General Uri Balcom Pearsall served his country as a General officer in wartime, his city as Mayor in peacetime, and the veterans of the Kansas Soldier's Home as their quartermaster. His tombstone is one of several large grey granite monuments under a tall obeslisk in Leavenworth National Cemetery, next to the former Soldier's Home (now the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center).
From the Kansas Historical Society, this biogrpahy of Gen. Pearsall, which appeared in the book "Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc.", Volume III, Part 2, published 1912: (
visit link)
Note: we have added some paragraph breaks and edited the length of the text as noted -- you're welcome :)
"Uri Balcom Pearsall.— To have accomplished so notable a work as did the late Uri B. Pearsall in connection with the commercial development of the city of Fort Scott would prove sufficient to give precedence and reputation to any man, were this to represent the sum total of his efforts; but General Pearsall was a man of broad mental ken, strong initiative, and distinct individuality, a potent factor in the early railway development of southeastern Kansas, and he served with distinction in the Civil war, in which his services were of incalcuable value to the Union cause.
Uri Balcom Pearsall was born in Owego, Tioga county, New York, July 17, 1840, son of William Sutton and Eliza (Balcom) Pearsall. His ancestors, paternal and maternal, were among the early settlers of America. . . .
General Pearsall was reared in Owego, N. Y., and acquired his education in Oxford Academy in that town. When he became sixteen years of age his father suffered business reverses, and he removed to Wisconsin and entered the employ of his uncle, Uri Balcom, an extensive lumber operator at Oconto.
At the outbreak of the Civil war, in 1861, on President Lincoln's first call, he raised an infantry company, known as the Oconto River Drivers. Previous to securing equipment they were drilled with "peavies" in the place of muskets, and Capt. C. M. Pearsall, the only son of the General, has in his possession two of those necessary implements of the old-time river driver, used by his father's company. Mr. Pearsall was elected first lieutenant of the company, but refused a commission, preferring to serve as a private.
As a member of Company H, Fourth Wisconsin infantry, he saw his first service and remained with this regiment until 1862. He was promoted to corporal and orderly sergeant, and in 1862 to second lieutenant, and was detailed as aide to Gen. W. T. Sherman.
He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-eighth Wisconsin, in 1863, and colonel in 1864. . . . While serving as engineer he constructed the Red River dam, at Alexandria, Porter's fleet, as well as preserving that section to the Union forces.
He was brevetted brigadier-general, March 13, 1865, and was successively in command of Fort Riley, Fort Scott and Fort Larned, Kansas, during the Indian campaigns of that year. He was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, Dec. 30, 1865.
. . . .
He was wounded at Dry Tortugas, Fla., and never fully recovered, this injury eventually causing his death.
In March, 1866, he located in Fort Scott, Kan., and engaged in the manufacture of lumber and flour and dealt in cattle. He was elected county treasurer of Bourbon county in 1874 and was reëlected in 1876 and again in 1878.
In 1880 he established a wholesale nursery business, which became the largest west of the Mississippi river . . . He continued in the wholesale nursery business until 1897 . . . .
He was for three terms mayor of Fort Scott, built and owned its street railway, and also built, owned and operated the first independent telephone line in Kansas.
He was president of the Ft. Scott Board of Trade and was recognized as that city's wealthiest and most progressive citizen. He was a director in the First National Bank of Ft. Scott, of the Missouri Pacific railway and of the Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis railway.
In October, 1898, he was appointed quartermaster of the National Soldiers' Home at Leavenworth, and served in that capacity until his death, Feb. 28, 1907. General Pearsall had attained the Knights Templars and Scottish Rite degrees in Masonry and was prominently identified in the work of that order. With Major Martin he founded Hugh De Payen Commandery at Fort Scott. A lifelong Republican, he was one of the influential men of his party in Kansas, but was disinclined to accept office in his later years.
General Pearsall married March 29, 1866, Miss Josephine M. Peck, daughter of Philonem T. Peck, of Clarksfield, Ohio, and a sister of Maj. E. J. Peck, of the Forty-eighth Wisconsin infantry, the Generals old regiment. . . . .
General and Mrs. Pearsall were the parents of seven children, of whom two, with his widow, survive his death. Lottie Mell, the eldest, born April 29, 1867, is the widow of Frank Worcester . . . Mrs. Worcester resides in Enid, Okla. . . . Capt. Charles McAllister Pearsall, the surviving son, was born in Fort Scott, Kan., May 4, 1878. He is unmarried. The deceased children of General and Mrs. Pearsall are: Mark Uri, born in 1869, died in childhood; Guy Balcom, born in 1873, married Clara Shoulder of Ft. Scott, Kan., and died in 1894; Eugene, born in 1884, died in childhood; Mary, born in 1880, died in 1882, and Uri Balcom, Jr., born in 1887, died in childhood." [end]