William W. Sanders

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William W. Sanders

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Co. G, 98th OH. Infantry
William Cutler wrote the following about this gentleman:
W. W. SANDERS, Cashier of Chase County National Bank, Cottonwood Falls, was born December 24, 1840, at Mifflin, Pa.; during the next summer his parents removed to Belmont County, Ohio, locating near St. Clairsville. His mother died when he was only a little over nine years of age and he was from that time thrown among strangers, but fate cast his lines in pleasant places and he lived with a fine family named Bickham, residing five miles north of St. Clairsville. He applied himself especially to mathematics and other branches fitting himself for a teacher in which he engaged in his nineteenth year. He attend Franklin College at New Athena in 1860, and in May, 1862, he graduated from Duff's Commercial College, Pittsburg. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Ninety-eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteers. His regiment was in the Second Brigade, Second Division, Jeff. C. Davis, of the Fourteenth Corps. On the 7th of October he was wounded below the left knee at the battle of Perry Hill. This wound confined him to the hospital until January, 1863, when he rejoined his regiment at Franklin, Tenn. He participated in the battle of Chickamauga in which his company lost several men and the regiment lost nearly all its commanding officers, yet held its ground long after the loss of all its ammunition and retreated to Rossville, thence to Chattanooga. He was in the charge upon Missionary Ridge, and went towards Knoxville to relieve Burnside, camped for the winter at Chattanooga. Was with Sherman's army in all its Atlanta campaign, and in the fight at Jonesboro, was wounded by a minnie ball in the right thigh joint. Was sent to Atlanta and was discharged March 16, 1865. Had the ball extracted August 22, 1866. In 1867 he removed to Washington, Ohio, and took charge of a grocery store. During the years 1868 and 1869 he was principal of the Union School, but was compelled by ill health to resign this position and then came to Kansas. Located at Cottonwood Falls in March, 1871, and in the fall of that year he was elected County Surveyor, and re-elected in 1872, and again elected to the position in 1881. At the time of his election by the directors of the bank to his present position he was County Surveyor and also clerking in the store of Doolittle & Son. The election was a complete surprise to him as he had never applied for the office. It was purely a just recognition of his honesty and business qualities. Mr. Sanders is a member and elder of the United Presbyterian Church. He married Miss Ella M. McDowel, of St. Clairsville, Ohio, April 3, 1867, by whom he has four children - John B., Charles M., Bella M. and Nellie A.



George F. Pond




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Co. C, 3rd WI. Cavalry
Medal of Honor Recepient
Mr. Pond and two of his brothers enlisted at Fairwater, Fond du Lac Co., Wis., October, 1861, in the same Company C of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, and served until the close of the war. His eldest brother entered the service as Second Lieutenant, and was mustered out as Major of his regiment; his next eldest brother entered as a Sergeant and was mustered out as Second Lieutenant of his company. Mr. Pond himself preferred scouting duty to monotonous service of a soldier's life, which in a measure accounts for his non-promotion. He has frequently carried dispatches in company with one of his comrades from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson, without any rations or forage except what could be carried on their horses. The distance is 175 miles, and a trail went through the Indian Territory, and the journey was frequently made in three nights and two days. He participated in the battles of Montevallo, Honey Springs, Cain Hill, Lexington, Little and Big Blue, the massacre of Baxter Springs and numerous other minor engagements. Mr. Pond had the honor of capturing the notorious guerrilla, Captain Fa. Price, a nephew of the rebel Maj. Gen. Price. On the night of May 20, 1863, Mr. Pond in company with two of his comrades attacked Capt. Henry Taylor, a noted bushwhacker, who had sixty men under his command, and who was returning with nineteen Union prisoners captured by him in Kansas, to Missouri, and who had stopped on his way to rob and plunder the house of J. C. Ury, a famous Union scout. Mr. Ury and his father were taken prisoners by the rebel band. Mr. Pond and his comrades succeeded in stampeding the rebels, and in releasing all the prisoners taken by them except the father of Mr. Ury, who was slain in cold blood.

Talkin' Ned Cobb Blues




Image by Brian Hathcock

Ned Cobb was a good man who hid his name for no good reason when a white college kid paid a visit in the middle of his busy season and said

"I'm recording the voices of poor ol' boys and maybe you'd like to be heard."

"Yes, sir, the voice of the blowin' wind is too soft for Tallapoosa."

He'd been bewildered and confused by three hundred years of abuse. Cursed into the womb by his worn out father, Ned was taught to go no farther than the plow at his shoes. So he pushed the dirt, but also plucked the feathers from the absurd Jim Crow bird.

"I'm not afraid of Alabama! Hear the howlin' train that carries my new bosses home! Walk in the sullen field they gave me in the corner! In the corner turn around and listen—my masters' tongues whip and moan.

"My cotton was stolen for a fistful of nickels by those foul, fickle bastards. The Union helped us weave ourselves some dignity from the tatters of our dusty, brown souls. So we did, and my loyalty to anything else ain't never comin' back.

"And now I'm old. By the same rail track, in the rusty arms of this wooden barn, I remember. The white men said, 'That nigger ain't a thing more than his daddy was, but a displaced slave too bold.'

"But I came up. I don't hold anything against those who treated me ill, though they might hate me still. I was the man I wanted to be. The man my masters didn't want to say was real. I became the man I needed."


.Written by me, alcohol and all, in 2007.

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Ned Cobb (1885-1973) was a black man in Alabama during the first seven decades of the 20th century. He is also known as Nate Shaw. Ned succeeded in life despite mistreatment and the horrible racism of the American South during the Jim Crow years. He fought constantly against the blackguards who hated his skin. The man is an inspiration.

The college kid I mention in my above free verse is Theodore Rosengarten, who wrote a most interesting biography of Ned. All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw is about 600 pages, but I wrote a much shorter summary of Nate's struggle, which can be read here.

© 2007, words and photo by Brian Hathcock. Leave it be unless you talk with me first.