Editor’s Note: Today begins the first of a six-part series on Thomas Drummond, who led a short but fascinating life as a senator, newspaper editor and Civil War hero. He is buried in the Methodist Cemetery on Newell Avenue, St. Clairsville. The authors are Edmund A. Sargus, a federal judge, and his son, Edmund C. Sargus, a writer in Tampa, Fla. Both are from St. Clairsville and have co-authored a book on the life of Thomas Drummond.

THE 1929 Memorial Day Parade depicted in the photo on the right was sponsored by the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), Thomas Drummond Post.

After the Civil War, members of the Union Army formed the G.A.R. as a fraternal organization on both a local and national level. By 1929, the youngest members of the Thomas Drummond Post of the G.A.R. were at least 80 years old. All of them, and all living in or around St. Clairsville at the time, knew of Thomas Drummond. A few years later, the last members passed on and with them the memory of Thomas Drummond.

As we pass through the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, many articles and books recount the four years of battle, bravery and horror that defined the conflict. With almost 4 million troops serving and over 600,000 killed, the enormity of the conflict can be staggering and the story of yet another soldier overwhelming. But the life of Thomas Drummond was recognized by his Civil War contemporaries as so remarkable to name the G.A.R. post in his honor. With these articles, we hope to restore his memory and our collective history.

Thomas Drummond was born in 1832 near Weirton, which was then in the Commonwealth of Virginia. His early life was deeply intertwined with the history of the Methodist Church in the Ohio Valley. His father’s family immigrated from Scotland. His namesake and uncle, Thomas Drummond, Sr, was an ordained Methodist minister. Reverend Thomas Drummond was assigned throughout Ohio and what is now West Virginia. He volunteered for missionary work in St. Louis, where he contracted malaria and died at a young age in 1836. The Drummond Chapel in Morgantown, West Virginia is named in his memory.

Drummond’s father, James, was a successful physician in Harrison County, Ohio. He was so distraught by his brother’s untimely death that he left his prosperous medical practice and began a long calling as a Methodist clergyman. From 1836 until 1854, Reverend James Drummond

took assignments to different Methodist churches almost every two years.

Thomas lived for a time in Wheeling, Martins Ferry, Cambridge, Barnsville,

Bridgeport, and Moundsville.

In the 1850s, Reverend Drummond became closely allied with several

other pillars of the Methodist Church who were also from Eastern Ohio. He

befriended Cadiz native, Bishop Matthew Simpson, who later headed the

national Methodist Church. Simpson was a confidant of Abraham Lincoln

and in May of 1865 delivered the prayer at Lincoln’s funeral. Reverend

James Drummond was also close to St Clairsville’s Bishop James Thoburn

and his sister, Isabella Thoburn, who was a missionary in India. She

founded a school in Lucknow, India, which continues to this day as the

Isabella Thoburn College.

Despite his ministry in Wheeling and other parts of Virginia, a slave

state, Reverend Drummond was an outspoken opponent of slavery. In the

mid-1850s, he and Bishop Simpson began a movement within the church

to prohibit all Methodist ministers from owning slaves. Ultimately, their

position prevailed, which resulted in many southern ministers and

congregations splitting from the church.

During the Civil War, Reverend Drummond supported the creation of

West Virginia as a new, anti-slavery state. In 1864, as casualties mounted,

the Union Army took over the Wheeling Hospital. President Abraham

Lincoln then nominated and the Senate confirmed Drummond to the

position of chaplain at the hospital. For many years after the war, Reverend

Drummond served the congregation in Cadiz, Ohio. Upon his death in

1888, the local church was re-named the Drummond Methodist Church.

With a prominent father and a constant change of homes. Thomas

Drummond grew close to his mother, Harriet Green Drummond. When he

was eight, his mother was stricken with fever and died at the parsonage in

St. Clairsville. Years later, as he lay dying, Thomas Drummond asked to be

buried next to his mother in the St. Clairsville Methodist Cemetery.

As a young man, Thomas Drummond was very much in the image of

his father. Early in life, he adopted an outspoken opposition to slavery.

Several of his formative years were spent in a slave state. Like his father,

he was often described as a great public speaker, a well read scholar and

a fearsome debater. After completing his formal education, Thomas

Drummond became a lawyer by reading the law under the guidance of an

experienced attorney. He quickly realized that he lacked interest in the

profession. He worked for a short time as a newspaper reporter. Finally, he

decided in 1854 that he would go west and start a new life on the frontier.

For the next six years, Drummond lived in eastern and central Iowa,

ultimately settling in the town of Vinton. The State of Iowa had only recently

been opened for settlement. Citizens of Iowa were all recent arrivals, which

provided great opportunities for a young Thomas Drummond. The young

and ambitious did not have to contend with an established political or

social structure . In short order, he was elected as County School Funds

Commissioner and became deeply involved in Iowa politics.

In the mid-1850s, Iowa, like the rest of the country, burned over the

issue of slavery. Even though Iowa had been admitted to the Union as a

free state, where slavery was banned, the issue was hardly resolved. In the

same period, the two national political parties split apart and reformed into

a new Republican Party that opposed any expansion of slavery and the

Democratic Party that favored slavery. Drummond played a key role in the

founding of the Republican Party in Iowa. In 1856, at the age of twenty

three, Drummond was elected as a delegate to the first national Republican

Convention in Philadelphia, where he met Abraham Lincoln.

The following year, Drummond purchased a half interest in the Vinton

Eagle, a weekly newspaper. As was typical at that time, newspapers often

were aligned with a political party. Under Drummond’s direction, the Eagle

was staunchly Republican and strongly anti-slavery. When Drummond

began his political involvement, Iowa government was controlled by the

Democratic Party. As more people moved into the new state, by the late

1850s, the Republican Party became dominant.

The same year Drummond purchased the Eagle, he also ran for a seat

in the Iowa Legislature. Drummond proved to be a tireless campaigner and

popular figure. Benton County, which included Vinton, was exploding in

population. Census records show that the county had 672 residents in

1850 and grew to 8,496 in the next ten years. Drummond organized the

local Republican Party, assembled a strong slate of candidates and turned

the county away from Democratic control . In the same election, at age

twenty four, Drummond handily won election to the House of

Representatives.

As his career flourished, Thomas Drummond married Fanny Keppert

Drummond in 1857. Fanny gave birth to Catherine Drummond on July 27,

1858. Two months later, tragedy struck as Fannie died of complications

from childbirth. Drummond was now a widower with an infant daughter. He

wrote in the Vinton Eagle:

Seldom has a more lovely treasure gone from earth to

Heaven. She had much to bind her to eartha fond husband,

a tender, lovely, infant babe, and endeared relatives and the warm

friendship of all who knew her. But so bright and glorious were her

prospects of Heaven, that she could leave all without a struggle, and

fearlessly and joyfully welcome the approach of death.

While he grieved the loss of his wife, Drummond was about to enter one

of the most tumultuous times in American history.