Civil War vet and early Gratiot County settler Nellebar Londry. (Courtesy of Douglas Londry)

The new Civil War headstone was installed by Londry and members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in June. (Herald photo - Selmon)

Londry’s father James, far right, on the battlefield in North Korea in 1951 with South Korean soldiers. (Courtesy of Douglas Londry)

by Emma Selmon
Herald Staff Writer

Over a century after being laid to rest, a Gratiot County pioneer finally has a proper headstone.
 

Nellebar Londry, a Civil War veteran and early settler of Lafayette Township, now has a headstone identifying his name and recognizing his service, thanks to the efforts of his great-great-grandson, Douglas Londry.
 

Londry has kept himself busy as a family historian over the years. Obtaining the headstone from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) was the last step in the process that he started with his late father, James, 15 years ago. With the help of the SUVCW, Londry was able to fill in some of the blanks in his family history — and leave a lasting memorial to the man who sacrificed so much for his family and his country.

Nellebar Londry was born in 1820 in Quebec and settled in Lafayette Township around 1856, working for a lumber barons to clear the land, his great-great-grandson said. When the lumber baron had finished with the area, he signed the deed for the property — 40 acres of land — over to Nellebar. After farming the land for several years, Nellebar went to Saginaw to join the 29th Michigan infantry in September of 1864. “He was 44 years old when he joined the military, but on his military enlistment, it shows he was 35,” Londry said. “So he must have lied about his age, which I guess was quite common.”

Nellebar was sent to Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he experienced “extreme fighting” and was injured, Londry said.

According to archives obtained from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Nellebar returned to Michigan in July. For being wounded in battle, he was issued a cane, which his great-great-grandson still has today. But that was the last aid Nellebar would receive from the VA.
 

In attempts to help Nellebar secure his disability pension, several of his neighbors — many of whom are buried nearby Nellebar — wrote letters to the VA on his behalf.
 

One neighbor, William Easlick, wrote that Nellebar “has been almost totally disabled from performing manual labor on account of Rheumatism disease of heart and eyes.” Another, Otto Schirmer, assured the VA “that [Nellebar] has no vicious habits & that he is a temperate man.”
 

Despite the kind gestures of his neighbors, Nellebar died in 1896 without having received any disability
pension. He was buried in the Lafayette Township cemetery with a gravestone that simply read “Father” and a large marker bearing the family name, which was misspelled as “Laundry.” The mistake, too expensive to fix, remains to this day, Londry said.
 

“I was told it was when they ordered the stone, the guy did it wrong,” he said. “Our name was Landry, but…they just wrote it down like it sounded: Laundry.”
 

Though Nellebar’s grave lacked a proper marker, his legacy lived on through his children. His son, Londry’s great-grandfather, built a house on Nellebar’s farm in 1899 that still stands today. And Londry’s grandfather, Mike, followed in his grandfather’s military footsteps to enlist in WWI.
 

While parts of Nellebar’s life had been a mystery, Mike Londry’s
service is well-documented through a “treasure trove” of photographs, medals, dog tags, and a diary that he kept during the war, Londry said.
 

When he enlisted in July 1918 at 23 years old, Mike was shipped to Archangel, Russia as a member of the famous “Polar Bear” unit. Although the WWI fighting officially ended on Armistice Day — November 11, 1918 — the “Polar Bear” unit found themselves stranded in the Russian winter, Londry said. They ended up fighting the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution all winter before they were finally able to leave in the spring, when the waterways thawed.
 

After returning from the war, Mike Londry had four sons, all of whom were involved in the military. Londry’s uncle Bill enlisted in the Navy in 1942, where he was stationed in Hawaii to help rebuild Pearl Harbor. His uncle Thomas served on the Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats in the Pacific alongside future president John F. Kennedy.
 

Londry’s father James was drafted into the army in 1950 and and was sent to North Korea, where he fought with the 7th Calvary, “right during the heavy fighting when the Chinese were there,” Londry said. And Londry’s youngest uncle Lester joined the navy in 1955.
 

From the Civil War to Korea and through all of the “hardships” they experienced, each of Londry’s family members made it back home. And through it all, the homestead that Nellebar founded remained.
 

Today, Londry lives where he grew up —on the farm his great-great-grandfather cleared, in the house that his great-grandfather built, and nearby Lafayette Cemetery where much of his family is buried. Londry is the fifth generation to live on the farm, and should his son and granddaughter chose to live there someday, they would be the sixth and seventh generations.