Casto, Isaac Alexander

Passed: 1938-03-06

Age: 90

Source: Jackson County Newspapers

Death Notice: 1938-03-07

Obituary Date:

Information: CIVIL WAR VET DIED SUNDAY; FUNERAL HELD-  I. A. Casto of Evans, better known to his friends and acquaintances as ""Uncle Zan"", and who as a lad of sixteen years answered President Abraham Lincoln's call for volunteers donned the uniform of Blue and fought to the end of the Civil War for the preservation of the Union, sank quietly to his death at the St. Joseph's hospital in Parkersburg last Sunday morning shortly after ten o'clock.  He had been seriously ill at his home for several days from heart disease and other complications and last Thursday he was taken to the hospital in the hope that his life might be saved.  He rapidly became worse and word came to inquiring friends and ralatives that it would only be a matter of hours until he would join his other comrades in arms who had heretofore answered the Death summons.      The death of Mr. Casto leaves but two surviving Civil War veterans in Jackson county, John Henry Mahan of Cottageville and E. C. McDonough of Ripley.  The three were great friends and the two survivors were grieved when they learned of their comrade's death.  Some members of his family said Uncle Zan had realized that the end was not far off and he planned his last rites in the most minute details and members of the family saw that all these details were carried out at the funeral service which was held at the home Monday afternoon in Evans with the Rev. John Wesley Garrison in charge and the body was then taken to Rockcastle for burial in the Barnett cemetery there among the graves of many of those whom Mr. Casto had known and lived among during his life, a greater part of which had been spent in that section of the county.      He celebrated his ninetieth birthday anniversary in January of this year and soon thereafter his health began to fail rapidly and two weeks ago his illness was such that the family and friends became alarmed and it was not long thereafter until it became apparent that the man who had gone to war as a mere lad was soon to answer the final roll call.  Three sons survive.  They are Vinton Casto of Evans, Lawson Casto of Rockcastle and Asbury Casto of Elmwood.      The following obituary was read at the funeral:  Isaac Alexander Casto, son of Benjamin and Sallie Shinn Casto, was born January 29, 1848, on Parchment Creek on the farm now owned by O. J. Parsons and died March 6, 1938, aged ninety years, one month, seven days.  He was the youngest in a family of nine children, all of his brothers and sisters having preceded him in death.  His brothers were Solomon, Joseph, Enoch, Michael and Mason Casto.  His sisters were Mrs. A. F. Parsons, Mrs. Elisha Stewart and Mrs. Lucretia Barnett.  The family of his father and mother were two of the earliest families to make a settlement in the present Jackson county when it was then Mason County, Virginia.  Directly after his discharge from the Union Army in 1865 he was united in marriage to Rozana Barnett and they established a home on the Kanawha River in Mason County where they resided for awhile after which they became residents on Little Spruce Creek in Jackson where they reared their family and in 1915 they became residents of Evans, West Virginia, at which place the wife died in 1932.  After his wife's death, Mr. and Mrs. Vinton Casto resided with him at that place where they tenderly ministered to his needs during his declining years that pleased him so much.  To this union was born the following daughters which have all preceded him in death, Miss Lona Casto, who died in infancy, Mrs. Florence Lathey, Mrs. Lucretia Woodard, Mrs. Bertha Woodard and the following sons who all survive him, Vinton Casto, Evans, Asberry Casto, Elmwood, and Lawson Casto, Rockcastle.      His honorable discharge from the Union Army dated at Baltimore, Maryland, on May 5, 1865, shows he volunteered as a private under Captain Mason in Company G, 13th Regiment of West Virginia Infantry on December 24, 1863, just a little more than six months after West Virginia became a state.  During this time he seen much active service throughout Virginia and other parts of the United States, a part of the time under General Sheridan, whose bravery and valiant services for the Union is yet known to every youth.  While yet a youth he was converted to Christianity and united with the Baptist Church.  It was he and other citizens who established a church and erected a church building now known as the Long Hollow Baptist Church in this county near his old home.  He remained a member and faithful attendant of this church throughout his long span of life until he changed his residence to Evans which made it impossible for him to attend.  He was a firm believer in the principles of his church and in the teachings of God.  (Three more paragraphs follow praising him as husband, father, citizen, soldier and Christian.)