Robert
Henry Mahatha
Robert H Mahatha was born in 1836 in Wilson Co Tenn. His parents are not known at this time but in the 1850 census he was living with his grandfather Isaac Mahatha, born 1800 in Tennessee. Robert enlisted in the Civil War on 7 Nov 1862 in the Navy serving on the Fairplay #17. Fairplay was a wooden riverine ship in the United States Navy and was originally built in 1859 at New Albany Indiana, for service on the Mississippi River and other waterways in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the war.
She was pressed into service at the start of the Civil War by the Confederacy but was captured by the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment on 18 August 1862, during a joint expedition to Milliken's Bend on the Mississippi. The Union Army took possession of the ship, and on 6 September 1862, Fairplay was commissioned into Federal service with Lieutenant Commander Leroy Fitch in command and transferred to the Union Navy on 1 October 1862.
From the base at Smithland, KY, Fairplay with Robert onboard, patrolled the Cumberland, Tenn. and Ohio convoying troop transports and Army supply ships, and searching out and shelling concentrations of Confederates ashore.
In August 1862 Fairplay was recaptured by the Union navy while it was transporting military supplies during the Vicksburg Campaign. On 3 February 1863, Robert was steaming up the Cumberland from the Smithland base to Nashville, Tenn, guarding a convoy of transports during a lengthy campaign. Robert, along with five other gunboats of the escort received word that the garrison at Dover, Tenn. was under attack by a large Confederate force. The small flotilla sailed at full speed to disperse the main body of attackers, taking them by surprise, and then returned to complete the passage to Nashville.
Robert continued to serve in the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers, and on 3 December 1864, engaged a Confederate battery at Bell's Mill near Nashville. The next day, with the USS Carodelet, Robert helped recapture two transport steamers, previously taken by the Confederates and held at Bell's Mill.
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Robert was discharged 28 Nov 1865. He married Selina Harding in Cincinnati in 1863 while on leave and they eventually settled in Newport. He was listed in the 1869 Newport City Directory living at 79 Rickey working as an engineer. Robert died 2 Apr 1892 at 850 Dayton Street in Newport, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Selina died 3 Jan 1896 in Newport and was buried in Evergreen.
Children of Robert Henry Mahatha and Selina Harding
Florence A Mahatha b-May 1864 in Newport; d-4
Nov 1957 in Cincinnati; br-Evergreen Cemetery
Alberta Mahatha b-28 May 1867 in Newport; d-4 Jan 1937 in Covington; br-Evergreen
Cemetery; m-George F Fulner
Robert E Lee Mahatha b-June 1874 in Newport; d-26 Feb 1965 in Cincinnati;
m-Maxine Mayme Batlzer
Albert Forest Mahatha b-Oct 1875 in Newport; enlisted in Army; d-Nov 1898 in
Huntsville, Madison, Alabama of diphtheria; br-Evergreen
Robert H Mahatha (infant) br-29 May 1880
Henry Mahatha (infant) buried in Robert Mahatha sec 20 lot 79 lot
Walter Mahatha (infant) buried in Robert Mahatha sec 20 lot 79 lot
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Children of Robert E Lee Mahatha and Maxine Mayme Baltzer
Albert Forest Mahatha b-11 May 1898 in
Cincinnati; d-4 Nov 1971 in Hamilton, Ohio; m-Margaret Allen
Florence A Mahatha b-7 June 1900 in Cincinnati; d-Nov 1980
Para Lee Mahatha b-1902 in Bellevue Ky. d-2 Apr 2001; m-Robert F Winkler
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Kentucky Post, Tuesday, 16 May 1905, page 5
Albert Mahatha celebrated the seventh anniversary of his birth at the home of his parents, Foote av. Bellevue, yesterday. Among those present were: Louis McGraw, Charley Burke, Wesley Terrell, George Rusche, Donald Wentworth, Albert Mahatha, Pearl Michaels, Florence Wettengel, Thelma Wentworth, Alma Sauer, Florence A and Paralee Mahatha.
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Kentucky Post, Wednesday, 27 December 1905, page 5
The 3 year old daughter of Robert Mahatha, 241 Foote av. Bellevue, fell down a flight of stairs at the home of Peter Bolser, Monmouth st. Newport and was severely injured. She was rendered unconscious. Dr. Marxmiller was summoned.