2nd great-grandfather of Norma Overton

Private     Co. H    55th OH Infantry
Dates of Service:  3 Dec 1861 - 11 Jul 1865

Johann Leonard Koenig was born on January 2, 1828 , in the small town of Winterbach, located in Wurtenburg-Badan Germany.  At the age of 25 he applied for emigration to the United States.  He came into this country and settled in Bloomville, Seneca County, Ohio.  He met and married his wife, Caroline Shock (Schaak), on March 31, 1857.  He purchased 40 acres of farm land just across the county line in Lykens Township, Crawford County, OH.
 
Johann like most immigrants came over to this country in search of a better life.  Many of the German and Irish immigrants were persecuted after they got here, maybe that is why Johann changed his name legally to John Leonard King.
 
What I admire about my great great grandfather is he was only in this country five (5) years when the war broke out between the North and the South.  He came for freedom and ended up enlisting on December 3, 1861 in the 55th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, probably for a cause he couldn’t have felt a strong passion for. Records state he could speak the English language but couldn’t read or write it.  This must have been interesting not being able to write letters home to his wife unless they both wrote in German.  When he enlisted, John left behind a young wife and three small children.  He stood 5’ 7” tall, light brown hair and blue eyes.  Records state that in January of 1863 he incurred severe exposure during inclement weather when he was on picket duty resulting in frost bite to both feet which he never fully recovered.  On May 15, 1864 , during the battle of Resaca, GA, he was hit in the left knee from a spent bullet.  He was first treated at hospital in Savannah, GA and later sent to military hospital in Nashville, TN, where he stayed for four months.  After treatment he was sent back to his regiment but assigned to cooking and other light-duties until he was mustered out on July 11, 1865 and came back home to Lykens Township.  My grandfather also fought with the 55th Ohio in the battles at Chancellorsville.  Records show he went back 3 separate times to fight for the cause.   
 
My great grandmother, Samantha Almenia, wasn’t born until 1868.  Children born to this union between John and Caroline were:  Eliza, William, Mary, John W., Samantha, Charles, James, and Mirtie.   His wife died in 1876, at the young age of 36, leaving him with 8 small children to raise.  It wasn’t until November 26, 1891, that he remarried a widow woman by the name of Margaret Woods.  Some time between 1877 and 1891 John moved to Continental, Ohio in Putnam County.
 
In 1900 he applied for and was granted a disability pension from the war department. John Leonard King died on December 18, 1905, and is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery.
 
I had visited his grave site several years ago and at the time his headstone had a Spanish American War Dept. flag holder and he was listed as serving in the Spanish American War.  I thought at the time that he was a little old but there was really no age requirement at that time.  It wasn’t until a distant cousin emailed me doing genealogy research that I discovered that my great great grandfather served with the 55th Ohio Volunteers.  
 
John L. King’s daughter, Samantha Almenia, married Charles Kunzi in Ohio and eventually moved to North Plains Township, Hubbardston, Ionia County, MI in early 1900s. They had 13 children, one of whom, Myrtle Pearl, was my grandmother and the rest is history.
 
GRAVESITE: Mount Zion Cemetery, Putnam Co., OH
Written by Norma Overton, May 2007