Profile
Catalog Number
2020.9.509Title
Doesburg, Jacob O.Description
Image of Holland MI resident Jacob O.. Doesburg's record of service in the "Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, Vol. 25", obituary in the October 14th, 1904 edition of the Holland City News on page 8, and image of him.History
2nd Lieutenant Jacob Otto Doesburg was born on April 8th, 1838 in the Netherlands. He came to America with his parents and siblings in 1848. On August 14th, 1862 he enlisted with the 25th Michigan Infantry Co. I, in which he served until February 11th, 1863, when he was discharged for disability. After the war, he opened a drugstore that he operated his whole life. He was one of the first printers in town, as well as the first druggist. He lost his store in the 1871 fire, but rebuilt and reopened. He passed on October 6th, 1904 at the Grand Rapids Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI of stomach cancer. He is interred in Pilgrim Home Cemetery.The 25th Michigan Infantry Company I was largely made up of Dutch immigrants from Holland, Michigan and its surrounding areas. The company is most famous for its involvement in the Battle at Tebb's Bend, where roughly 200 Union soldiers repulsed an attack by the Confederate general John Hunt Morgan and his raiders. The 25th Infantry was also involved in several campaigns in Eastern Tennessee and Sherman's March to the Sea, where the 25th fought at Tunnel Hill, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, Kingston, Allatoona, Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, and Kenesaw. The regiment also took part in the siege of Atlanta. The regiment was mustered out on June 24th, 1865.