William Green Quinn (1833 - 1905)

Born 22 Sep 1833 in Bibb County, Alabama, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Sep 1905 at age 71 in Basalt, Bingham, Idaho, United States

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Biography

William Green Quinn, the eldest son of Oliver Stacy Quinn and grandson of John “Jackie” Quinn was born in Bibb County, Alabama September 22, 1832. He married Susan Caroline Dotson, born in Oktibbeha County Mississippi June 5, 1850. Together William and Susan were parents of ninechildren. William and his wife lived in Mississippi where he was engaged in farming. He served in the Confederate Army and carried the flag for an outfit from his County which called themselves “The Oktibbeha Plow Boys”. After the war, William and his wife became interested in the Morman church. With others in the church the family made a move to Conejo County, Colorado but the move did not prove successful and they returned to Choctaw County, Mississippi. In 1901 William Quinn together with part of his family left Mississippi and moved to Basalt, Idaho where he died in 1905. He is buried beside his wife in the Firth Cemetary, Bingham County, Idaho.

Notes

1.William Green Quinn and his family as he appeared in his son James Alfred’s biographical Sketch: “I was born at Manassah Colo. Conejas County 19 Sept 1881, my parents having come there in the spring of 1880 from the state of Mississippi with a number of other converts to the L.D.S. faith. My parents not being accustomed to the climate and country, was not very well satisfied, so in the fall of 1883 we left there, seeking a milder climate. The means of travel was two teams and two covered wagons. We went down to (then) the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) spent the winter of 1883 there and made a crop there the following summer. We sold the crop in the field that fall and started on the road again, not knowing just where we were bound. But after traveling for about 7 weeks arrived in Choctaw Co. Miss. and bought back the same place they had sold when they left there for Colo.”....”In the spring of 1901 my two older brothers Bob and John and their families left Miss. and came to Idaho, located at Basalt Bingham Co. Idaho. The following spring 1902 the rest of us, my father, Mother, 2 younger brothers Duff and Grady my sister Mollie and her husband T.A. Griffin and their 2 children Wallace and Bertis came to Idaho also.”

