@@giftofspeech She's one of those people that make me hope that Hell is real. Her father was trying to give something back to a girl who took care of him in his last days, and that evil cow threatened to destroy her if she tried to get what her father wanted to give the girl.
Yes my father was born in 1918 in deep rural Mississippi. He and his siblings also had those same stories. My grandfather was born in 1878 and had relatives that were veterans.
Thinking about that today it seems like how that is possible because the war was befor the automobile, etc. But in reality, it really was not that long ago. When talking about the Civil War it seems like it took place 3 to 500 years ago.
In 1975, I worked with a woman who was 75 years old. Her father was a Civil War veteran who fathered her at age 65. In about 2005, I worked with a guy whose father was born in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in 1905 and his grandfather was a Civil War veteran. It was not terribly uncommon in the South for an elderly veteran to marry a young woman as they received a veteran's pension for their entire life. It seems like it is so far away, but my grandfather (as a very small child) was hidden in the loft of their cabin "when the Comanches came" in Texas.
@@DCJNewsMedia unlikely given how old she was, that pension likely was long gone by the time the story got out and the daughter that scared her out of it was probably dead by then given she was older.
This wasnt uncommon. My great grandmother befriended a widower at a nursing home. To repay her for her kind caring, he married her a few years before his death and gifted her his railroad pension
We also can't lose context. Women only got the right to vote 10-15 yrs before this mans death. In other words the society was deeply immoral, infantilized women & put old men in positions of power over girls from 13 -17+, if they reached legal age w/o a husband they "had to" become wives or be labeled a disgusting, ineligible spinster. The crash of 29' was caused by men taking risky bets, just like what happened in 2008. We normalize behavior as if ppl of that era didn't have a clue abt personal autonomy, which is incorrect & wrong. Abuse effects all humans, regardless if popular/ polite society cares to lead with compassion or not. This is what gets lost when revisiting history. They were no better, no worse, they were human. Just like today. We have different technology that effects us differently. But the core of who & what humans are has never changed. We just learn & grow (hopefully).
If this were to happen today (a teenager marrying an old guy for his pension, no matter whose idea it was), no one would celebrate the union. It would be a terrible scandal. Yet this video acts like she was a victim and she should be celebrated. She never even lived with the man she married. I don't actually have a problem with the story but the media inconsistency. Now what is truly sad is she never remarried.
@@singingstars5006 Tell us u are bitter without telling us. lol We also can't lose context. Women only got the right to vote 10-15 yrs before this mans death. In other words the society was deeply immoral, infantilized women & put old men in positions of power over girls from 13 -17+, if they reached legal age w/o a husband they "had to" become wives or be labeled a disgusting, ineligible spinster. The crash of 29' was caused by men taking risky bets, just like what happened in 2008.
It isn’t uncommon today to have people in any nursing homes or end of life homes fall for or want to do this for their care giver & want to leave or give them everything they have in this world. This is how much people appreciate just being attended to & getting just a bit of someone’s time when they’re all alone. 😢
The last person to collect a Civil War pension was a woman named Irene Triplett, who died in 2020 at the age of 90. Her father, Mose Triplett, was first a private in the Confederate army before defecting over to the Union. He was just shy of his 84th birthday when she was born in 1930, and was nearly 50 years the senior of his second wife, Elida Hall, who was 34 when Irene was born. Since she had mental disabilities, Ms. Triplett qualified for the pension as the helpless child of a veteran. She received $876 per year. According to VA statistics from 2020, there were still 51 widows and children collecting Spanish-American War benefits.
This actually wasn't unusual for the time. The Depression and other events at the time made it hard on folks, this was just one way to survive. Good for her.
Mothers and wives got the pensions; but not a surviving father. Railroad workers' pensions were set up so if the widow remarried she would lose the pension. (I do not know the rules regarding remarriage for Civil War widows)
Seeing as she never collected the pension you cant just claim economics and shrug it off. Personally I think the man's daughter is an awful person to deny her that. Sure she married him for the money but had she been paid for the caregiving she was providing that the daughter wasn't? Much like today probably not or at least not much more than a token sum and like today uninvolved families take that with an astounding air of entitlement. They want free or cheap care but also dont want to pay for it or allow the estate to pay for it. Its never their job to care for dad but who boy can they do some mental acrobatics to make it your responsibility and their entitlement.
