Clarified: Fort Bayard celebrates its 149th birthday

Article and Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

On Saturday, when the posts for a chain link fence were already in place around the old Fort Bayard Medical Center building to prepare for the structure's demolition, visitors and area residents came out to hear a presentation about a Buffalo soldier and his family's search for records.

Florence Bowers, whose husband Dr. Joseph Bowers' great-grandfather served at Fort Bayard, gave the presentation, "Paper Trail: From the Ohio Beyond the Rio Grande."

"My husband's great-grandfather came to serve at Fort Bayard in 1865," Florence said. "He came from Kentucky, where he had been a slave."

She said she is retired from sales and her husband is a periodontist. "This really is his family history. I have the privilege of presenting his story. The process has been deeply touching and has given me a spiritual feeling."

Florence said since this was their first visit to Fort Bayard, "I'm setting the stage for future visits. I take responsibility for presenting John Martin Daniel and his history. I have a specific name and face to present."

She congratulated those celebrating Fort Bayard's 149th birthday.

"My character John Martin Daniel, almost simultaneously with the founding of Fort Bayard, served here," Florence Bowers said. "Then there were no buildings, no barracks. There was Mother Nature, the grounds and tents. John Martin Daniel served with the U.S. Colored Troops 125th Infantry, Company I. He came to fight for freedom for himself and his family. He died in 1930, after becoming a prominent citizen in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.

"The story starts with Vivian Daniel," she said, putting a photo of him up on the screen. "He was born March 3, 1798, and died March 16, 1890. He was one of the earliest settlers in his county. He operated a tavern and hotel in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. He also maintained a farm in Daviess County, and paid $91.20 for his property. Ivy Hill was a plantation in Breckinridge County, built by slaves. John Martin Daniel was born Jan. 15, 1844 to Vivian Daniel and Rosa, a slave. She died Sept. 10, 1852, eight years after John Martin was born in Daviess County."

Florence Bowers showed the slave roster of Vivian Daniel and pointed out the names of Rosa and John.

The family has a portrait of John Martin Daniel, because he became prominent in Louisville, after he was freed. He had long white hair and a luxurious mustache. The family resemblance between him and his father is striking. John Martin was the name of Vivian Daniel's brother and the name he gave his son.

While they were still enslaved, John Martin met Margaret Cooper, and in Hardinsburg, KY, Charles Cox married them on March 27, 1864.

"By 1865, during the Civil War, those formerly enslaved had the opportunity to help the Union establish and maintain peace," Florence Bowers said. "John Daniel mustered into the USCT 125th Infantry on May 22, 1865 and mustered out on Dec. 20, 1867. John Martin Daniel and more than 710 others mustered into the last U.S. Colored Troop. Among them were his brother, James Daniel, and his brother-in-law Samuel Daniel, all from the Ivy Hill Plantation." Their names are listed on the Wall of Honor, Wall D, Plaque 130, in the African-American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C.

She said John Daniel was appointed private soon after his enlistment and for a brief period was promoted to sergeant.

Florence Bowers found records showing that from March to April 1867, John Martin Daniel served duty at the Santa Rita Copper Mines.

She also found a letter on U.S. Christian Commission (the precursor to the YMCA) letterhead from John Martin Daniel to his "Dear Wife Margaret," dated May 22, 1867. "My company is now at Fort Bayard. We came here the first day of the month." He continued to say his company expected to continue its march homeward on the first of July and would muster out at Fort Raleigh. "Give my love to Emma," their first-born child. It was signed Sgt. John Daniel.

"If it was not scripted by John, the emotion in the letter was served well," Florence Bowers said. "When I contacted the U.S. Christian Commission archives, the archivist felt this letter was extremely rare."

Margaret Cooper Daniel was the mother of all of John Martin's nine children.

John Martin Daniel and his wife, Margaret, were registered in the Marriage Register of Freedom and recorded on Feb. 1, 1873. "This lawfully registered them as married."

Florence Bowers said Vivian Daniel became known as a Union sympathizer and later lost his plantation, Ivy Hill, as a result. "It was suspected to be part of the Underground Railroad. Vivian Daniel died in 1892 at the age of 92 years."

"We called John Martin Daniel Pappa, but in the community, he was known as Uncle John," she said."Pappa's daughter, Carrie Elizabeth, born July 29, 1877, and died April 5, 1947, was my husband's maternal grandmother."

Another of John's daughters, Hattie, born Jan. 15, 1875, and died June 27, 1966, graduated from Kentucky State University, and was later her father's caretaker.

"There has been a lot of divine intervention in this journey of four years, which I began in 2011, although I've been aware of my husband's family ancestry for probably 25 years," Florence Bowers said.

"I was sent a copy of John Martin's and Margaret Cooper's marriage record," she continued. "Somehow I had lost it, but the archivist in Hardinsburg, Breckinridge County, KY, and I had become good friends, and she willingly sent me another copy."

John Martin's first wife Margaret died and he remarried in Ohio to another Margaret, with the last name of McClellan.

"John gained a position as a porter at the Louisville Seelbach Hotel," Florence Bowers said. "It was a segregated hotel. He took the post in 1905. He was very thrifty, but also generous. He was known to loan money to individuals in immediate need and not worry about whether he was repaid."

Florence Bowers' husband received from the estate of his mother, Margaret Louise Hampton Bowers, in 2003, a tin boxâ€”the item he chose because it was small enough to send back to Albuquerque.

"We didn't look inside for eight years," Florence Bowers said. "I became knowledgeable about Fort Bayard and started my quest to find out more about my husband's ancestors. There were two major things in the box. The first was John Martin Daniel's original pension certificate from his service, and the second was a letter from his half-brother Phocion 'PM' Daniel. The PM stood for Phocion McCreery. My husband's mother, the granddaughter of John Martin Daniel, preserved the pension certificate, the letter from Phocion and the copy of the 1930 article about her grandfather's passing. She was a librarian and the best mother-in-law one could have."

She showed a copy of John Martin Daniel's obituary, which stated: "The city feels a loss in the death of John Daniel." It went on to say he served 21 years as a porter at the Seelbach. A copy of his estate final settlement showed he was worth $2,300, which was distributed to his surviving children.

"I am honored to have been John Martin's voice today," Florence Bowers concluded. "I will continue to try to identify other Daniel's men, in honor of my husband's, Dr. Joseph Bowers', great-grandfather."