Cyrenius Waite James
SOURCE: Submitted by Eric James
CYRENIUS WAITE JAMES. 1831-1911, was a small man of 5'7", auburn colored hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion. Little is known about his boyhood, except for the fact that he was born to a family of Baptistpreachers and planters dating back to 1650, Culpeper County, Virginia;and he had 22 brothers, sisters, and step-brothers & step-sisters. As he approached the age of 20, he married Amanda Jane HALL on March 18, 1851,near Somerset, Pulaski Co., Kentucky. He and his family moved toChampaign County, Illinois in 1857. On August 1, 1862, Cyrenius enlisted as a Private in "Company B of the79th Regiment of Illinois Infantry," a volunteer corps, at Tuscola, Illinois. The company was commanded by Allen Buckner. Why this southern planter volunteered to fight on the side of the Union, when other brothers in his family were siding with the Confederacy, can only be surmised. Living in Illinois, particularly with Abraham Lincoln as a neighbor, might have proved a strong influence. Since colonial times,his ancestors always courted political savvy. His cousin Andrew Jackson "A. J." JAMES was an attorney, judge, Secretary of State, and state legislator in Kentucky for many years. No doubt, Cyrenius thought itgood reasoning to fight on the side that governed where he lived. At Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on December 31, 1862, Cyrenius was captured. He was a prisoner of war until April 30, 1863, at which time he returned to his company. From September to October 1864, his company was back in action. He had been promoted to Corporal. In the battle of Lovejoy Station, Georgia, he was wounded in the left leg. On June 12, 1865, he was mustereted out with his company at Nashville, Tennessee as a Corporal. While he was a prisoner of war, a family story goes that he was at Murietta, Georgia. He said that he had seen the ghost of his 2 -year old daughter one night in a dream. Ironically, at the same time, his two year old daughter died from choking on a grain of corn. The military record does not prove the location of his incarceration. But the story has been passed through the generations. He had also contracted a chronic case of diarrhia, which later developed into a severe case of bleeding hemorrhoids which left him totally disabled to do any work. After his honorable discharge from the army, Cyrenius returned to his Illinois home. He received a disability of $4.00 per month. But, up to the day he died, he had to fight the government he volunteered to defend to raise his pension to $20.00, having appealed the issue repeatedly for46 years. By 1869, most of Cyrenius' children had moved to Texas. Cyrenius, foundhimself too disabled to farm, and with little family support. He thenmoved his remaining family to Texas. They first settled in JohnsonCounty on Mountain Creek. Then in 1872, they moved to Rhome, Wise County, about six miles northeast of Rhome. Amanda Jane HALL, his wife,died there on September 19, 1892 at the age of 60 years. A few yearsafter she died, Cyrenius married again to Mary J. at Thrumond Fairview Cemetery, an area formerly known as the "Illinois Settlement." The sitenow is an historical site and a marker recognizes the settlers who cameto that area of Texas from Illinois. Of all Cyrenius' children, only Mary Martha JAMES remained in Illinois, buried at the age of three in Old Taylor Cemetery, in Tuscola. Cyrenius Waite JAMES died July 8, 1911.