@@evil1by1 I would not be so quick, as you, to label Helen as a "gold digger" It is not unusual for a person to want to reward a caregiver in some way (usually in a will) However, if all the man had to offer was (obviously) that pension (that his kids could not get a hold of). I am assuming the family controlled his money or at least his assets at that point (or at least had control of most of the property.) The Great Depression was a tough time for almost everyone. Even people with surplus money as well as middle class professionals felt the pinch. For all we know, he was living off his savings at that point of his life.
@@here_we_go_again2571 Please re-read the comment. @evil1by1 is absolutely NOT calling the woman a gold digger, but is in fact in agreement with your comment.
A Vietnam veteran at a nursing home asked me to marry him, I kindly refused. He said he wanted me to have his house, car, etc. since I was so nice and I took good care of him. I still said no, but that it was kind of him to offer. He was so sweet. Always asking how I was and offering life advice. He told me some interesting things that happened in his life. He was a great guy.
@@joea5228 I feel as a former caregiver if you take a gift from a person in a nursing home that is so huge you are taking advantage of them. (if it's a house, car, a lot of money). I always politely refused it.
I wonder if that's how concubines worked in the time of the book of Judges, besides just a way to show their financial stability, but maybe some wanted just to take care of the lady.
in australia, its actually illegal to be given any substantial gifts, so anything more that things like flowers or chocolates violate the code of ethics
Same! I was thinking they unearthed something cool about the last CWW in an archive somewhere, showing she dressed like a man and fought on the front lines.
This is very common for caregivers. I looked after a lady who was in this situation after looking after a Veteran. She was allowed to live on the estate till her last days.
My coach, John Hottenstein, told us that his mother was the last surviving recipient of a Civil War veteran’s spousal pension. At Coach’s funeral in Humboldt, Kansas in the 1990s we observed at the family plot that his mother was 19 when she became John’s father’s third wife. John’s dad was born in 1848 and served as a drummer boy for the Union. He married John’s mother after his first two wives died when he was in his mid 70s. She survived into her 80s, still collecting the last Civil War pension.
@@mikep490you don’t know what the lady in this video received 🙄 1st admit that. And since the Secretary of Defense wasn’t at the funeral you attended you don’t know if the coaches wife was last recipient either. You need to stop telling that story like you administer the pension fund or something. Just cuz your coach 🙄 said it doesn’t make it true, sir. Geesh
@@lovemoves3312 "The last person to receive a Civil War pension was Irene Triplett, a daughter of a Civil War veteran, who died on May 31, 2020." "Following [Mr] Bolin's death Jackson decided against applying for the $73.13 monthly pension after Bolin's daughters threatened to ruin her reputation." Widows who married Civil War vets often kept it private, thus the reason there have been several "last widow" announcements since the late 90's.
My great grandmother was born in 1896. Her father was a civil war veteran whose wife passed and left him with several children. He married a widow that was much younger with several children. They produced several children together. My great grandmother was the last of the yours, mine and ours children. She passed in 1997 at the age of 101. RIP Maggie Bolt of Jenks, Oklahoma.
@@UsmctoWhy do you think it is fraud? She was his wife, therefore it would’ve been perfectly legal for her to collect his pension. That’s the law, is it not? It’s not as if she were claiming to be his wife when she wasn’t.
@@odietamo9376 Think about it like this. If this was modern day and they were, say, applying for a spousal visa or something the marriage would be deemed fraudulent because there is no proof of an actual marital relationship she never even lived with him
@@Powerduo88May I suggest watching RU-vid videos of people who have had near death experiences? You may be surprised at what Christians, non-Christians, and atheists have experienced. She is likely reunited with her family.
I remember another story less than five years ago about the last Civil War pension being paid to a daughter of a veteran. She passed on since then, but her father had an interesting service, as he was a veteran who first served with the Confederacy and later volunteered and saw action with the the US army while the war was still being fought.
I have an ancestor who did the same, but flipped. Joined the Union Army for the bounty, then deserted and joined the CS Army. I am guessing because our post-Germany roots are in Texas.
I met a man in 1989 who's father was a Civil War veteran. The man was 94 at the time. His father was much older than his mother. His parents were married in 1892, and he was born a few years later. His father passed away in 1942. He still had his father's fire arms, a uniform, a tent, his horse's saddle, and his discharge papers. I met with he and his wife on numerous occasion and heard many stories of what life was like for a Civil War vet.
