<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>More from Florence Courtney Melton ( I hope the hyper
links are still valid):</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=+1> In the summer of 1861, [Jacob] Houk
enlisted; also George French, Mary's intended husband. Baxter was not old
enough to enlist. That was all that kept him at home. Mother worked
in the house and outside, and she cried a great deal. She would read the
papers until midnight. My two sisters taught school. Mother kept
Frank Houk. [<FONT color=#009900>Note: Baxter Franklin Houk was the first
of Jacob's son's. He was born 28 JAN 1860 in nr Shakopee, Scott Co.,
MN.</FONT>] The spring of 1863 some of the boys came home on furlough, and
Mary and Mr. French were married in April. I believe the twentieth.
[<FONT color=#009900>Note: my record have 31 MAR 1864</FONT>] That summer
he was wounded in the battle of Chattanooga and died some time later at Rome,
Georgia. Brother Jake was taken prisoner about this time but was held for
only a few months. In 1864 Baxter enlisted. Mother's cup of sorrow
was running over. [Jacob] Houk was a prisoner and hadn't been heard from
for months. George French was dead. Her two boys were gone.
Baxter was only eighteen. Father could not be trusted to go in the field
nor anywhere alone. One day, I remember well, Father lay down to rest a
few minutes and had one of those spasms. It was on his mind to go to the
field, and go he would. Mother was washing; she had to go with him.
He was out of his head. She told me to stay at the house and take care of
Frank until she came back. I think I was seven. We stayed alone all
that afternoon. It was near sundown when she came back.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> [<FONT color=#009900>Jacob</FONT>]
Houk was a prisoner thirteen months lacking two days. He was in Salsbury
two months. Then he was taken to <A
href="http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/Images/WER1269.html"
target=_blank>Libby Prison</A> and was kept there five months. Then he was
taken to <A href="http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/andearch.htm"
target=_blank>Andersonville</A> stockade and was there six month lacking two
days. He was carried out to the operating table three times to have his
leg amputated. A quarrel among the surgeons saved him his leg. He
lost one toe. The treatment the soldiers endured was terrible to think of.
It took a Prussian officer, <A
href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wirz/wirz.htm"
target=_blank>Captain [Henry] Wirtz</A>, to devise such fiendish rules. At
first several thousand men were penned up on fifteen acres. A stream ran
through it. Part of it was clear, but part was muddy. They had to
use the muddy part. Guards were stationed on the top of the stockade to
shoot anyone who was seen dipping the clear water. Houk said the sweetest
morsel of meat he ever tasted was a Norway rat, killed, cocked and eaten while
there. Another article of food they drew as a ration was a pint of buggy
peas. They would put them on in cold water. When the bugs would come
to the surface, they would skim them out, and cook the peas and eat them.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1>[<FONT color=#009900>Note: Many of the Union prisoners released
from Andersonville died aboard the</FONT> <A
href="http://www.rapidnet.com/~greg/Tom/" target=_blank>SULTANA</A><FONT
color=#009900> when it blew up on the Mississippi River at 2 A.M., April 27,
1865.</FONT>]</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> Well, the war came to an end.
The boys came home. Baxter was brought home with a southern malaria.
No one thought he would live, but Mother. Brother Jake went to Missouri
and bought a load of apples. Why he was gone our folks had a run of
typhoid fever. Sarah and Father were sick at one time, and lay for
weeks. The nursing depended on Mother and Mary. Houk had to ride for
the doctor and supplies. Baxter recovered enough so that he could do some
of the chores, and tried to gather corn. About the time the first ones
could sit up, Mother and Mary took the fever. Houk and I were the only
ones to escape. Frank took it, and Mary cared for him until she got so
sick she had to go to bed herself. I had to practically live out of
doors. If the sick folks even saw me they were sure I was making noise
that disturbed them. So I stayed out of doors and picked chips and carried
wood to the door. I ate tomatoes from morning until night. There
were quantities of them going to waste in the garden. The neighbors all
had sick of their own - hardly enough well ones to care for the sick. Late
that fall Houk completed the house he had began in August. They moved to
their own home the last of November. It was very hard for the boys to
settle down after four years in the south. They farmed 1866 and
1867. The winter of 1867/68 was very cold.</FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The following spring (1868) these people headed west to
Oregon. Jacob and Sarah Houk settled near Lebanon, but the rest returned
to the Walla Walla Valley of Washington. My grandfather, William Houk, was
born 3 weeks after the clan reached Linn County (Sand Ridge, east of
Lebanon).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><IMG alt="" hspace=0 src="cid:017c01c4434b$2fe21390$3db26f44@CecilHouk203"
align=baseline border=0></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Cecil Houk, ET1 USN Ret.<BR>PO Box 530833<BR>San Diego CA
92153<BR>FAX 619-428-6434<BR><A
href="mailto:cchouk@cox.net">mailto:cchouk@cox.net</A><BR>ANDERSON - BLAKELY -
FORD - HOUK - KIMSEY - MOE - RULAFORD - SIMPSON<BR>Searchable GEDCOM: <A
href="http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk">http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk</A><BR>My
web page MENU: <A
href="http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/">http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>