when he came to this country with his parents and he grew up at Flint, becoming a proficient cabinet-maker. In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, and served with that command until mustered out at the end of the war in I865. He was one of the details commissioned to capture Jefferson Davis and still has in his possession a small hand-mirror taken when the vanquished president of the Confederacy was captured. Upon the completion; of his military service George Raab returned to Flint and resumed work at his trade. Presently he went to Holly, where he worked for some time, but afterward returned to Flint, where he began clerking in a furniture store, later engaging in the grocery business and then became the local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. For twenty-five years Mr. Raab has served as a member of the board of county supervisors from the fourth ward, city of Flint, and it was he who introduced the resolution for the erection of the present Genesee county court house. He is an Odd Fellow and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. Mrs. Raab is a daughter of Ernest Tomlinson and wife, both now deceased, who were the parents of eight children, William, John, Warren, Marietta, Myrtis, Orpha, Frank and Harriet. Ernest Tomlinson came to this country from England, married in the East and then came to Michigan, settling near Fulton in pioneer days. He was a well-to-do farmer and was the founder of the town of Sherwood. He died at the age of seventy-five, after which his widow moved to California, where she lived to the age of eighty-five years.
Flint Man is Sole Survivor of Detachment Which captured Jeff Davis at Close of Civil War; Will be 89 in March
Solve survivor of the detail which captured Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy, at the close of the civil war, George Raab recalls his war adventures of 70 years ago as though they were yesterday.
Sitting in his home at Sylvan court he recounts with unflagging zest the story of how the Fourth Michigan cavalry and the First Wisconsin were sent to capture Jefferson Davis, who was supposed to be going to Florida coast and hence to England.
It is a colorful story as he relates it. From the two regiments, 130 men, of whom he was one, were sent ahead to surround Davis's camp early in the morning. The Davis expedition was a small one -including only Mr. and Mrs. Davis, their two children, two of the Confederate cabinet members and some Negro servants, all traveling in an ambulance in which the slept.
Tells of Capture
"When we came up, Jeff Davis came out dressed in a long water proof coat, with a woman's shawl over his head and a water pail over his arm," Mr. Raab recounts." Mrs. Davis called to ask if her "mother" could go to the spring to get some water, but as the confederate president started out, someone in the Union forces called out to Mrs. Davis. 'What in the hell is your mother wearing spurs for?' Davis ad his horse tied in the woods and was going to make a dash for it"
The capture was made near Irwinville. Ga., on May 10, 1865, and concluded with a brief flurry of fighting between the detail and more of their own forces who were mistaken for Confederate soldiers in the early morning. When the union colonel arrived, Davis' young son marched up to his captor and cried. 'When I'm a man, I'll avenge my father.'
The colonel sent a dispatch to the union general at Macon, who sent a brigade to bring back the captives in case an attempt was made to deliver the southern leader. Mr. Raab was one of the ten men assigned to guard the ambulance until the brigade arrived.
Has Davis' Mirror
He still owns a hand mirror from Davis' effects and for a while had a gray felt hat of Davis, which he is sorry that he threw away a little late when he bought a new hat. He also remembers a story to the effect that in Jefferson Davis' trunk when he was captured was $30,000, which a Union soldier buried until he could come back for it later. He is a little doubtful about the truth of that tale, however.
The veteran remembers that the expedition to capture Davis was generally unpopular, since the Confederate army had been allowed to go home safely, and the opinion even of the soldiers who made the capture was that Davis should have received the same treatment.
The Confederate leader, who Mr. Raab describes as 'a fine man and no more a traitor than any of the others," was imprisoned in Fort Monroe for two years. The veteran recalls that one of Davis' horses-a dapple gray-was brought back to this vicinity by a Lapeer man, who once rode the steed into Flint.
"War is an awful thing," Mr. Raab said the other day." People used to stand up and shoot at each other and then chat back and forth when the shooting stopped I hope the United States will never get into another war."
89 Years Old
The veteran, who will be 89 years old on St. Patrick's day, enlisted in Flint on Jan 5, 1864, and was discharged Aug 15, 1865, in Nashville. Dr. George W. Fish prominent Flint physician and later United States consul At Tunis Africa was his regiment surgeon and Dr. Fish's oldest son was the company commander.
Mr. Raab came through the war without being wounded, although he declares that a bullet once came so close it blistered his nose. He was thrown from his horse however and suffered a spine injury that has troubled him ever since.
He is the only surviving charter member of Gov. Crapo's post of the G. A. R., of which he was president three times. The post now has only seven members, as compared with 400 soon after the war. Mr. Rabb, who came to Flint when he was 10 years old, lived in the Fourth ward when it was a pine forest. He was a supervisor and assessor in the ward for 24 years. A cabinet maker by trade, he made many of the pieces of furniture which are now in his home.