There were a pair of sisters who appeared on a 1950's game show, because their grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War. He was around 11 when he enlisted and then his youngest son had children later in life; so his youngest granddaughters lived into the late 1960's and early 70's. The video is on RU-vid, if you search for "Delia and Bertie Harris"
My neighbors were a couple like this, her life was miserable by the veteran aggressive crisis and his children. Once he died they kicked her out of the house. Very sad these caregivers don't get recognition nor legal protection.
Truly remarkable, and very sad that she was treated like such a terrible secret, when it was he who asked her to marry him in the first place. I have a picture of my mother's paternal grandfather, a Union soldier who survived, with his wife, they both look extremely elderly and frail and this was taken in 1930. My son worked in an old building in Austin, Texas that used to be a nursing care home for widows of the Confederacy. The last widow they had living there left in 1963.
Such a tender way of telling the story. I'm sure the local news would cover the story the same way if a 91 year-old Korean War vet married a 19 year-old girl today.
A Civil War widow up until this video meant a wife of a soldier who died in the war. My Grandmother died a few years ago, but nobody would call her a WW2 widow because my Grandfather lived with her all the way until 1996. War widows were made widows by the war.
Think of it from the daughters perspective, who was probably an old lady herself considering her fathers age. Him leaving all his money to some 19 year old he barely knew. Stuff like this always gets messy even today.
@@GrannieOakley44 I pity the blind that doesn't see it for what it is. What is she give up to the ancient old man to get what he promised. Just to be intimidated out of it later! I'm sure her parents were behind the whole arrangement. Talk about Big Daddy pimping out his little girl
@@CAROLDDISCOVER-1983 Not in the least. The old man wanted to be able to provide for his caretaker and knew that by marrying her, he could do that since he couldn't pay her. There is no fraud in this and yes, she should have stood up for herself and claimed her rights...but it was a long time ago and things were different back then.
I suppose technically the title of Civil War widow would be correct for any woman who married a veteran of that war. But I think it would be a lot more meaningful if the marriage began before, during or shortly after the war.
is no one gonna talk about how she was 19 and she married him when he was 91.... while being his care giver... she probably just wanted the money but then got scared to actually go though with it
True, but times were hard back than. Woman married for money because that's the way it was, but 91 is a little too old. People did desperate things. TBH: They both could have been broke and poor or maybe the daughter was just a mean greedy selfish - - - - and didn't want the daughter or anyone else to have anything.
So very sad. Poor lady. It's also sad how her death now makes history truly history. It's sinful she didn't collect his pension or that it was paid to her before her passing. The man she cared for clearly cared for her and wanted her to be "looked after" after his passing. His daughter is rotten!
No she wasn't entitled to that. The daughter did the right thing. She was trying to commit fraud at the expense or her 90 yr old father. Hell to the no.. she was just an old gold digger. If this happen today we'd all call it what it is
He was living with his family full time and they were his primary caregivers. A 22 year old civilian woman does not need a lifetime government military pension. Were they legally married?
@samstone1964 I would agree with you, but I’m unsure if this is really fraud considering lots of people married in the fashion of business arrangements in older times. Definitely doesn’t need a lifetime pension though at 20.
@@basicallyno1722 If the man leaves his own money to her it's nobody else's business. But this is a war pension which is government money which she had no right to claim.
@@SamStone1964 that's a great point I had not considered. Youre saying the money wasn't "his" to give away like that. Thanks Sam. I think he may have wanted to protect this young girl he grew fond of at his deathbed. Times were tough in 1935 and many people weren't surviving the Depression. I understand why he wanted to do that and why she would be inclined to say yes. I also understand the fraudulence of the claim.
In the early 90s I worked for a short time at Julian Pie co, in Julian, Calif. The owner told me that her mother, at a very young age, married an old Civil War veteran. That woman was still living in a nursing home in 1990. I think the family came to California from ALABAMA. I WOULD have loved to have had a conversation with her! Her decendants still live in that town.😮😮
My great grandmother was born in 1889 and I was born in 1989. Anyway, she kept the shackles of her mother and we still have them to this day. Its just crazy how little time has passed since the Civil War if you think about it. I'm not making this up, my family seems to reproduce late Great Great Grandma 1857 Great Grandma 1889 Grandma 1927 Mom 1960 Me 1989 My son 2016
My white European ancestors were in shackles in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. All the white European slaves, men, women and children were murdered. The cruel Africans spared no white slave.
