Levi Hensel was born February 29, 1832 in New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He was the fourth of twelve children born to John and Rachel (Barton) Hensel. Both of Levi’s grandfathers served in the military, his paternal grandfather, Frederick Hensel, having been killed during the War of 1812, and his maternal grandfather, Eli Barton, having served during the American Revolution.

By August 9, 1850, when he was just eighteen years old, Levi was evidently making his own way in the world, as he was not enumerated with his parents in the census of that year. His whereabouts at that time are uncertain, but he was known to be working at least part of the time as a correspondent for a New York newspaper, either the Times or the Tribune.

The year 1857 found Levi Hensel as far west as Clark County, Iowa, where he married Mary Jane Morrow on November 5th. She was the daughter of Thomas Adam and Esther U. (Scott) Morrow and was also a native of Tuscarawas County, Ohio. It is not known whether the two families had been acquainted back in the Buckeye State, or whether their similar origins were purely coincidental.

Very shortly after their 1857 marriage, the Hensels migrated to Kansas Territory, where they settled in the town of Seneca, in Nemaha County. Here Levi established a blacksmith shop. William G. Cutler’s History of the State of Kansas has the following to say:

“In 1857, a blacksmith’s shop was put up, consisting merely of four poles covered with brush, with a few boards over the forge. Its owner was Levi Hensel, who was able to utilize his powers either as a son of Vulcan, or as correspondent of the New York Tribune, for which paper he made one of the most valuable contributions descriptive of this immediate section of the country. The first birth in Seneca was Esther Hensel, daughter of Levi Hensel, born in 1859. Upon her birth, a town lot was conveyed to her by the town company in honor of the event. She died less than three years later.”

When the famous Pony Express was organized in 1860, and during its 18-month existence, Levi Hensel worked as a stationmaster and blacksmith. According to Chapter 3 of The Pony Express Historic Resource Guide:

“The backbone of the Pony Express was the station keepers. Though they did not receive as much notoriety as Pony Express riders in the historical literature on the Pony Express, they nevertheless were very important to the organization of the operation. While a good majority of the Pony Express riders are known by name, the identities of two-thirds or more of the station keepers are still unknown. At the Seneca station in Kansas, the station keeper, Levi Hensel, and his wife lived in a two-story house where they ‘set a splendid table’ and held many dances.”

The years of 1854-1861 were a turbulent time in the Kansas Territory, better known as “Bleeding Kansas” because of the violent clashes between pro-slavers, free-staters and abolitionists. The anti-slavery forces finally prevailed when Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861. By April 12th, the American Civil War had been initiated.

When President Abraham Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteers on July 2, 1862, the State of Kansas answered the call. Levi Hensel was among those that could not resist his President’s request for aid, and he enlisted in the Union cause on September 20th. He was quickly commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in Company G, 13th Kansas Cavalry.

This regiment was recruited during the months of August and September from the counties of Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Marshall, and Nemaha. They rendezvoused at Camp Stanton, where they were mustered into the U.S. service.

The 13th Kansas Cavalry was initially sent to the Indian Territory and was henceforth part of the Army of the Frontier. It then moved to Arkansas where it participated in the battle of Cane Hill and was warmly engaged at the battle of Prairie Grove. On December 27, 1862, it moved with the army by forced march to Van Buren, Arkansas. This march was made in extremely cold weather and the command was forced to ford a rapid mountain stream several times, resulting in numerous deaths from exposure.

In January 1863, it made another forced march, this time to Springfield, Missouri, in order to resist a threatened attack. There it remained through the spring, performing garrison duty. On May 19th, the regiment moved to Fort Scott and thence to Dry Wood, where they performed garrison duty for another two months. In August 1863, the regiment again took to the field, participating in General Blunt1s campaign against the irregular forces of Cooper, Cabell, Steele, and Stand Watie, which resulted in driving the enemy to the Red River and the capture of Fort Smith.

The regiment marched over 400 miles in August, 200 of which were during the last ten days of the month. They subsequently returned to Indian Territory, performing outpost and scout duty until October 6, 1863, when they were ordered to Van Buren, Arkansas and went into winter quarters.

In March 1864, Levi Hensel’s Company G was among those ordered to Fort Smith, Arkansas where they remained for the rest of the year, performing garrison and scout duty. While at Fort Smith, on March 25th, Lt. Hensel was appointed Assistant Regimental Postmaster.

The 13th Kansas Cavalry was ordered to Little Rock on March 3, 1865, where it performed guard and provost duty. On March 27, 1865, Lt. Hensel was awarded another appointment, that of Assistant Regimental Quartermaster. Levi was mustered out with his regiment on June 26, 1865. The men were subsequently discharged at Fort Leavenworth on July 13th.

Lt. Nathaniel Slosson, a fellow comrade of Company G, had this to say of Levi Hensel’s time in the service:

“He participated in the battles of Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, and the raid on Van Buren. The regiment lived hard and was very much exposed to cold weather on this raid. And a forced march was made to Springfield immediately after the taking of Van Buren, which broke down a great many men of the regiment. Lt. Hensel was always regarded as one of the best officers of the regiment and never sought to avoid any duty when he was able to perform it.”

After returning home from the war, Levi and his wife settled back into their family life. They produced three more children: Robert S., born about 1867; John Levi, born April 27, 1869; and Ellen M. “Nellie”, born October 3, 1872. He continued to be a prominent part of the community and was an Assistant Marshall and census enumerator for Nemaha County in 1870.

However, by 1875, Levi had moved his family to the Colorado Territory, settling at Silver Cliff in Pueblo County. Here Levi continued his career as a journalist, which must have proved interesting the following year when Colorado achieved statehood.

The Hensels evidently had problems with their marriage, the details of which are not clear, as Levi filed for and was granted a divorce from Mary Jane by the Arapahoe County Court on April 27, 1887.

Levi moved to New Mexico Territory shortly after his divorce, and on September 10, 1887 at Santa Fe he took as his second wife, Mrs. Lavinia Ada (Hull) Caffall, a widow. They moved to the town of Espanola, where they lived for a number of years before returning to Pueblo County, Colorado.

During his later years, Levi continued his journalistic work as a reporter for a local newspaper. He died on March 11, 1911 from gangrene of the lower extremities, and was buried at Roselawn Cemetery in Pueblo, Colorado.