by Diana Loski

What a difference a century makes. 

On April 9, 1939 a Gettysburg man celebrated his centennial.  When asked about the secret for his longevity, he said, “Don’t worry and keep busy.”  His name was Calvin Gilbert, and during the century of his life, he saw a rich blend of history throughout – and away from – his home town.¹

Calvin was born in 1839 at the home of his parents, Daniel and Amy Gilbert, at 35 Chambersburg Street.  One of ten siblings, he was the descendant of Barnabas Gilbert (his great-grandfather), an immigrant from Germany, and his wife, Catherine Bender, a Pennsylvania native.  Barnabas, who arrived in Philadelphia, was a close friend of William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin.  The pair served in the local militia.  When the American Revolution burst upon the Colonies, Barnabas was by then in his fifties and too old to enllst.  Instead, he served as the constable of Straban Township, a hamlet on the fringe of what would soon become Gettysburg.  Barnabas’s son, Leonard, fought with the Continental Army.  After the war, he too settled near his father.  Calvin’s father, Daniel was Leonard’s son, born in Straban Township in 1810.  He married Calvin’s mother in 1836 and was a carriage maker by trade – a popular business in the growing crossroads town.²

Calvin, the oldest son, excelled in his studies.  His favorite subject was history.  He left school at age 12, a common practice in those days, to become an apprentice to his father.  He served in that capacity until war broke out with the bombing of Fort Sumter shortly after his 22nd birthday in April, 1861.  He enlisted in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry, an Adams County unit.

An ardent Republican, Gilbert had cast his first vote in November for Abraham Lincoln.  The President had asked for volunteers to stop the rebellion, and Calvin Gilbert readily complied.  He almost was not accepted, as the family physician declared that he “wasn’t strong enough”, but Gilbert insisted, and the doctor eventually signed the form.  The young private served in Company F.³

Gilbert enjoyed army life.  He appreciated its structure, the camaraderie among the men, and the combined devotion they felt for the preservation of the Union.  Being musically inclined, Gilbert became the drummer of the regimental band, and enjoyed playing for the men of the regiment.  He saw action in the Shenandoah Valley during the summer of 1862.  In early 1863 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and was sent to Washington for commissary duty in the nation’s beleaguered capital.  He served in that capacity for the duration of the war, and ended with the brevet rank of Major in 1865.⁴

In 1862, Gilbert managed to obtain leave and went back to Gettysburg.  While there, he married his sweetheart, Lovina Rex, another native of Adams County whom he had known since the two were very young.  Five children were born to the couple: daughters Mary (Millie), Ida, and Emma Kate, and two sons named Calvin, Jr. and William.   While the sons married, none of the daughters did so.  The two eldest, though they managed to grow to adulthood, did not survive their parents.  Emma Kate, who did survive, was much like her father.  She was friendly, helpful, and continually curious.  An avid genealogist, much of the family history is preserved through her efforts.⁵

After the war, Calvin Gilbert moved his family to Chambersburg, where he served as the Superintendent of Schools.  He also opened an iron foundry there in 1868.  For two decades, the civic-minded veteran was active in local affairs, serving on various reunion boards and donating his time and talents to aid his beloved home town of Gettysburg, as well as his newly adopted town of Chambersburg.  After the war, the latter needed serious rebuilding after invading Confederates burned much of the town in 1864.

Calvin moved back to Gettysburg in 1894, when he learned that the iron foundry at Gettysburg was available for purchase.  Located on Franklin Street, the old foundry had been in use during the Civil War, and was badly damaged during the Battle of Gettysburg.  Additional damage had occurred when a boiler exploded in 1878, because the original boiler from 1838 had not been refurbished or replaced.  Considered a total loss, no one wanted the old foundry; but Calvin Gilbert saw an opportunity.  He worked on the old foundry for several years, and at the turn of the new century, the Gettysburg Foundry was running smoothly.⁶

For the next two decades, the foundry created ironworks that are still in place today on many historic forts and battlefields, from upstate New York to Florida.  At Gettysburg National Military Park, the cannon seen on the historic field are the actual artillery pieces from the Civil War.  Their carriages, sights, and caissons, however, are restorations.  Much of that work came from Calvin Gilbert’s Gettysburg Foundry.