@@lloyannehurdEveryone’s ancestors were in shackles at some point in time like my white European ancestors were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. The cruel Africans spared no white slave, they murdered them all.
Same with my family. What is kind of crazy for me is that my family we had four generations alive. My great-great-grandmother was alive in 1993 and so there's a picture of my big cousin with my grandpa and my great-grandmother to prove it. Her dad was a civil war veteran having served as a private during the Civil War. What's crazy is that my great-grandfather served in World War 1 and lived long enough to see the invention of the modern car, man in flight, and man on the moon.
@@samgray49 could you give their birth years as I did? Not that I don't believe you, I'm just curious and a bit confused. Your great great grandmother or just great grandmother? Regardless your story is still intriguing.
I lived in St Petersburg Florida back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and there were several retired ladies who collected Civil War pensions. One told me it was during the depression as a way to survive.
She was the last of her era, the last to have met civil war veterans. Soon, WW1 widows will die out, since WW1 was 100 years ago. This is quite a rare circumstance of a 20 year old marrying a 91 year old, and there are few WW1 widows left, but most of them are now in there 90's or over 100. Its sad to see entire generations just disappear in front of our eyes, but its natural. This is the way of time.
Even though she was an adult when she married him, I am glad she continued to live at home with her parents. My great aunt is 88 and came from a family of 16 kids. Which means my great great grandparents were slaves. The troubling times of our country was not that long ago✌🙏
No it wasn't long ago at all. I've just turned 60 and I remember a house at the end of the lane where a lady would sit under a tree most days and keep order over all the little kids who passed near her house. Of all the kids, everyone loved her and wanted to be near her, even though she was kind of strict , nobody ever had 'to be told'. Our mothers told us not to bother her and she didn't want us hanging around, but she never seemed to mind us. "Let her have her freedom." I have no idea how old she was, but she was OLD to a five year old. It wasn't until much much later I heard the adults talking and found out she and her mother had been slaves, with her being freed as a teenager. She was the last of her family and had no children of her own. I remember seeing water fountains that said "WHITE ONLY" and two entrances to some places. It wasn't that long ago at all.
My white European ancestors were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. The cruel Africans freed no white European slave, they murdered them all.
She married him for his pension, and didn’t even live with him. Yet everyone here is basically saying, oh that poor woman. Hell, what was his state of mind when married her? Congrats to the daughter.
She was the widow of an elderly civil war veteran. “Civil war widow” suggests she was married to a soldier who died in the civil war. Such a deceiving story.
She wasn’t a widow in the truest sense. Never lived with him. Most likely never consummated the marriage. Calling her a “Civil War Widow” is nothing but a headline.
Dearest Helen 😢 I'm sry you lost your Husband and I'm Sry to hear that you had to keep that part of your life a secret 😢 I'm sure there were times you just really wanted to talk to someone about your exciting life and adventures I'm very glad you did get the chance to talk about it with someone. I hope you are with all of your family and friends now in that Castle in the sky and enjoying yourselves to the fullest cuz your All worth it ❤️ God Bless Everyone and Happy Holidays ❤
The Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890 finally gave Civil War Veterans a pension. Many whom were disabled. Then in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt executive ordered all Veterans over 62 a pension. So a lot of young women learned that these old men had a guaranteed source of income that could be passed on to the widow when the Veteran died. Lots of very young girls married old men. My Great Grandmother did this. Hey, life was hard back then so any way you can make it is a good thing. So this particular woman, even if her civil war vet husband was 15 when he served in 1865 at war’s end, married a considerably older guy.
@@MrLuckyCasinoHell doesn't exist, but I will lower my standards for you to hopefully get an intelligent answer "Why do you think either one of them are in hell?"
That is so rotten that she was intimidated by his daughter not to collect the pension. It was none of her damn business, and didn't affect her directly in any way! He wanted this girl to have his pension and by God, she should have gotten it. And she never married again....... So sad.
