Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

When I first started writing, it was for a small women’s magazine. Every month, I’d choose another local woman who accomplished some great things, and write a short column about her. I did this for two years, and I found some interesting ones.

Every once in a while, I make a discovery that almost makes me wish I was still writing for that magazine. There are some incredible women in our history, and I like having the chance to write about them.

For instance, Sarah Simcox. I just recently found out about Sarah Simcox, which makes another good entry for Women’s History Month.

Sarah Simcox was the subject of a Clinton County Times article on September 30, 1920—The Clinton County Times was always pretty cool about interviewing these interesting people. Sarah Simcox was born Sarah Peese in Centre County on May 29, 1843. In 1859, she married Abram Boyer, a recent arrival from Jefferson County. Their marriage was only a couple of years along when the Civil War began, and Abram joined the Bald Eagle Infantry.

On May 6, 1864, Sarah received a letter stating that Abram had been wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness, and was in a hospital in Annapolis. Sarah immediately got on a train to Annapolis, determined to go and find her husband.

There was only one hotel when she arrived, and it was booked solid due to the arrival of General Ulysses S. Grant and his entourage. Fortunately for Sarah, she’d known Grant a few years prior, when he’d visited Bellefonte, and she appealed to him for help. He arranged for a room for her, and found a lieutenant to help her find her husband.

Sarah was taken to Abram, who was out behind a commissary cleaning his rifle. He’d been shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the leg, but it wasn’t as bad as originally feared. He was off active duty while he received daily surgical care, however.

Sarah also saw two of her old schoolmates in the hospital, badly in need of nursing, and she took on the job. The military surgeon on duty requested that she stay and continue helping out, as he was stretched thin and assistance was in short supply. This turned into a six-week stay for Sarah, while she helped out as a nurse and took care of the wounded soldiers.

When she left, the surgeon gave her ten dollars as a reward for her duty, which is underpaid even by 1864 standards. Sarah traveled north, and was invited to the White House along the way to meet Abraham Lincoln and his wife.

When Abram was sent to Petersburg, Sarah packed up and traveled with him. She remained with the Army for a while until Grant sent her home, telling her that they were going south. While she traveled home, Abram was captured by the Confederate Army and placed in Andersonville. He died later in North Carolina, on November 1, 1864. Some of the other prisoners at the time got the word to Sarah.

A couple of years later, after the war ended, Sarah went to visit her sister in Lock Haven. There she met Samuel Simcox, and married him on April 16,1887. The two of them settled in Pine Creek, had two children, and lived happily until Simcox passed away in the 1910s.

Sarah herself lived a few years longer. She died on September 29, 1932, and her obituary ran the next day. She was said to be buried in the Woolrich Cemetery, but there isn’t a marker there for her—I’m not sure if one ever existed; Sarah didn’t have a lot of money by the end of her life. Her husband’s grave is marked, however, and she is likely right beside him—An empty space that’s a testimony to an interesting life.