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What Happened to Charles C. Langdon?

Posted By: Mark Erickson 34 Comments

Charles was Gideon Langdon’s son

He is only mentioned in one document that we’ve found, but he’s clearly identified as Gideon’s son.

“In case the said Gideon Langdon should die before the expiration of the eleven years, the lease is to run to Charles C. Langdon and Sara Jane Langdon, son and daughter of the said Gideon Langdon.”

17 Mar 1851 (recorded 9 May 1851).   LINK

None of Gideon’s other children are mentioned, so I’m speculating that he felt they were old enough to make their own way in the world. Sarah Jane was about 13 at the time and Charles would have been around 15 or so. He was said to be a son of Maria Cook.

I’ll show a few dead-ends we’ve gone down, but I believe we’ve found a good candidate.

First of all, in 1840 I think we see Charles in the census.  LINK

His age is 5 thru 9. In 1849 Gideon marries Anna Sumner. That means Maria died before 1849. Charles could be younger than Sarah Jane, so he could have been born roughly between 1840 thru 1848. I doubt it though because Sarah Jane said her mother died young. She also mentions that the family moved to the Green Lake area when she was six. That would put the date they moved at 1844. One year after Rufus moved there.

Not Our Charles 1

There was a 9 year old Chs Langdon living in Darien, WI in the 1850 census. He was interesting for MANY reasons, but is not our Charles.

1850 United States Federal Census  LINK
Name: Chs Langdon  •  Age: 9  •  Estimated birth year: abt 1841  •  Birth Place: Wisconsin  •  Gender: Male  •  Home in 1850 (City,County,State): Darien, Walworth, Wisconsin
Household Members: Name: Jno T Walker Age: 40  •  Nancy Walker: 28  •  Chs Langdon: 9  •  George Taylor: 55  •  Lydia Taylor: 55

Here’s just a few reasons he was so interesting.

  1. Gideon owned land in Darien before moving to Green Lake.
  2. This person was living with Walkers. (Rufus Langdon’s neighbor in Green Lake was a Walker.)
  3. In 1852 Wisconsin’s first School for the Deaf opened in neighboring Delavan. Maybe Charles was deaf and was living there as a pupil? 
  4. It might explain why Gideon came back to die. He wanted to see his son.

Why he’s not our Charles

I was able to look at the original Register of pupils: Volume 3 • 1852-1904. There was no one matching our Charles. I tried several variations and different names. 

The Wisconsin School for the Deaf: Superintendent’s Pupil Records, 1852-1938  LINK

Big Reason Number One: this man has a good family tree that shows he is not our Charles. He was a doctor in central Illinois later in life and is identified as having grown up in Sharon, WI. His parents were… (I’ll find it later) Not Gideon and Maria.

Civil War

He probably would have been in his twenties when the Civil War started.  Some sources say he served from Minnesota and died in the war. There were a lot of Charles Langdons serving in the war that need to be checked. I’ve seen several that are interesting. One was from Rockford (just below Beloit) and another was with Ohio. (Gideon married one wife in Ohio and Charles’ sister’s husband (John Norton) was in the service with the Ohio 101st. Yet another was serving with an Indiana regiment.

Here’s who I believe is the best candidate for our Charles Langdon. He died in Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri.

It was a hospital in the Civil War, but turned into a National Cemetery.

Charles Langdon Headstone
Charles Langdon Headstone

Here’s a link to a list of the soldiers buried there:

Langdon, Charles , d. 04/02/1864, Plot: 34 0 3219, bur. 04/02/1864  LINK

He was wounded in battle and eventually transferred here. Not long after his arrival he died and was buried on the same day.

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