Near this site stood the Custer Homestead of Emanuel and Maria Custer from 1856-1865, and for two years it was the boyhood home of Captain Tom Custer, younger brother of General George Armstrong Custer. At age 16, Tom misled a recruiter in neighboring Gilead, Ohio, about his age and enlisted in the Civil War. He later became the first person in history to earn two Congressional Medals of Honor, receiving them for capturing enemy flags at Namozine Church on April 3, 1865, and at Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865. During the Civil War his parents relocated to Monroe, Michigan. Tom continued serving in the Army during the Indian Wars in the West and often visited his brother Nevin in Tontogany. In June 1876, Tom was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn along with his brothers George and Boston, his brother-in-law James Calhoun, and his nephew Harry Reed.