John Levering ¹

  General Notes:

JOHN: b. April 19, 1826; m. Dec. 23, 1847, to Elizabeth
Wucherer, dau. of Thomas and Catharine Forman,
of Bryn Mawr, Pa. In March, 1849, they removed to
Cincinnati, O., and one year later to LaFayette, Ind.,
where she d. on Tanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 1887; b.
in Spring Vale Cem. He m. 2d, Jan. 12, 1889, Anna G.,
dau. of Joseph M. Ewing, formerly of Philad., and later
of Piqua, O., where he m. Julia, dau. of Judge Moses
G. Mitchell. Reside at LaFayette.

COLONEL JOHN LEVERING, U. S. V.
[From "Officers of the Army and Navy who Served in the Civil War."
Philad., 1893.]
COLONEL JOHN LEVERING was born near Philadelphia, Pa., April 19, 1826. He is a descendant of Wigard Levering who settled in that city in 1685 and became a large land-owner, and a grandson of Captain John Levering of the war of the Revolution.

In 1849, with wife and child, he removed to Cincinnati; thence, in 1850, to La Fayette, Ind., where he conducts a real estate and loan business, which he established in January, 1856, in the same building now occupied.
On the breaking out of the war, in April, 1861, at the instance of Governor Morton, he went to Philadelphia and made contracts for the equipment of Indiana troops. At the designation of Governor Morton and General J. J. Reynolds, in July, 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln, captain and a quartermaster of volunteers, and served in the Cheat Mountain (Va.) campaign. In 1862 he had charge of Post Gauley Bridge, W. Va., until August, when he was ordered to the Staff of General Pope, commanding the Army of the Potomac. Because General Pope was relieved soon after, he was ordered by the quartermaster-general to report at the headquarters of General McClellan, and September 21, 1862, reported to General Humphreys and was charged with equipping new troops after the battle of Antietam.
November 10, 1862, at the request of General Reynolds, he was ordered by the War Department to report with that officer to the Army of the Cumberland. February 17, 1863, he was appointed chief quartermaster at Nashville, Tenn., but was excused that service in view of expected transfer to the adjutant-general's department, to which he was commissioned by the President, with the rank of major, May 7, 1863, and assigned to Reynolds' Division.
In December, 1863, he was ordered with General Reynolds, from Chattanooga to New Orleans, where he served during 1864 as adjutant-general of the Defences of New Orleans, and of the Nineteenth Army Corps, and of the Reserve Corps of the Military Division of West Mississippi. On December 22, 1864, he was ordered with General Reynolds to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he served during 1865 as adjutant-general of the Department of Arkansas, and of the Seventh Army Corps, so assigned by the President, with rank and pay of lieutenant-colonel. March 2, 1865, he was commissioned by the President, colonel, by brevet, and confirmed by the Senate, May 9, 1865. In April, 1865, by department orders, he visited Fort Smith and Port Gibson, in the Cherokee Nation, on special duty of inspection. July 4, 1865, he was ordered to Memphis and New Orleans on an important errand to Generals Canby and Sheridan, and on August 7, 1865, on a like errand to General Sherman at St. Louis. In December, 1865, he was on special duty in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, with headquarters at Boggy Depot. On returning to Little Rock, he asked to be relieved from further military service. By Special Order No. 3, War Department, January 4, 1866, he was honorably mustered out.
Under W. D. G. O. No. 86, of 1865, issued to department commanders, General Reynolds awarded Colonel Levering the highest commendations on qualifications of staff officers; also when recommending promotion he wrote, "Colonel Levering entered the service at the very beginning of the Rebellion, and has served zealously and faithfully; has never been absent from his command in the field, except when compelled to be so by sickness contracted in the line of duty. He served as chief quartermaster in West Virginia at Cheat Mountain and Gauley River, and his reports on file in Washington prove him to be a superior officer in that department. As adjutant-general he has been equally distinguished in the Army of the Cumberland and Department of the Gulf. He is an officer of superior business ability. He has been commended heretofore by General
But, "Like an untimely frost upon the fairest flower of all the field," she was stricken down, in September, 1891. Though disease suddenly prostrated her, hour after hour she sang praises to Him who doeth all things well. In the quiet of a Sabbath evening she essayed to sing her favorite hymn: "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," surprising her weeping husband and friends with the pathos and melody of the effort. At the ending of the second line her voice suddenly faded away, as echoes from a distance. She had gone with it, and a new and rapturous song was hers to mingle with angelic greetings in answer to her intoned prayer.
In the funeral service which followed at the First Baptist Church, in which all the Protestant clergy of the city participated, the throng of people was so numerous as to require more than an hour in passing the bier. A memorial window in the Calvary Baptist Church of Denver, completed in 1892, is an ever present reminder of the loved and lost.

John married Elizabeth Wucherer Forman.