No. 22160 Charles Alfred Humphreys, 1838-1921
Ebenezer Clapp. The Clapp Memorial. Record of the Clapp Family in America, (Boston, 1876), 275
Charles Alfred Humphreys was the son of Sarah Blake Clapp, 1808-1850 and Henry Humphreys, born 1801.
Charles Alfred Humphreys: Born April 1, 1838; m. April 15, 1868, Kate J. Mattoon, of Greenfield. He graduated at Harvard College in 1860, and from Divinity School, Cambridge, July 14, 2863, when he was ordained as Chaplain to the 2d Mass. Cavalry, and went to Virginia and staid till the war was over; during this time, he was taken prisoner and confined at Macon, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., from which place he was released, and joined his regiment again. He was installed Nov. 29, 1865, as pastor over the Unitarian Church at Springfield; resigned in January, 1872; installed at Framingham Nov. 2, 1873.
Lists their children
He wrote: Field Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War, 1863-1865. (Boston, 1918)
Charles Alfred Humphreys by Ruth Clarke
Rev. Charles Alfred Humphreys,[1] b. 1 Apr 1838, d. Pittsburgh, PA 22 Nov 1921,[2] m. 15 Apr 1868 Kate J. Mattoon, b. Muscatine, Iowa ca. 1846, d. Framingham 15 Jan 1879 ae 33 years, the daughter of Charles Mattoon and Lucia Anna Humphreys,[3] four children: son Charles Mattoon who died in infancy and three daughters, Sarah Blake, Catherine Clapp and Elizabeth, the youngest of whom died in infancy. Charles Alfred Humphreys graduated Dorchester High School in 1856, Harvard College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1860 and Harvard Divinity School in 1863. While still at Harvard Divinity and shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation has been issued, he applied for (and was accepted to) the position of Chaplain of the Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry and immediately after his ordination, he joined his regiment in Vienna, Virginia on 4 Jul 1863. During his service, he was taken prisoner[4] and confined for two months in July and August of 1864 at Lynchburg, Virginia, Macon, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. After his release on 2 Sep 1864 (exchanged off Fort Sumter), he rejoined his regiment and served until the end of the Civil War with Sheridan’s cavalry corps, being present at the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse on 9 Apr 1865. The war being over and having been discharged on 16 Apr 1865, Charles Alfred Humphreys was ordained a Unitarian minister on 29 Nov 1865 and pastor of the Unitarian Church in Springfield where he served until Jan 1872; installed at the Unitarian Church in Framingham 2 Nov 1873 where he served until 1891; and installed 1893 at the Congregational Church in Randolph where he served until his retirement on 1 Sep 1899. Upon his retirement, Charles Alfred Humphreys returned to Dorchester, taking up residence at the Mt. Monadnock Apartment House[5] with his younger daughter Catherine and his mother-in-law Lucia Mattoon. Here he penned his memoirs of the Civil War and was active with veterans’ groups and events throughout the Commonwealth.[6] In ca. 1917, he removed to Brookline; published his book in 1918, and in 1919 became seriously ill with pneumonia and cataracts in both eyes. At the first of January 1920, he was residing in the household of his eldest daughter Sarah (Humphreys) Corey in Evanston, Illinois, and he died in the household of his younger daughter Catherine (Humphreys) Barry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 22 Nov 1921.
[1] Jonas Humphreys of Dorchester, Mass. and His Descendants in The Dorchester and Weymouth Families of Humphrey, Gilbert Nash, et al., compiler in The Humphreys Family in America, Frederick Humphreys, compiler, New York, Humphreys Print, 1883, p. 884; www.2mass.reunioncivilwar.com/Biographies/Humphries.htm; Humphreys, Charles Alfred, Field, Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War, 1863-1865, 1918, Boston: Press of George H. Ellis, Co.; Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War, VI:230 Humphreys, Charles A. – Chaplain – Res. Dorchester; Clergyman; age -; comm. July 4, 1863; must. Aug 21, 1863; taken prisoner, July 6, 1864 at Aldie, VA; released and returned to duty with regt., Oct 24, 1864; resigned and discharged April 12, 1865; Who’s Who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men, Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago, A.N. Marquis & Co., 1909, p. 515.
[2] Pennsylvania Death Records, Pittsburgh: Charles Alfred Humphreys, retired minister, b. MA 1 Apr 1838, d. at 5 Forbes Terrance, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, PA on 22 Nov 1912, ae 83y7m21d; father: Henry Humphreys, b. MA; mother: Sarah Blake Clapp, b. MA; informant: Catherine H. Darry [sic.], 5 Forbes Terrace; burial: Boston, MA, 24 Nov 1921.
[3] Lucia Anna Humphreys was an eighth generation descendant of the Michael Humphreys Connecticut line, thought possibly to have been distantly related to the Jonas Humphreys line of Dorchester. Humphreys Family, op. cit., p. 598.
[4] Chaplains were not ordinarily taken as prisoners of war. However, the Confederates mistook him for a soldier because he had ridden out to rally the troops at Mt. Zion Church on the Little River Turnpike, for which he earned the nickname of fighting chaplain. He was captured by Mosby’s guerillas (43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry under John Singleton Mosby).
[5] The application for permit to build dated 6 May 1895 shows that, unlike the adjacent Denmark Hotel (resident hotel/apartment hotel) at 713 Dudley Street (corner of Dudley and Nonquit Streets), this building at the corner of Dudley and Monadnock Streets(numbered 717-727 Dudley Street and 1-3 Monadnock Street) was six-story apartment house for twenty-five families, suggesting, based on the definition given for apartments in the Dictionary of Architecture and Building (New York, 1902) that it contained suites of rooms for independent housekeeping which rented for more than $300 per annum. [The Apartment House Pre-1900 at thehistorybox.com/ny-city/nycity-apthouse-pre-1900=article000209.htm.] The building had entrances from both Dudley Street and Monadnock Streets into a large hall where there were four stores and elevators to the apartments; the hall, stores and Dudley Street entrance retrofitted ca. 1980 for ground floor apartments. It was originally owned by Daniel Chauncey Brewer, an attorney who had grown-up nearby on East Cottage Street, near Pleasant Street and was designed by the architectural firm of Dwight & Chandler (Henry Hyde Dwight and Howland Shaw Chandler. Teresa McDonald O’Donnell remembers the Dudley Street entrances and several stores inside (including a barber shop) from the 1950’s.
[6] Good Old Dorchester: A Narrative History of the Town, 1630-1893, op. cit., p. 427 and p. 453 mentions that Charles Alfred Humphreys gave the oration at the dedication of the Soldiers Monument at First Church on 17 Sep 1867; and the scripture selection at the 250th Anniversary of Dorchester celebration in Mar 1880.