Nationally recognized author Bob O’Connor, a 1963 graduate of Dixon High School, has published his 41st book – a Civil War novel titled “John Lower 103rd Pennsylvania and the Christmas Pickle Tradition”.

While many believe the tradition of hiding a pickle in a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and rewarding the youngster who finds the pickle ornament with an extra gift had its origin in Germany, researchers found that most native Germans were unfamiliar with the tradition.

O’Connor found that the most likely source of the tradition was a Civil War soldier, John Lower of the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Since the author likes to write about war stories that are not well-known, writing about John Lower was right up his alley, he said.

The author found out about the story on a recent visit to friend Gary Casteel’s sculpture studio in Gettysburg. Casteel was working on a life-sized statue of a soldier kneeling on the ground in front of a green object, which was a pickle. Casteel told the author the story and introduced him to Cindy Gates, John Lower’s great-granddaughter, who lives in Gettysburg.

Gates has been pursuing the story of her relative for 25 years. Just recently, the story has come together.

In his research to gather facts, O’Connor found a passenger list with Lower’s family listed as arriving July 16, 1846, on the Ship Zurich to New York City.

Private Lower was an immigrant from Bavaria who ended up living in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. He and 12 others from St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Fryburg, Pennsylvania, enlisted to fight for the Union during the war. Lower and his friend, Sebatian Niederriter, both enlisted in Company H of the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

Over 400 from his regiment and an additional 1,900 Union soldiers were captured at Plymouth, N.C. on April 20, 1864. All were taken as prisoners of war to Andersonville Prison in Georgia. The soldiers were incarcerated there from May 3, 1864 until September 1864. Lower lost 70 pounds and suffered from congestion of the lungs and chronic diarrhea while a prisoner of war.

Eighty-seven soldiers from the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry died in the prison, with 211 losing their lives prior to the date the regiment was mustered out (June 25, 1865). Only 13 members of Company H (with an original compliment of 99 men) survived the war. Lower and Niederritter were two of those 13 who made it through.

The book includes the names of all 974 soldiers from all the regiments captured at Plymouth who did not survive their incarceration at the Confederate Prison at Andersonville. Those names were added to the book so that people would not forget even one of them.

Gates is descended from John Lower’s son, Andrew, who was the father of her grandmother Viola Lauer Sporer. Viola spent most of her childhood with John and his wife, Francisca. Viola passed on the stories of her grandfather to Cindy.

With the purchase of the book, the reader will receive a pickle Christmas ornament. The book’s retail price is $23.95. It is available at www.boboconnorbooks.com. Many of the author’s books are available locally at Books on First, 202 W. First St., in Dixon.

Small replicas of the Pickle Boy monument, designed by Cindy Gates and sculpted by Gary Casteel, are also available. The statue is dedicated to all POWs of all American wars. The statue shows John Lower on his knees, with his hands clasped as if in prayer. His head is down. He wears a worn, torn uniform from his time as a prisoner of war.

His shoes are nearly worn out, with his toes exposed at the bottom of one shoe. Near him lays a pickle, representing God’s gift through a kind Confederate guard, to keep him alive and help him survive the horrors of war.

The monument replicas are cast in bonded bronze and attached to a wood base. A limited edition of 300 pieces will be produced and sold to raise funds for the Pickle Boy project. The art pieces sell for $325 each. All pieces are signed by the sculptor and individually numbered.

The replica monuments are sold by Casteel Sculptures LLC, 789 Baltimore St., Gettysburg, which can be reached at 717-387-0461.

The replicas may also be purchased at Valleyartpublishing.com, a website featuring other works of Casteel. There is a store on the website for ordering the piece.

The site for the life-sized Pickle Boy monument has yet to be determined.

O’Connor, who now lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, is the son of the late Charles and Wilhelmena O’Connor of Dixon. O’Connor and his siblings delivered Dixon Evening Telegraph route 25 along Galena Avenue in the 1960s.