In 1909, at the age of 70, Gilbert received an order from the Chattanooga National Battlefield for one hundred forty iron tablets to describe the events there in 1863.  He also received an order for several replica Revolutionary War artillery pieces for Stony Point in New York.  While many veterans looked toward retirement, Calvin Gilbert decided to work – it was something he relished.

When not engaged with his work, Major Gilbert took the time to help with the planning of Gettysburg’s Grand Reunion, for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the battle in 1913.  The reunion took many years to plan, and Gilbert was at the forefront of much of it.  He also served on the local school board, sat for five terms with the Borough Council, embarked on the purchase of new fire engines for the local fire company, and was an active member of the local GAR post.  In his spare time, he worked with his daughter, Emma Kate on the family’s extensive genealogy.⁷

In 1923, his beloved wife, Lovina, passed away at the age of 84.

By the time Calvin celebrated his 88th birthday in 1927, he was the last surviving member of Company F, of the 87th Pennsylvania.  Interviewed by a local reporter, Calvin reminisced about the Gettysburg he knew that was no longer in existence.  He remembered that the old Courthouse stood in the center of town at the Diamond (now called Lincoln Square).  It sported an old bell tower that chimed on the hour.  He remembered the rival newspapers, The Gettysburg Star & Sentinel on York Street, and The Compiler on Baltimore Street.  McClellan’s Tavern (now the site of the Gettysburg Hotel) was a place for local news and gathering, and he fondly recalled Skelly’s Tailor Shop on Baltimore Street where his old comrade Jack Skelly worked before he enlisted – and later died – for his country’s cause.⁸

“Gettysburg of 75 years ago was a small country town of about 1800 inhabitants.  The main industry of the town was carriage building, and almost every person worked at some branch of the business.”  He also explained that “working hours were from sunrise to sunset in summer and from November to March from daylight to dark. ”  The average starting wage was offered at twenty-five dollars annually in the years of his youth.  Once a worker had proven his ability, his salary increased – to perhaps thirty dollars.⁹

As the 1920s gave way to the 1930s, Calvin Gilbert passed his 90th birthday.  Having entered the world during the Martin Van Buren Administration, and having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Gilbert saw the stock market collapse in 1929 and endured the Great Depression.

In 1938, at the age of 99, Calvin Gilbert was one of the last remaining Civil War veterans.  He was the only veteran from Gettysburg to attend the Last Reunion at his hometown of Civil War veterans during the 75th anniversary of the battle.  Gilbert was in the crowd as he witnessed Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President, address the veterans at the dedication of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial on Oak Hill west of town.  Gilbert enjoyed seeing the President, and relished even more visiting the other veterans, most of them his age or even older, at the Tent City constructed north of town near Gettysburg College.¹⁰

When Calvin Gilbert celebrated his 100th birthday, on April 8th, 1939, he spent the day with his three surviving children, his seven grandchildren, and a bevy of other relatives and friends.  He was cheered to receive a congratulatory birthday note from President Roosevelt.  Gilbert had lived through twenty-five U.S. Presidencies and the devastating Civil War.  He also lived through seeing losses from the devastating World War I and the influenza epidemic.  He also knew of Hitler and the oncoming clouds of war menacing Europe.

Calvin awoke on September 12, 1939 and took his daily walk from his home on Springs Avenue near the Seminary.  He visited with several of the townspeople, who were glad to see him up and about, as he had been recently ill.¹¹

That night he went to sleep and never awoke.  The cause of death was listed as a coronary embolism.  He was buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery.¹²

In historic terms, a century is not that long a time.  However, for the Gettysburg man who lived through one, his lifetime was indeed an amazing period, from a rudimentary agricultural lifestyle to the industrial period, from war to peace and war again – and peace again.  From plenty to depression, and the beginning of recovery.  Through it all, the kindness, wit, and perspicacity of Calvin Gilbert has been preserved, and his amazing life in a place called Gettysburg.