Name: Georg Raab
Year: 1854 Age: 8
Estimated birth year: abt 1846
Place: New York, New York Family Members:
Relative Cath 29;
Relative Georg 8;
Relative Jacob 6 Source Publication Code: 9983.10
Primary Immigrant: Raab, Eberhardt
Annotation: Date and port of arrival. The original lists from Bremen were destroyed in World War II. These lists were created as arrivals in New York, rather than departures from Bremen. Based on Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York,
National Archives Micr Source Bibliography: ZIMMERMAN, GARY J., and MARION WOLFERT, compilers. German Immigrants: Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, 1847-1854, With Places of Origin. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. 175p. Page: 117
Mr. Raab was born on March 17, 1846, in Wetzler, Germany, in the Province of Nassau, the son of Abraham Eberhardt Raab and Elizabeth Catherine Zimmerman.
His father was a tailor by trade and a farmer by calling; he was also a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. Late in life he came to America and spent his last days in Flint; he was seventy-nine years of age at the time of his decease. Abraham Eberhardt Raab brought his family to America in the spring of 1855, making the voyage on the sailing vessel "Republic" in which they were confined for forty-two days, being overtaken by a calm that lasted three weeks. The family was then located in Wyoming County, N.Y., in the town of Strykersville, where the father was employed as a tanner. In 1858 they removed to Flint, Genesee County, Mich., and here Mr. Raab was employed at his own trade, that of a merchant tailor, and lived until 1890 when he removed to Caro, which is now his place of residence. He is sixty-eight years old.
Catherine Raab died in 1876 leaving two children, of whom George is the elder; the younger, Jacob is in the furniture business in Flint. George's family was one of the pioneers in the Fourth Ward, which was then all woods. George attended private school at first then the ward school and later the union schools. At the age of fourteen years, he was apprenticed to learn the cabinetmakers' trade under William Miller, with whom he remained until the fall of 1863 when he enlisted in Company F, Fourth Michigan Calvary. He was mustered in at Detroit and joined his regiment at Nashville. In the spring of 1864, the regiment joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga. He was in many skirmishes and the cavalry he was with participated in many battles. He was taken sick after the engagement of Kenesaw Mountain, in July 1864, and was sent to the hospital in Chattanooga, thence to Columbia, and on being sent back to his regiment, was with a mounted squad that did scout duty throughout that fall. In the spring of 1865, under Col. P. Pritchard, they were at the engagement at Selma, Ala., Double Bridge, and Macon, Ga., and participated in the capture of Jefferson Davis, on May 10, of the same year. George was one of the one hundred and twenty-eight picked men selected for that important duty. He brought back with him from the war a hand mirror, taken from the wardrobe of Jefferson Davis, and he wore the Confederate ex-President's felt hat until the close of the war. Mr. Raab was mustered out of service at Nashville, on August 15, 1865. From injuries received in the army, he now draws a pension of $24 per Month.
Returning to Flint after the war, he again resumed his trade and in 1867 removed to Lawrence, Van Buren County, where he started a furniture store and conducted it for four years. While there, on May 9, 1869, he was married to Miss Hattie E. Tomlinson, who was born in Branch County. She is the daughter of Alex. E. Tomlinson, an English gentleman, was one of the early pioneers of that portion of the State.
In 1871 Mr. Raab sold out his effects and interests in Lawrence and returned to Flint. He resumed his trade and helped finish the State School for the Deaf. In 1872 he went to Holly and for four years was engaged in the furniture trade there, but was again attracted back to Flint and this time opened a grocery store at the foot of Hazelton Street, in partnership with John Zimmerman. They were burned out two years later and then in partnership with his brother Jacob, started a cabinet-making shop, running it until 1884, and then opened a grocery at the corner of Asylum and Glenwood Avenues, and with Richard Hughes as a partner. They continued in business for two years, when he sold out, and has since been engaged in handling sewing machines. For the past five years, he has been on the road constantly. The open-air exercise was beneficial to his health, which has never been robust since his army service. He now handles Stanley's book in this county.
George and his wife are the parents of six children, M. Bertha, a teacher in the county; Myrthis A., a teacher in the city schools; Alice C.; Irving; Ethel E. and Arthur.
He has been the Supervisor of the Fourth Ward since 1883. Socially he belongs to the Odd Fellows and also to the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Mason and in his political liking is a true Republican.
BIOGRAPHY: George Raab is the son of Eberhardt Raab and wife, who came to the United States from Prussia in I856 and settled in Flint, this county, establishing their home in that portion of the city now comprised in the fourth ward, but which then contained but two houses. There they spent the rest of their lives, the mother dying at the age of fifty and the father living to the age of seventy-four. They had two sons, George Jacob and Jacob George.
