Dates

• Majority of material found within 1790 - 2018

Extent

6 boxes Linear Feet (Logan R. Moorhead (February 17, 1921-March 16, 2017) was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania. His siblings were Alice Moorhead Forster (1919-1989), David Lintner (Lynn) Moorhead (1922-1999), Charles Augustus Moorhead (1924-1997), and Ronald Campbell Moorhead (1927-1974). Their parents were Charles Augustus Moorhead (1884-1927), and Helen Geary Logan Moorhead (1893-1975) who graduated from Indiana State Normal School in 1916. The Moorhead family lived at 713 School Street in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Logan Moorhead attended the Indiana Training School at Indiana State Normal School (later Indiana State Teachers College) from 1926-1936. He joined the Boy Scouts in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and he earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1938. He attended Indiana High School from 1936-1939. After graduating from high school in 1939, Logan Moorhead attended Indiana State Teachers College (later known as Indiana University of Pennsylvania) in 1939-1940, and he majored in Business. In 1940-1942, he was employed by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways as an inspector and draftsman. Logan Moorhead enlisted in the U.S. Army on May 25, 1942 at Pittsburgh. On March 8, 1943, he was promoted to corporal and served in the 1649th Engineer Utility Detachment (EUD) as a draftsman. For two years, he trained in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia before departing for Europe from Boston aboard the USS Mount Vernon on October 7, 1944. He arrived in Liverpool, England on October 15, 1944. On October 17, 1944, he waded ashore at Utah Beach. From October 1944 to September 1945, Moorhead served in the 1649th EUD and helped build three German POW Hospital Camps in France. During the German occupation, he was assigned to the 971st Engineering Maintenance Company. He departed for the United States aboard a victory ship on March 9, 1946. He was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey on March 24, 1946. Logan Moorhead attended Penn State University from 1946-1949, and was a member of Delta Sigma Phil and Tau Beta Pi. In 1949, he graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering. He married Carol Virginia Chalk on September 9, 1950, and they had four children Christine, Barbara Kay, Scott Logan, and Carol Ann. Logan Moorhead worked for American Sugar Refining Company in New York City from 1950-1952. In 1954, he started working for Burlington Industries / Lees Carpets. He worked for the company for 31 years in engineering and management at plants in Glasgow, Virginia; Bridgeport, Pennsylvania; and Rabun Gap, Georgia. He was the Plant Industrial Engineer in Glasgow, Virginia. He was the Superintendent of Weaving, and the Rabun Gap Plant Manager. Logan Moorhead retired in 1985. In 1954-1962 and 1966-1990, Logan Moorhead lived in Lexington, Virginia. An avid historian, he toured many Civil War battlefields and documented his family’s history. In 1990, he and his wife permanently moved to Richmond, Virginia. The Logan R. Moorhead Collection includes family history, Civil War material including correspondence, and photographs and publications from the Indiana State Normal School and Indiana State Teachers College. The collection includes 38 original Civil War letters available online with transcriptions, http://www.iup.edu/page.aspx?id=86160. The following letters were written by brothers Robert Alexander Lowry (Gan/Ganny/R.A.) and William Gustin Lowry (Gus/Gust/W.G.L.) who enlisted in the 62nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. Both were killed during the Civil War. Their mother was Rhoda Stone Lowry (1806-1895). The Rhoda Stone Lowry Civil War Diary has entries from May 16, 1863 to June 17, 1864. Robert Alexander Lowry (1838-1862) and William Gustin Lowry (1836-1863) were brothers and the great great uncles of Logan R. Moorhead, the writer. Robert Alexander Lowry and William Gustin Lowry were the brothers of Logan Moorhead's great grandmother, Margaret Judson Lowry Logan. Robert Alexander Lowry, William Gustin Lowry, and Margaret Judson Lowry were the children of Robert and Rhoda Stone Lowry of Freeport, Pennsylvania. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Lowry brothers were living in Curllsville, Pennsylvania in Clarion County, and they enlisted for three year hitches in C Company of the 62nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers on July 4, 1861. William Gustin Lowry (Gus) was the company’s Second Lieutenant, and Robert Alexander Lowry (Gan) was a private. On July 25, 1861 this regiment was mustered into the U.S. Union Army at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved immediately to Camp Cameron, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a few weeks of camp life, and then on to Baltimore, Maryland, and then to Washington, D.C. In September 1861, the 62nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers crossed the Potomac River, and was assigned to the