Welcome: Sunny Krugh, Director, Mechanicsburg Public Library

George Washington O'Hare

George Washington O'Hare was born May 3,1841 in Kentucky, and died Sept. 16, 1919 in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. Census records show that his father was Edward Troutward, of Kentucky. His mother was enslaved in Kentucky and, as was the case so often with female slaves, her name and place of birth are listed as "unknown."

Freed from slavery some time before January 7, 1864, when Union Army records show that he enlisted in the United States Colored Troops, 108th Regiment, Company B, in Louisville, Kentucky, Private George Washington O'Hare served one year, twenty-three days in the war. He was honorably discharged January 23,1865, and remained a faithful member of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) until his death.

We know very little about George Washington O'Hare's life in Mechanicsburg following his war service. We don't know when he came North, but the 1880 census shows him married to Sarah Elizabeth Burks (also from Kentucky) and living on Locust Street in Mechanicsburg when their first child, George Wallace O'Hare, was born in 1875.

According to the 1890 census, the couple had three other children: Lydia Rose, born in 1876; Joseph, born in 1878, who died at age 17 of consumption, and Harriet, who was born in 1880 and died at 19, also of consumption. They were members of St. Michael's Catholic Church and some of the little information about the family has come from church records.

Census records show that he was a farmer and laborer, and almost all other information about Mr. O'Hare that still survives comes from newspaper death notices One such notice of daughter Harriet's passing states: "She was a most exemplary young girl, the daughter of a highly respected colored family."

We know that the oldest boy graduated from Mechanicsburg High School, and moved to Kentucky after his parents passed away. Similarly, accounts of his death and just four months later, the death of his wife, reveal that he and his family were well thought of in Mechanicsburg. One notice of the passing of Mrs. O'Hare is headlined: "Widow of Well-Remembered Colored Man Dies in Virginia,” and goes on to state that "... both she and her husband were highly respected colored people..."

Death notices from both the Daily Democrat and the Urbana Daily Citizen described Mr.O’Hare as “an honored and faithful member of the GAR.” 

Church histories show that Washington O'Hare's daughter, Lydia, left Mechanicsburg at age 18 to become the first teacher in a new parochial school for African-American children in Columbia, Virginia, and thereby hangs a tale. In June 2004, David Bearr, a historian in Maryland, contacted the Mechanicsburg Public Library, looking for information on Lydia O'Hare. He was writing an article for a historical society publication about this unusual woman, who had been awarded the Papal Medal, and some records he had showed that she was born in Mechanicsburg, Ohio.

********* 

As library genealogist Deborah Young researched Mr. Bearr's inquiry, she decided to renew a project which she had begun earlier, to obtain an official Veterans Administration military marker for George Washington O’Hare's grave. Although he was, according to cemetery records, buried In Section B, Lot 159, along with his wife and two of his children, he was not listed in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors index. There may have been a wooden marker at the site at one time, but If so, it had disappeared or disintegrated, making the O'Hare family plot difficult to locate, even for cemetery officials.

Deborah along with Library Director Sunny Krugh and the Mechanicsburg Public Library staff, felt that this situation should be rectified, and every person, business, and agency contacted for help has wholeheartedly concurred.

Thanks to the volunteer efforts of  David and Tammy Vernon of the Vernon Funeral Homes, Maple Grove Cemetery Board and staff, Father Clarence Heis of St. Michael's, Vauger Monuments of London, David Bearr, vocalist Annie Colliflower, and of course to George Washington O’Hare's last known living descendent, his adopted granddaughter Teresa Turcotte, who gave her blessing to this project.

********* 

21 Gun Salute