2.”Battered Civil War Flag Recalls Bloodshed, Valor of Years Ago” Contributed By: Cody R. Johnson (Great-Great Grandson of William Green Quinn) Taken from the Idaho Falls, Post Register, October 14, 1955. [Treasured Heirlooms – a ragged Civil War flag and an original oath of allegiance signed at the close of the war, both nearly a century old, will find honored place in a museum in Salt Lake City. After years of being carried around, lost and stored, they are now cherished by descendants of William Green Quinn, who proudly carried the flag for the South during the war between the States. About thirty years ago, on a farm in Basalt, owned by John Quinn, stood an old shed, which through the years had collected a conglomeration of odds and ends, including a variety of dusty, moth eaten clothes. The family decided to burn these useless things, but first they went through the pockets of the clothes, and in a vest was found a square paper, yellowed with age, and creased by countless foldings. It was the oath of allegiance and amnesty form the state of Alabama, which was signed after the Civil War between the Northern and Southern States, and dated Sept. 13, 1865. But to go back to the beginning in 1861. Back to the Civil War, when the Northern and Southern States were just beginning their controversy over the problem of slavery. William Green Quinn, then a man of twenty-nine, was a volunteer for the South, and he, together with a group of young men, all volunteers, joined the Confederate Army, and formed an outfit which called themselves, the “Oktibbeha Plow Boys”. (Named after Oktibbeha County, where they lived). A group of civic minded women—women who were firm believers in their cause for justice, got together and made a flag for this company. It was a beautiful flag, and beautifully made. About sixty-eight inches long, and forty-six inches wide, mad of the finest material available. Three colors were used—red, white and blue. Seven six-pointed white stars were sewed in a navy blue background; two long stripes of red cloth were at either side and painted in red on a white background were the words “Oktibeeha Plow Boys—Victory or Death.” Thousand upon thousands of tiny stitches went into the making of the flag, each one so painstakingly placed that they resembled fine sewing machine stitching. Countless hours must have been used in its making. Flag bearer for the company was William Green, who gallantly served during the entire war period. After the war was won by the North, and both the Union and Confederate armies had disbanded, there was so much utter confusion, chaos, and untold bloodshed, that somehow among it all the flag Quinn had carried was lost. Exact dates are not known. Only those concerning the Civil War, which are recorded in American history. But many years later in an old abandoned building in Tennessee, this flag was found. It had lain for more than a quarter of a century amid rubble and ruin, but had miraculously stood the ravages of time. It was tattered, torn and unmistakable blood stained, but clearly visible was the painted lettering, “Oktibeeha County Plowboys—Victory or Death.” Through the efforts of some civic organization, the flag was traced because of the lettering Oktibeeha County, Mississippi, of which Ackerman is the county seat. At that time only three of the original Plowboys remained—West Christopherson, Doc Baron and William Quinn. They posed for a photograph with them holding the flag, but recent efforts to locate the picture have proved fruitless. After the war William Quinn was married to Susan Caroline Dotson, and they were the parents of nine children—Minnie, Robert, John, Martha Jane, LouElla, Mary Elizabeth, James Alfred, William Duff and Henry Grady. The latter two, the youngest, are the only survivors. The Quinn family were converts to the LDS Church while living in Mississippi, and moved West in 1901 settling in the old Basalt area, where William died in 1905 at the age of 73. The story and incidents were handed down by his children, and these were related by his son Duff Quinn, now sixty-nine, who resides in Firth. The other survivor of this family lives at New Meadow, Idaho. William Duff recalls hearing his father talk of the battle of Shiloh and the siege of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, where for six weeks one Confederate Army was surrounded by Union soldiers, all supplies cut off, and their food rationed mere nothing. In the evenings when the two armies would battle for a specified time, and after the evening meal was over, they would get together to swap stories, trade trinkets, and visit until bedtime. Then again at daybreak they would resume their bloody warfare. The flag, after William’s death, was kept by his wife, Susan, until she died in 1943 at age ninety-three. Her son Robert T. had possession until the time of his death in 1946. It was then given to William Duff. The family plans to have both the flag and the oath of allegiance and amnesty placed in a museum for safe keeping so that others might have the privilege of seeing these war mementoes. Another reason for keeping them in a safe place was an incident which happened in the winter of 1955. An early morning fire in the bitter cold of January, started in the seldom used upstairs, and completely consumed the farm home of William Duff Quinn. About thirty neighbors assisted the Quinns in their hour of need, and most of the first floor furnishings were save. Only one thing was brought down from the second floor—a battered trunk which held, among other treasured souvenirs, the Oktibeeha Plow Boy’s flag. No one remembers bringing it down the flaming stairway, and why it was saved, no one will ever know. A poem, which tells the story of the flag was written in memory of W. G. Quinn’s flag on Feb. 12, 1907, and is also cherished by the family. Grandsons and granddaughters living in the area include; Mrs. Lawrence Campbell, Rigby, Bob Quinn, Heise, W.S. Quinn, Idaho Falls, M. J. Quinn, Wahlon G. Quinn, Mrs. Clayton Hale, Mrs. Burton Clinkscales, and Mrs. W. W. Longhurst, all of Pocatello, Mrs. Steve Later, At. Anthony, and Wendell Quinn and Curtis Quinn, Shelley. Apparently carried around in his pocket for years, was the oath of allegiance and amnesty signed by William Quinn. The oath follows: “I, W. G. Quinn do solemnly swear that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of States thereunder; and that I will in like manner, abide by and support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.” It was sworn and subscribed before R. A. Steel, apparently notary public, September 13, 1865.]. This flag is now in the museum of the Sons of the Pioneers in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHPR-VFM : 12 April 2016), William G Quinn in household of Oliver L Quinn, Bibb county, Bibb, Alabama, United States; citing family 292, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14297099 Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHDH-B9L : 13 December 2017), William G Quinn in entry for O S Quinn, 1860.

• Year: 1870; Census Place: Police Beat 4, Oktibbeha, Mississippi; Roll: M593_744; Page: 387B; Family History Library Film: 552243Source InformationAncestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFDX-2J6 : 29 July 2017), Green Queen, Manassa, Conejos, Colorado, United States; citing enumeration district ED 28, sheet 169C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0089; FHL microfilm 1,254,089.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M96F-9FX : accessed 20 August 2018), W Green Quinn, Beat 5 (all territory north of I.C.r.r.) Ackerman town, Choctaw, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 32, sheet 10B, family 200, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,803.

• Birth year: 1832; Birth city: Bibb Co; Birth state: ALSource InformationEdmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

• "Idaho, Southeast Counties Obituaries, 1864-2007," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QVSX-KDRN : 26 July 2017), Wm Green Quinn, 1905; Idaho Falls Regional Family History Center, Idaho Falls; FHL microfilm 100,464,699.

• FamilySearch.org;James Alfred Quinn [KWC2-74S] Life Sketch;A brief story of the life of James Alfred Quinn Written by Bessie Quinn Fifield, daughter, as told to her by her father.

• Ancestry.com;contributed by Cody R. Johnson; taken from the Idaho Falls Post Register, October 14, 1955.