Must be a Confederate widow. Some Missouri regiments, like the 7th Cavalry, were CSA. Years ago Donald Sutherland played a Virginia (Virgin) Confederate veteran who married a girl 13 years old."The Last Confederate Widow" was the title. Another "Gold Rush" was started when President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill giving a pension to northern living veterans. Girls, as young as 12, went out hunting for a veteran.
@@xplorercolorado9224 exactly! I have ancestors who fought on both sides and I love them all, because if not for them I wouldn’t be here. I will not judge either because in that time people fought for what they thought was right, whether we look back and feel it was wrong doesn’t matter we weren’t there period. So it doesn’t matter which side he fought on you are absolutely right. The story was about a young girl considered a widow who didn’t take money from her husband’s death. I am in agreement with you.
That's like an 18 year old girl today marrying a WW2 veteran, and living another 80 years, dying in the year 2106. So someone in the 22nd century could be a WW2 war widow.
She agreed to get married to an elderly man for a pension and then never collected that pension and also never married again. What a sad story. She made a horrible choice
Why did she rate to be recognized she didn’t have to go through what my wife went through every time I deployed into a combat zone hell she wasn’t even alive during the civil war
It was the Great Depression so I can’t exactly blame her, but it seems fraudulent at the worst and dishonest at best, which is why the little boy was told not to tell anyone.
I can remember seeing several small houses on the shore near Bovouer on the Mississippi Gulf coast in the 1950s, that were furnished and provided residences for widows of Confederate Veterans provided by the UDC.
Surely no one could still be alive as a widow. That would have been 85 years since the Civil War ended. Even if the widow married at 15 that would make her 100. So they must have been built decades before.
@@dolandlydia Those shelters were built in the early 20th century and they survived the 1947 hurricane on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I think there were about 2 still living in 1950, and the houses remained empty for several years. Hurricane Camille in 1969 probably destroyed them. They were adjacent to Beauvior, Jefferson Davis's retirement home and library. Beauvior sustained some damage during hurricane Katrina in 2005, but was fully restored shortly thereafter, and remains open for tourists today.
@@dolandlydia What man? Who said they got married the year that the civil war ended...? Anyways there were still a few actual civil war veterans living in the early 50s at least so it's definitely possible. As we can see here a widow of a civil war veteran died in 2021....
Years ago I read a book (fiction) with this same story line. Old Confederate veteran marries a young gal shortly before his death. She gets his pension and lives a long life. I think it was titled "Last Confederate Widow Tells All". Good story.
Confederate soldiers were declared equal to U.S. veterans by an Act of Congress in 1957. They were called to arms by their state government to defend their homeland from invasion. Some Confederate widows and children even drew a pension, few applied. @@CAROLDDISCOVER-1983
@@Legendary_UA not true according to Reuters. Honestly found your statement fascinating so I did a quick check. You know today that means Google it. Several items on this. Basically Facebook is not always right. Besides the Confederate for traders and why would they be given the same rights as the US veterans? But then I thought that the government does odd things. Here's a snippet from Google. Is this where you got your information. This 1958 law? Posts shared hundreds of times on Facebook claim that a 1958 law “gave Confederate veterans the same legal status as U.S. Veterans,” citing U.S. Public Law 85-425, Section 410. The posts allege that “all Confederate graves were declared those of U.S. war dead.” This claim is false. Examples of such posts can be found here; and here; Public Law
People had harder times. My step-grandmother was sold at about 14 to take care of man and his house (blonde, white and basically a slave). She ended up having 4 children with the man. Then when he died she married my grandfather, and she was quite a bit older than him.
@@DeeBullock1836mine too. My cousin weaseled his own sister’s inheritance away from their dying father and promised him he’d always make sure she was taken care of. Then he weaseled my inheritance away by buying it from my mom for peanuts. Then he kicked his own sister out of the only home her 12-year-old daughter has ever known so he could rent it out and pay for the mortgage on the property he practically stole from my mom. Awful person. Evil. Vile.
@@tarabooartarmy3654 OMG!!! I am so sorry that happened to you and your aunt and niece…that is definitely horrific…I hope you can still find good in life, you’re worth it…
The wife introduced me to a friend of hers many years ago. Her name was Della, she married a man back in the 20's at a young age. Her Father-in-law was a Confederate out of Kentucky. Being a WBTS reenactor, I would sit and talk too her about him. She told me a lot of interesting things. A real history lesson indeed. She died at the age of 98 (I believe). She is missed.
