Peter Gilts - Bishop Post, G.A.R.

Peter Gilts grew up in a large family with his parents, Lawrence and Martha Gilts.  In 1850, the farming family was settled in Auglaize Township, Paulding County, Ohio.  Peter was 11 at the time (born in August, 1838, according to one census), and he had three older siblings: Jacob, Mariah and Susan.  Five siblings were younger: Abram, Katharine, Daniel, Elizabeth, and Isaac.  His father's real estate holdings were valued at $200, so it was not a wealthy family.








By 1860, Peter, 20, was off on his own, working as a farm laborer on the farm of Philip and Margaret Holtzel.  Peter's brother, Abraham, worked a few farms down for John Sanford in Highland Township, Defiance County.  Peter was 22 when he was moved to enlist into Company B, 68th Ohio Infantry in December, 1861.  He served throughout the entire war in Mississippi (Vicksburg), and on to Georgia and the Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta campaigns.  At Vicksburg, the unit furnished many sharpshooters and was constantly in the trenches, before they were assigned to reconnaissance.  After Vicksburg, they had a short furlough home before joining General Sherman in Atlanta.  

Before the Atlanta campaign, maybe at Vicksburg, Peter was wounded in the jaw and shoulder, as reported in a 1915 local newspaper.  The Veterans' Census of 1890 reported a disability due to a gunshot wound; however, Peter returned to service until his mustering out on July 10, 1865, after the unit attended the Grand Review in Washington, D. C. 

Jane Scott became the wife of Peter Gilts in Paulding County on February 29, 1868.  By 1870, they were settled on a farm in Highland Township with their first child, Elizabeth, 1.  Peter had real estate worth just $50 at that time.  They went on to have other children, James and Martha and Susan, and they stayed in Highland Township until somewhere between the 1890 and 1900 censuses.

By 1900, the family was enumerated at 851 Ottoway (Ottawa) Avenue where they rented a home.  Peter was 61 and Jane, 56, and with them was their youngest daughter, Susie, 15, born in 1884.  Peter was not employed.  In 1902, the local paper noted that he had been awarded a pension increase to $12 a month.
Sadly, in 1907, their daughter, Martha Logan, wife of Albert, died in childbirth.  She was buried with the infant daughter in her arms.

Number 126, Auglaize Street, became the address of Peter and Jane Gilts sometime before 1910 - their own mortgaged home.  Their youngest daughter, Susie, (Sussie in the census) still lived at home and worked as a seamstress in the glove works.  Peter, at 71, had a job as janitor at the post office.  This was the home they would be in until Peter's death at 80 on January 15, 1920.

Defiance Crescent-News, January 16, 1920

 
Mt. Zion Cemetery is in Putnam County, Ohio.


 




 www.findagrave.com - Mt. Zion Cemetery, Continental, Putnam, Ohio


(This is part of a series on Civil War veterans of Defiance County who were part of the G.A.R., Bishop Post, that headquartered in the city.  Formed in 1879, the post was named after a local man, Captain William Bishop, Company D, 100th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Army who died as a result of wounds received in battle.  The veterans' photos are part of a composite photo of members that has survived.  If you have other information or corrections to add to the soldiers' stories, please add to the comments!)