ADRIAN — A piece of Lenawee County history has come home, thanks to a gift from an Oregon couple.
A few years ago, Lenawee County Historical Society vice president Bob Wessel received a phone call from David and Joyce Hunsaker of Baker City, Oregon. They had a Civil War officers’ uniform that had belonged to Ludlum C. Drake, a farmer from Dover Township just southwest of Adrian, and they were trying to find it a permanent home.
It was clear that the Hunsakers respected the uniform’s historical importance and wanted to make sure it would be cared for.
“They wanted to make sure we weren’t some fly-by-night little operation,” Wessel said.
But as the Hunsakers got to know the staff of the Lenawee County Historical Museum, they were reassured that the uniform would be in good hands, and they arranged a road trip to Adrian for this fall. They came to Adrian on Sept. 30 and Drake’s uniform took its place in the museum’s collection.
The Hunsakers had previously traveled to Idaho to have the uniform appraised by the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow.” In an episode of the show that aired April 17, they learned that it was valued at between $10,000 and $12,000.
“They could have sold it and gotten thousands of dollars,” historical society president Bruce Neal said. But instead they felt it was time for the artifact to “come home.”
Drake was in his early 20s when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1862. He served as a private until he mustered out in 1864. But he returned to service later that year, training to be an officer. He was placed over a regiment of the United States Colored Troops, which were units made up primarily of Black soldiers. In the segregated military of the time, units of the U.S. Colored Troops were required to have white oficers.
The unit that Drake served with saw combat at the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond and was present when Confederate forces surrendered at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
The courage displayed by soldiers in the U.S. Colored Troops helped in the fight for civil rights in the postwar era, and Wessel said the historical significance of those regiments is part of what gives the uniform its high value.
The uniform — which came to the museum along with Drake’s sash, sword, belt, and two medals from his postwar membership in Civil War veterans’ associations — is in unusually good condition, Wessel added.
How Drake’s uniform ended up with the Hunsakers is a story in and of itself. One of Drake’s neighbors had nine children, and when his wife died, Drake adopted one of his sons. This adopted son ended up inheriting Drake’s Civil War items. He had a son and a grandson, and that grandson ended up becoming a good friend of the Hunsakers. He had no heirs, so he gave the relics to the Hunsakers, knowing that they would take good care of them.
Ludlum died in 1924 and is buried in Hagaman Cemetery, on Lyons Highway just north of Horton Road near Sand Creek.
The Lenawee County Historical Museum is at 110 E. Church St., Adrian. Hours are Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information is available at lenaweehistoricalsociety.org.