George Raab was nine years old when he came to this country with his parents and he grew up at Flint, becoming a proficient cabinet-maker. In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, and served with that command until mustered out at the end of the war in I865. He was one of the details commissioned to capture Jefferson Davis and still has in his possession a small hand-mirror taken when the vanquished president of the Confederacy was captured. Upon the completion; of his military service George Raab returned to Flint and resumed work at his trade. Presently he went to Holly, where he worked for some time, but afterward returned to Flint, where he began clerking in a furniture store, later engaging in the grocery business and then became the local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. For twenty-five years Mr. Raab has served as a member of the board of county supervisors from the fourth ward, city of Flint, and it was he who introduced the resolution for the erection of the present Genesee county court house. He is an Odd Fellow and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. Mrs. Raab is a daughter of Ernest Tomlinson and wife, both now deceased, who were the parents of eight children, William, John, Warren, Marietta, Myrtis, Orpha, Frank and Harriet. Ernest Tomlinson came to this country from England, married in the East and then came to Michigan, settling near Fulton in pioneer days. He was a well-to-do farmer and was the founder of the town of Sherwood. He died at the age of seventy-five, after which his widow moved to California, where she lived to the age of eighty-five years.
Flint Man is Sole Survivor of Detachment Which captured Jeff Davis at Close of Civil War; Will be 89 in March
Solve survivor of the detail which captured Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy, at the close of the civil war, George Raab recalls his war adventures of 70 years ago as though they were yesterday.
Sitting in his home at Sylvan court he recounts with unflagging zest the story of how the Fourth Michigan cavalry and the First Wisconsin were sent to capture Jefferson Davis, who was supposed to be going to Florida coast and hence to England.
It is a colorful story as he relates it. From the two regiments, 130 men, of whom he was one, were sent ahead to surround Davis's camp early in the morning. The Davis expedition was a small one -including only Mr. and Mrs. Davis, their two children, two of the Confederate cabinet members and some Negro servants, all traveling in an ambulance in which the slept.
Tells of Capture
"When we came up, Jeff Davis came out dressed in a long water proof coat, with a woman's shawl over his head and a water pail over his arm," Mr. Raab recounts." Mrs. Davis called to ask if her "mother" could go to the spring to get some water, but as the confederate president started out, someone in the Union forces called out to Mrs. Davis. 'What in the hell is your mother wearing spurs for?' Davis ad his horse tied in the woods and was going to make a dash for it"
The capture was made near Irwinville. Ga., on May 10, 1865, and concluded with a brief flurry of fighting between the detail and more of their own forces who were mistaken for Confederate soldiers in the early morning. When the union colonel arrived, Davis' young son marched up to his captor and cried. 'When I'm a man, I'll avenge my father.'
The colonel sent a dispatch to the union general at Macon, who sent a brigade to bring back the captives in case an attempt was made to deliver the southern leader. Mr. Raab was one of the ten men assigned to guard the ambulance until the brigade arrived.
Has Davis' Mirror
He still owns a hand mirror from Davis' effects and for a while had a gray felt hat of Davis, which he is sorry that he threw away a little late when he bought a new hat. He also remembers a story to the effect that in Jefferson Davis' trunk when he was captured was $30,000, which a Union soldier buried until he could come back for it later. He is a little doubtful about the truth of that tale, however.
The veteran remembers that the expedition to capture Davis was generally unpopular, since the Confederate army had been allowed to go home safely, and the opinion even of the soldiers who made the capture was that Davis should have received the same treatment.
The Confederate leader, who Mr. Raab describes as 'a fine man and no more a traitor than any of the others," was imprisoned in Fort Monroe for two years. The veteran recalls that one of Davis' horses-a dapple gray-was brought back to this vicinity by a Lapeer man, who once rode the steed into Flint.
"War is an awful thing," Mr. Raab said the other day." People used to stand up and shoot at each other and then chat back and forth when the shooting stopped I hope the United States will never get into another war."
89 Years Old
The veteran, who will be 89 years old on St. Patrick's day, enlisted in Flint on Jan 5, 1864, and was discharged Aug 15, 1865, in Nashville. Dr. George W. Fish prominent Flint physician and later United States consul At Tunis Africa was his regiment surgeon and Dr. Fish's oldest son was the company commander.
Mr. Raab came through the war without being wounded, although he declares that a bullet once came so close it blistered his nose. He was thrown from his horse however and suffered a spine injury that has troubled him ever since.
He is the only surviving charter member of Gov. Crapo's post of the G. A. R., of which he was president three times. The post now has only seven members, as compared with 400 soon after the war. Mr. Rabb, who came to Flint when he was 10 years old, lived in the Fourth ward when it was a pine forest. He was a supervisor and assessor in the ward for 24 years. A cabinet maker by trade, he made many of the pieces of furniture which are now in his home.
Name: Georg Raab
Year: 1854 Age: 8
Estimated birth year: abt 1846
Place: New York, New York Family Members:
Relative Cath 29;
Relative Georg 8;
Relative Jacob 6 Source Publication Code: 9983.10
Primary Immigrant: Raab, Eberhardt
Annotation: Date and port of arrival. The original lists from Bremen were destroyed in World War II. These lists were created as arrivals in New York, rather than departures from Bremen. Based on Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving in New York,
National Archives Micr Source Bibliography: ZIMMERMAN, GARY J., and MARION WOLFERT, compilers. German Immigrants: Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, 1847-1854, With Places of Origin. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987. 175p. Page: 117
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