Biography :

Although his name doesn’t appears on the ships manifests in Boston harbor, there is great probabilities that he was one of the Belgians recruited in Belgium in 1864 by Louis Dochez to serve in Massachusetts.

He was admitted in the Home on January 15, 1887 suffering of chronic rheumatism and stayed in Leavenworth till his death on November 7, 1913 from myocardial degeneration. A solitary man it seems as “no friends known” was the note added to his registration file at the Home and no relative was mentioned.  He stated when admitted that his residence was Cleveland, Ohio. 

 It’s on the 1880 census of that town that I found the only information concerning him.  That year, an Augustine Decamps was living at the “Home of aged Poor” at Cleveland.  Following the census, he was 65 years old and “deaf and dumb”.  From his enlistment in the 30rd Massachusetts and the censuses taken during his stay at the Home in Kansas, his birthdate was rather around 1826-1834. Was he toying with his birth date to be accepted in the Home for aged Poor ? I cannot say! He is buried in the Kansas Home cemetery Section 24 Row 11 Site 38.