Second Brigade of General Porter’s Division. Then the Second Brigade moved to Minor’s Hill and went into winter quarters in Camp Betty Black. William Gustin Lowry was promoted to First Lieutenant on November 12, 1861. It was here that the younger of the two, Robert Alexander Lowry, a corporal and bugler, accidentally shot and killed himself with his brother’s revolver on February 1, 1862, at the age of 23. Robert Alexander Lowry was born on June 30, 1838 according to his mother’s diary. The regiment was mainly engaged in drill and training and saw no action before leaving by transport in March 1862 for the Peninsula, where it encamped at Fortress Monroe, near Hampton, Virginia. On April 3, 1862 the 62nd Regiment moved with the army upon Yorktown, where it experienced its first encounter with Confederate troops uniformed in gray. Skirmishing ensued, and the 62nd Regiment marched forward and took its place in line of battle under fire. The enemy was soon obliged to evacuate and the loss to the 62nd Regiment was one killed and three wounded, none in C Company. From this time on, until the end of the war, C Company 62nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers served in the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Corps. The regiment was engaged in all the major battles of the Army of the Potomac, including Seven Days, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. William Gustin Lowry was engaged in all his regiment’s battles up through Gettysburg where he was killed in action on July 2, 1863 in the woods between the west corner of the Wheatfield (now called the "Loop") and the Rose Farm. He fell, instantly killed, very shortly after his brigade (Sweitzer’s 2nd Brigade, Barne’s 1st Division, *Syke’s 5th Corps) entered the battle in support of General Sickle’s 3rd Corps, which was collapsing under the crushing attack of Confederate Generals Hood and McLaw on the Union army’s extreme left flank. He was probably killed by men of Kershaw’s Brigade of McLaw’s Division. He had been promoted to Major on September 10, 1862, just prior to Antietam, and had married on February 12, 1863. A fine tribute is paid him in the address of Captain W.J. Patterson at the Dedication of the 62nd Regiment Infantry at Gettysburg Monument on September 11, 1889: "In his death the service lost as brave a soldier and as faithful an officer as any that fell that day in defense of this country." He was born January 27, 1836 according to the cemetery marker in Freeport, Pennsylvania. For a complete account of C Company, 62nd Regiment see U.S. Army, Regimental History, 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteers. William Gustin Lowry (Gus) was buried in the Gettysburg National Cemetery, even though there are two tombstones, one for Robert Alexander Lowry and one for Major William Gustin Lowry in the Freeport, Pennsylvania Cemetery Lot #38, Section B (see July 1989 photo on Page 6). It was determined that Major William Gustin Lowry's stone was only a commemorative marker, which was popular during the war, and it was placed in his memory. He is buried at the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania State Lot (18) Section B Grave No. 26 (see October 1990 photo on Page 6), and there is a bronze 62nd Infantry plaque on the wall at the base of the Pennsylvania Monument bearing his rank and name (see October 1990 photo on Page 6). Robert Alexander Lowry (Gan) and his mother, Rhoda Stone Lowry, are buried in the Freeport, Pennsylvania cemetery in Armstrong County, Lot #38, Section B, Sites 1 and 2. **Rhoda Stone Lowry died July 19, 1895 at the age of 89 and was interred in this cemetery plot without a tombstone. Cemetery records indicate that Robert Alexander Lowry and his tombstone, and the commemorative marker for Major William Gustin Lowry were probably transferred from the old cemetery at the site of what is now Freeport Junior High School on Fourth Street since the present cemetery was not incorporated until 1864, and both Lowry brothers were killed prior to that year. Just when this plot was purchased by the Lowry family, when Robert Alexander Lowry, and the two stones were transferred to the present cemetery and under which stone Rhoda Stone Lowry is buried couldn’t be determined. Although Robert Alexander Lowry’s stone states that he is the son of Robert and Rhoda Lowry, no records could be found of the place of burial of Robert Lowry, who died in 1840 in Freeport, Pennsylvania. The Civil War diary of Rhoda Stone Lowry (1806-1895) and the Civil War letters from her sons Robert Alexander Lowry (1838-1862) and William Gustin Lowry (1836-1863) were donated to the Special Collections and University Archives at Indiana University of Pennsylvania by Logan R. Moorhead, the great-great-grandson of Rhoda Stone Lowry. The diary includes entries from May 16, 1863, to June 17, 1864, and it was scanned and transcribed by Matthew Hughes in 2006. Read the Civil War diary of Rhoda Stone Lowry: https://www.iup.edu/archives/digital-projects-and-exhibits/rhoda-stone-lowry-civil-war-diary/)

Language of Materials

English