Cpl., 9th Maine Infantry
GAR – Captain Matthews Post 69, Missouri
1838-1913
Ariel Roscoe Prescott, born August 28, 1838, was the youngest of seven children born to Aaron and Ruth Brown Prescott of Vienna, Kennebec County, Maine.
On September 21, 1861, at the age of twenty-three, Prescott enlisted as a corporal in Company G, 9th Regiment, Maine Infantry. This unit was organized at Augusta, mustered in September 22, 1861, and on September 24th left Maine for Washington, D. C. During his three-year term, Prescott served with his regiment in Washington, D. C., Maryland, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina. He was mustered out of service, at the expiration of his term, on September 27, 1864.
After the Civil War, Prescott migrated with his growing family from Maine to Canada, to Minnesota, to Tennessee, and he settled in Springfield, MO, on June 28, 1885. He was a grocer and operated the Little Nobby Grocery Store in Springfield for years.
He was a member of the GAR. The September 1, 1912, Springfield, MO, Republican reported that Mrs. A. R. Prescott, as a surprise for her husband’s seventy-third birthday, entertained the Capt. John Matthews GAR Post and the Ladies Auxiliary Circle. Dr. W. C. Collard presented to the honored guest a “handsome gold-handled umbrella with his name engraved on it. The gift bespoke the high regard felt by members of the post for their comrade.”
Ariel Roscoe Prescott died on January 4, 1913, at age 74. He and Mary Ellen Prescott, who was born in Maine on March 19, 1857, and who died in Springfield on July 10, 1932, are buried in Maple Park Cemetery, Springfield, Greene Co., MO.
