Hiram P. Teed was born on September 22, 1833, in Tompkins, New York, to Lebbeus and Letitia Teed. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up in Tompkins, and he married Elizabeth Wakeman in 1858. Their daughter Isa was born around 1876. Teed worked as a farmer in Tompkins, and by 1860, he owned $300 of real estate and $200 of personal property.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 15, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company A of the 144^th New York Infantry on September 27. As one eulogist later wrote, his “patriotism and love of American ideals were very strong.” According to his service records, he was 6 feet tall, with brown hair and grey eyes. The regiment took part in the siege of Suffolk, the siege of Charleston, and the Battle of Honey Hill. He mustered out on June 25, 1865.

 

Teed returned to his parents’ household in Tompkins after the war, and he earned a living as a merchant. They moved to Towanda, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s, and he worked as a sewing machine dealer there. He applied for a federal pension in May 1888 and eventually secured one. The family moved to Burton, Ohio, in the early 1900s, and according to one local writer, he “entered in the life of the community and became a useful citizen in his quiet way.” His wife died in 1918. He was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Bath, New York, on October 27, 1919, and he remained there until April 25, 1921. He died in Burton on April 5, 1923.

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