Although about 65 Union Army Civil War veterans are buried at Graceland Cemetery, only two fought in the Confederate Army. One of these Confederate veterans was Madison Mines Kershner.
Madison M. Kershner's story started when he was born in 1844 in Virginia. His parents were William Kershner and Elizabeth Nicholas. Madison grew up in the Greenbrier area of Virginia.
When the Civil War started in 1861, the state of Virginia seceded from the Union. The citizens in eastern Virginia owned slaves and sided with the Confederacy. The citizens of western Virginia owned few enslaved people and mostly sided with the Union. In 1863, West Virginia became a separate state. Today, Madison's birthplace would be considered Greenbrier, West Virginia.
Madison M. Kershner enlisted in the Confederate military after the Civil War started in 1861. Madison was 17 years old when he joined the Virginia 13th Battalion Company A Light Artillery. Madison's unit became known as Otey's Battery.
In early March 1862, Captain George Gaston Otey, adjutant of the 1st Virginia Infantry, was assigned to organize a new light artillery battery. The recruits for this unit were from Richmond's upper and middle classes and transfers from other groups. Some native-born Yankees from Pennsylvania and Maryland also joined the mix. Captain Otey and his Company A battery were held in such high esteem that men who had served in other units as officers and NCOs joined the Otey's Battery as privates.
Madison's older brother, James Harvey Kershner, joined the Virginia "Monroe" Light Artillery when he was 24. Madison's other brother, Jacob Nicholas Kershner, joined the Virginia 27th Infantry Company D at the age of 21.
From 1862 until the Spring of 1864, Madison's Battery was engaged in numerous Western Virginia and East Tennessee operations. Otey’s Battery fought their last action at Appomattox Station, Virginia, in 1865 against George Armstrong Custer’s Yankee Cavalry. Madison's unit held off the Union forces for several days from attacking General Lee's main army.
General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9th, 1865. Madison Kershner's unit was included as part of Lee's surrender. During Madison's three years of service, 203 individuals passed through the ranks of his Battery. Nine men were killed or mortally wounded. Twenty-four others were injured but recovered. A total of about 44 men were lost in action. As a tribute to the unit's integrity and an indication of the Battery's quality, only five members were lost to desertion in its three years of service. Few groups, Confederate or Union, could boast of such a record.
Madison and his two brothers fought for the Confederacy, and all three survived the Civil War. After the Civil War ended, Madison M. Kershner married Victoria Mahood Diddle in 1866. Madison was 22 years old, and Victoria was 20. They had nine children on their farm in West Virginia.
In 1902, the Kershner family moved from West Virginia to Normal, Illinois. In 1910, Madison Kershner was 70 years old. His wife, Victoria, and three adult children were living with him in Normal, Illinois. Daughters Grace and Lide were both school teachers. Son Gaston Conrad Kershner was finishing training in the manual training department at Normal University.
The exact reason why the Kershner family moved from West Virginia to Normal, Illinois, is unknown. What is now Illinois State University was then known as Illinois State Normal University. It was founded in 1857 as an institution to train future teachers. Since three of the Kershner children attended the university to become teachers, the whole family may have decided to move to Normal, Illinois.
In 1914, the youngest son, Gaston Conrad Kershner, married Elva Shanklin in Bloomington. After their wedding, they moved to Muskogee, Okla., where he took a job teaching manual training. Today, we call manual training Industrial Arts.
A portion of the Kershner family moved to Fairbury in 1916. In addition to Madison and Victoria Kershner, children Lide Kershner and Frank Kershner also moved to Fairbury. Lide was beginning a long career as a Fairbury school teacher. Grace Kershner taught her whole career in Decatur schools.
In 1918, Madison M. Kershner died in Fairbury at the age of 74. He lived at 606 East Elm Street, and his obituary recounted that he had moved to Fairbury two years earlier. Madison M. Kershner was buried at Graceland Cemetery.
Son Frank Kershner died unexpectedly at age 50 in Fairbury. He died of a stroke and was also buried at Graceland.
In 1928, Grace Kershner retired from teaching at Decatur and moved to Fairbury to live with her sister, Lide. The two sisters never married.
In 1929, a book titled Roll of Honor: Record of Burial Places of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Army Nurses Buried in the State of Illinois was published. In that book, Madison M. Kershner was identified as a Confederate soldier buried at Graceland Cemetery in Fairbury. Unfortunately, the book's author misspelled his name as Madison Kirschner instead of the correct spelling of Madison Mines Kershner.
Victoria Kershner died in 1935 in Fairbury at the age of 88. She was buried beside her husband in Graceland. Sisters Grace and Lide Kershner both lived to be 76. Grace died in 1948, and Lide passed away in 1953.
Madison M. Kershner's life spanned his birth in Virginia, fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, moving to Normal, Illinois, and spending the last two years of his life in Fairbury. His daughter Lide Kershner spent her career as a teacher in Fairbury, teaching two generations of Fairbury students.
(Dale Maley's weekly history feature on Fairbury News is sponsored by Antiques & Uniques and Dr. Charlene Aaron)
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