Born April 12, 1832, in Lockport, Niagara, New York. Erastus Purdy served in Company B 19th Infantry Michigan. He enlisted on 11 August 1862 in Allegan, Michigan. He mustered in as private on 5 September 1862 at Dowagiac, Michigan, for three years at 30 years of age.
Erastus Sebastian Purdy was farming in Vermont in 1860 before he entered service as a Union soldier.
Erastus married Amelia Wilson on 24 Dec 1857. Amelia was born on 28 August 1840 in Monterey Township near Allegan, MI. They had thirteen children, 7 sons, and 6 daughters. At the time of her death September 28, 1917, she was seventy-seven with 10 surviving children: Lily Jane, Elenora, Alfred, Albert, Grace, Edward, and Murrey, from which child descends this line to the member of Laura Belle Stoddard Tent 22, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861 -1865, Melissa, Lue, and May.
After Erastus mustered in on September 5th in Michigan, his regiment moved to Danville, Kentucky December 12, 1862, and duty there was until January 26. 1863, then to Louisville, Kentucky.
On board transport from Louisville to Nashville, Tennessee in February 1863, Erastus suffered from inflammation of the lungs which progressed to typhoid pneumonia on March 1, 1863. He was sent to Nashville General Hospital No. 15. Recovering somewhat he went to his regiment where they went through to Atlanta, Georgia.
At Atlanta, he was disabled with kidney disease and diabetes and was sent back to Chattanooga, then to Hospital No.2 in Nashville. April 1, 1865, he was at the General Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana. His wife Amelia visited him there.
He was then sent to Detroit where he was honorably discharged as private and came home in poor health. He mustered out on 23 June 1865 in Detroit, Michigan. One hundred and sixty enlisted men in his regiment died of disease.
After the war, the family moved to Naugatuck, Michigan along with his brother James K. Purdy and family and sister Jane Purdy Clark and her husband Francis H. Clark and family. Erastus and brothers James and Philetus owned and farmed large tracts of land.
In 1885 Erastus received a $2.00 a month pension which was increased to $12.00 in 1890 and paid quarterly.
Erastus and Amelia moved in 1895 to the northeast of Hopkins Station where they lived on 40 acres.
He died January 25, 1907, at Hopkins, Allegan, Michigan, MI. He was 74 years, 9 months, 13 days. He is buried at Maplewood Cemetery in Hopkins, MI.
His parents are Benjamin Purdy and Margaretta Murrey. His great-grandfather Benjamin Purdy Jr. b. 18 Oct 1743 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut served in the American Revolution with Captain Nathan Smith’s Vermont Militia. He died in Manchester, Bennington, Vermont, on 11 Dec 1828.
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