Mason County pioneer/veteran helped arrest Jefferson Davis

November 11, 2024

Gravesite of Jesse Penfield at Riverside Cemetery in Custer Township.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

In honor of Veterans Day, we present this story of one of a Mason County veteran who played a pivotal role in the end of the Civil War. 

Jefferson Davis

On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Va. Days before, on April 2, 1865, Lee informed Jefferson Davis, president of the CFA, that he could no longer protect Richmond, Va., the capital of the rebel national. Davis and his cabinet fled to Danville, Va. During the next few weeks Confederate armies surrendered one by one. Refusing to admit defeat, Davis hoped to flee to a sympathetic foreign nation such as Great Britain or France, and was weighing the merits of forming a government in exile. Davis kept moving further south.

His hopes were squashed in part thanks to soldiers from Michigan, including one man who eventually called Mason County, Michigan home.

Under command of Lt. Col. Richard Pritchard, 20 men were selected from the Fourth Michigan Cavalry to find Davis and arrest him. Among those men were Jesse J. Penfield.

Col. Pritchard

Jesse Penfield was born in 1818 in Ontario, NY. He served as a farrier in Co. L of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, enlisting on Aug. 14, 1862 and serving until July 1865.

At Abbeyville, Georgia, 70 miles south of Macon, it was learned that Davis’s fleeing party had crossed the ferry over the Ocmulgee River and was moving southward toward Irwinville, 30 miles below Abbeyville and 100 miles south of Macon. Lt. Colonel Pritchard marched the regiment rapidly down the river road, and, after a 30-mile ride, reached Irwinville late in the night. There, he learned that he was now in advance of the Davis party.

Corp. George Munger of Allegan, soon discovered Davis’s encampment. He noticed two women moving rapidly away from the camp as the Fourth Michigan Cavalry approached and thought to himself that the women looked suspicious, so he stopped them and asked that they remove their cloaks. Upon doing so, it was revealed that the two “women” were Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina, both wearing women’s cloaks and shawls trying to escape capture (the cloak and shawl are now property of the National Archives).

Davis spent the next two years in prison and was released at Richmond on May 13, 1867, on bail of $100,000 (about $1.8 million in today’s currency). He and Varina then went to Montreal, Quebec to join their children. They later moved to Lennoxville, Quebec. Davis remained under indictment until President Andrew Johnson proclaimed, on Christmas 1868, amnesty for the former traitor, pardoning him and all other participants in the rebellion.

After the war, Jessie Penfield made his way to Mason County where he homesteaded 80 acres of land at what is now the northeast corner of Johnson and LaSalle roads. In 1867, Penfield was among the men who signed a petition to form Amber Township. He sold his land in 1885, the east half to Eli LaPointe and the west side to F. Kison.

Historical records show that Penfield’s personal life may have been slightly complex. He was married four times.

His first marriage was to Frances Lovina McWherter (1833-1875). They were married in Kalamazoo on March 12, 1850 and had four children: Mary (1851-1929); George W. (1854-1855); Julia Ann (1857-1917); and Belinda L. (1859-1943).

He did not have any more children with his other wives.

He was then married to Clara Guet (1830-1882) on Sept. 14, 1869. Since Frances lived until 1875, it is assumed that the two were divorced. Clara died in Amber Township in 1882. He then married Lucy Voorhis (born in 1821) on May 14, 1883. Lucy’s death date was not found.

On May 14, 1892, he married Charity Swears (1843-1893) in Ludington and remained married to her until her death.

Jesse J. Penfield died on Feb. 13, 1894 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Custer Township.

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