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Torbet Ganges

Torbert Ganges
1839-1897

Torbert and William Ganges were Civil War Soldiers buried here in Slate Hill.

The name Ganges is an interesting one. By 1800, there was a law banning American ships from transporting slaves. In August of that year, the warship USS Ganges rescued 135 naked Africans from two illegal ships. Unlike many ships at that time, instead of taking the slaves to southern states and selling them, they brought the people to Philadelphia, and the courts decided the Africans were legally free citizens. A judge decided that the people on the ship should use the surname Ganges, and they were released to the PA Abolition Society and subsequently sent to live in indentured servitude with Quaker families. Most were required to be taught to read, and men were to be taught to farm and women to do household work. We do not know for sure if Torbert and William descended from this line, but it seems likely that they were connected in some manner. (1, 2)

Based on the records we have access to, we believe William was born around 1832 and Torbert around 1839. Though Torbut is on the stone, the majority of documentation spells his name “Torbert,” so we have continued with that spelling throughout this project. Various spellings of “unusual” names were not uncommon in those days.

On the 1850 census, we find Samson Ganges and Mary Ganges, whom we believe to be their parents, though relationships were not indicated on the census at that time. Samson was 50, and Mary Ganges was 32. At the age of 11, Torbert is listed as a “boatman,” though it also clearly states he attended school within the last year and can read & write. (3)

We find Torbert again in the 1860 census, where he was a farm laborer; however, we do not find William. In 1864, when William was 32, and Torbert was 25, they both enlisted in the 32nd Regiment Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops, Company H. The 32nd was organized at Camp William Penn in Philadelphia. While there, Torbert was promoted to Sergeant, and William was promoted to Corporal. They were ordered to South Carolina, where they fought in the Battle of Honey Hill. The 32nd Regiment Infantry lost a total of 150 men throughout the war. A pair of officers and 35 enlisted men were mortally wounded or killed, while 113 died of disease. The Ganges brothers and the remaining soldiers of the 32nd Infantry were mustered out in August of 1865. Torbert had been demoted to Private in December 1864. (4,5)

Both brothers returned to the area. The 1870 census shows William and his wife Hester had three children: Mary, Elizabeth, and William. In the 1880 census, they had Elizabeth - 16, William - 10, Lillie - 6, T Burton- 4, and John J- 1. Mary would have been 20, so we like to think she had started her own life at that point.

William fought for 11 years for a pension, and it was not granted until 1901, the year he died, even though many of his neighbors wrote affidavits attesting to his rheumatism and bad vision. (6) Many of his children died before age 40, but John Johnson Ganges served in the Spanish-American War and was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri, where he settled. (7)

Torbert did get a pension sooner for an enlarged heart, rheumatism, and blindness in one eye. He married Ella Ross on May 5, 1870, in Yardley, but Torbert never shows up in a census again. Ella died in 1921 and does show up in the 1900 census. She was on the pension application and reports being born on March 1, 1841, in Maryland. We have no record of the couple having any children. (8)

Torbert lived a colorful life. In 1893, he helped lead authorities to Wallace Burt, a man who murdered the Rightleys. Wallace appears to have basically walked into Torbert’s home half-starved. Torbert occupied the man while alerting the authorities. Unfortunately, the authorities believed they deserved the reward money instead of Torbert (assuming they did not have a great relationship considering Torbert’s various arrests), and a legal battle ensued. Ultimately, Ganges received $498 out of the $1,000 reward for the capture of Burt. (9,10)

Ganges was later arrested for burglary and ended up in Eastern Penitentiary. (11,12) His last sentence was for 6 years and 6 months in 1895, and the judge stated he gave him a harsher sentence due to his two prior visits to the penitentiary.(13) During this last sentence, he fell ill and moved to the almshouse, where he died. (14)

Additional reading on Torbert can be found here: Torberts Journey.

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