Joseph Casen Griffin, 1820 Meridianville, AL – 1909 Cullman Co., AL
2nd Great Grandfather
As has been noted, Joseph Casen Griffin was the first child born to Joseph Griffin and Charity Davis. Joseph Casen also became a farmer. On March 15, 1842 at the age of 22, Joseph Casen married Katherine “Kitty” M. True in Madison County, Alabama.
They initially lived in the same area as his father Joseph. The 1850 federal census has Joseph/Charity and children Samuel, William and Sarah Janes living in 2 Regiment No. 33 household 82 of Madison County, AL. Joseph Casen is in the same area but in household 236. He is living with Kitty and children Kijah, John, and Susan. His occupation is “farmer”.
Joseph Casen farmed in Huntsville, on the portion of his father’s land that he purchased following Joseph’s death. He also purchased property in Section 26 of T2 R1W of Madison County. However, by 1860 he is living and farming owned property in Valhermoso Springs, Morgan County, AL. He had moved slightly south from his Huntsville land. At this point, he and Kitty have John J., Charity, Susan, Margaret “Pug”, and George Washington Griffin (our great grandfather). Samuel was born in 1860 sometime after the census was taken.
At the time of the 1860 U.S. Agricultural Census, Joseph Casen was not raising any crops. However, he did have livestock.
The Civil War Comes to North Alabama:
Alabama seceded from the United States January 11, 1861. Though Alabama did not have any major battles within its borders, it did contribute about 120,000 white men to the Confederate armed forces. Most served with others from their local areas.
The Confederate States of America recognized from the outset of the Civil War that they had disadvantages in terms of population and industrial output. Their strategy was to take advantage of their compact geography, with internal lines of communication, their military heritage (Southerners had been disproportionately the officers of the United States Army), and their greater enthusiasm for their cause to wear down the Union will to wage war. They also believed that Britain, with its heavy dependence on Southern cotton to supply its mills, would be at worst neutral with a bias in their favor. Ideally, they dreamed of direct European assistance. The South believed that since they did not intend to occupy and hold Northern territory, they would be fighting principally in defense of their homeland and their soldiers would consequently have greater morale and stronger commitment to the cause. Their southern strategy did not work.
The North had a great triad of resources: men, agricultural and industry. True, though, they were less motivated and in unfamiliar territory. Quickly the difficulty and ferocity of the war became apparent to both sides. The initial war fever dissipated in both the North and South, and each side was compelled to resort to conscription. The South instituted a draft in 1862, requiring three years of service for those selected between the ages of 18 and 35, providing for substitution (repealed Dec. 1863) and exemptions. A revision, approved 27 Sept. 1862, raised the age to 45.
In 1863 at the age of 43, Joseph Casen enlisted in the confederate army in Lacey Springs and was assigned to the 4th (Roddey’s) Cavalry Regiment, Company D. His unit was considered “Home Guard”. Joseph may have enlisted to avoid the draft and harsher duty. Home Guard referred to somewhat loosely organized militias that were under the direction and authority of the Confederacy. They were tasked with both the defense of the Confederate home front, as well as tracking down and capturing Confederate Army deserters. Home Guard units were, essentially, to be a last defense against any invading Union forces. They were often made up of older planters or others exempted from front line service.
On Roddey’s cavalry: Philip Dale Roddey was born in Moulton in Limestone County in 1826. He was a tailor in Moulton before he was appointed sheriff of Lawrence County in 1846, serving at least until 1852. He then purchased a steamboat, which he ran on the Tennessee River.
When the American Civil War began, Roddey, who had not supported secession, sought to remain out of it. After the fall of Fort Henry, Tennessee, to Ulysses S. Grant in February 1862, however, Union gunboats were able to sail as far as Florence, Alabama, where the shallows at Muscle Shoals stopped them.
Rather than allow his steamboat to be seized and used by the union army, Roddey burned her. He then organized a cavalry company, Roddey’s 4th Cavalry Regiment, at Tuscumbia in October 1862. It moved to Tennessee where it wintered. The men were from Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence, and Walker counties. During the spring of 1863 it was sent to Northern Alabama, assigned to General Roddey’s Brigade, then took an active part in raiding and attacking the Federals. It was at this time that Joseph Casen enlisted. After fighting at Brice’s Cross Roads it saw action in various conflicts from Montevallo to Selma where on April 2, 1865, most of the unit was captured. The remaining part surrendered at Pond Spring. Its commanders were Colonels William A. Johnson and Phillip D. Roddey, Lieutenant Colonel E.M. Windes, and Majors R.W. Johnson and John E. Newsom.
Joseph Casen was in the Home Guard until surrender. I suspect he was at Pond Spring for surrender with other local men.
After the Civil War:
The Civil War devastated the South’s economy. Military destruction cut deep gouges into the region’s infrastructure, farms, and white population. More basically, emancipation wiped out the bulk of Southern capital and the basis of its economy and society. The postwar South remained overwhelmingly agricultural. And, for multiple reasons, in the decades that followed Southern life was impacted by social turmoil, a dearth of capital, and poverty.
Joseph Casen followed suit and continued farming. He and Kitty had two more children: Edgar, born in 1864, and Zeekee, born in 1870. Although Kitty was alive for the June 1870 census, she must have died shortly thereafter, as six months later, in December 29, 1870, Joseph Casen married his second wife, Mary Frances Quarles, a widow who lived in his community. Zeekee’s birth year is given as 1870. She is not listed with Joseph and Kitty in the census taken that year in June, so her birth also followed census enumeration. Since Zeekee is not listed in the 1780 census, it would not be illogical to surmise that Kitty and Zeekee died together in 1870 during childbirth.
Mary and Joseph Casen had one child: Jennie who was born in 1872. In 1880, 15 years after the civil war, Joseph Casen, Mary, Jennie, George Washington and Edgar Griffin were living together in Somerville. Joseph Casen was now 60 years old. He was leasing the farm and he paid a share of his product for rent. His operation included:
- 1. Acres tilled, 22
- 2. Farm implements, 2
- 3. Livestock valued at $55
a. 2 oxen
b. 2 cows
c. 4 “other”
d. 2 calves
e. 2 cows had died in the last year
f. 12 swine
g. 30 chickens
h. 2 “other” poultry - 4. Annual value of product: $250 (Value in 2016 – $5,573)
a. 100 lbs of butter
b. 100 eggs produced
c. 8 bushels of cow peas
d. 10 bushels of sweet potatoes
e. 30 bushels of corn
f. 4 bales of cotton
g. 30 gallons of sorghum
For 35 years after the Civil War, only disabled soldiers were receiving a pension from the state of Alabama for their service. In 1899, the State Legislature authorized pensions for Confederate veterans who weren’t disabled and were residing in Alabama. In 1900, Joseph Casen and Mary had left farming and were living in Falkville with Joseph Casen and Kitty’s daughter Susan (Venable) who was 53 and widowed. Joseph Casen and Mary had no estate at that point.
In May of 1901, Mary and Joseph Casen applied for a confederate war pension which was finally granted. Joseph was granted a Class 4 pension which paid $18 per year (@$500 today). It then increased to $22.65 in November, 1904.
In 1907, with the help of his son, John J., Joseph requested re-assignment to Class 1, which paid $40 per year. He must not have received the upgrade for in 1909 he was paid $25 per year. Joseph Casen died in Cullman in Nov. 1909 at the age of 89. He was destitute. No will has been found for Joseph Casen, probably because of his lack of any real or personal property. Mary applied for her widow’s pension in 1911. She apparently died soon thereafter. Joseph is buried in Cullman City Cemetery.