My father was also born in 1918 and my great grand father was a civil war veteran he passed sometime in the 20's. Late enough that my father had vivid memories of him.
That was a lady from Shorter, Alabama. She was still drawing a pension from her late husband’s service in an Alabama regiment in the late 90s (last time I heard about her). When asked why she married such an old man, her reply was “better to be an old man’s sweetheart than a young man’s slave”. I guess she’s had a point.
To everyone who is against his daughter use ur heads. If your 90 yr old grandfather was getting married to a 19 yr old youe know it was for fraudulent gold digging reasons too and stop it. Its literally taking advantage of the elderly.
Sounds like her family was upset about not receiving a pension that was not owed to her. As a veteran , If I don't receive a pension after serving 8 years, she doesn't deserve a cent neither does her family after marrying someone 60 years after the war.
How does that make her a civil war widow? The husband didn't die in the civil war, they weren't married in the civil war, she had virtually nothing to do with it since she was born decades later. If a teenager marries a WWII veteran, that doesn't suddenly make them WWII brides or widows.
Such an interesting way to phrase this....she got married 71 years after the Civil War was over. She was born 52 years after the civil war was over. Her husband was a Civil War veteran; she didn't collect his pension and she's still considered a "Civil War widow"? wierd.
Right? REALLY stupid story. Gee lady, sorry your scam fell through. I think she was a manipulative hussy and the daughter was onto her. The violin music didn’t fool me.
Why not? Widow does not require you to draw a pension. If she was legally married to a Civil War veteran, then she's a Civil War widow. What's so hard to understand?
Finally someone with critical thinking skills. I can't believe all the comments saying shame on the daughter and how greedy she must have been etc etc...
I don’t exactly fault her, he asked her. The old man probably knew how hard it was to live considering he asked her to wed him in the middle of a depression (1935), and wanted to make sure his caretaker was taken care of too. Do I think she’s entitled to a lifetime pension? Probably not….but I can imagine the old man married her specifically to ensure this young girl taking care of him was going to be okay. Mid 1930s, times were tough!
2:36 "She was just 19 in 1936 when she married...". The US Civil War ended in 1865. How was she a Civil War widow? If you married someone in 1965 and your spouse fought in WW2 does that make you a WW2 widow? Such nonsense.
@@gray_mara she was not alive during the civil war. she did not experience her husband dying in battle during the civil war. The widow of a civil war veteran is way different than being a civil war widow, there were too many of them and they should not be dishonored by this modern twisting of words.
@@Stan_in_Shelton_WA As the granddaughter, daughter and sister of men who served in multiple wars and conflicts, I am deeply offended that you would infer dishonour from anything I said.
They’re trying to honor a potential gold digger. She obviously married him for the pension and the daughter rightfully intervened. If anything the good daughter should be honored not this insane woman.
@@laurie66 yeah big deal. I saw that too but thanks for bringing it up. Also indicated that she was pressured not to collect it. I guess I can be a little bit more fair. There's certain parts of different states where if you go in the cemetery it's not uncommon to find somebody 20 or 30 years younger than her husband. So if we go back to their time is probably more common. Also in certain parts of certain States define a man on his second or third marriage and has children 5 or 10 years older than his current wife. These places are also a great place for me to go hunt old vintage vehicles. Honestly I find when they express interest to be repulsed by it. No I'm not that old. That little bit background May demonstrate why I look at differently than some other people. It would appear that the man said honey child marry me and you collect my pension when I'm dead here shortly. So a minute and 38 seconds and demonstrated she got screwed on that deal too.
Wow, sometimes its easy to get caught up in all the evil in the world. Its things like this that just reminds me how how small we are. Such short lives we live with such heavy history.
There is a whole documentary on this subject - many Civil War veterans had child brides when they were old timers. They were a close - knit bunch that had to fight for their pensions because at that time they were considered hand outs and rhe government budgeted a third of its resources for them. Pension fraud was prevalent after 1865 so that could be why the sister stepped in too.
Technically she, woman in story, could’ve been entitled to it - but she was only married for about a year…and she wasn’t born anywhere near the ending of the civil war. She was born almost 50-60 years later ¯\_(ツ)_/ morally she’s not entitled to a lifetime pensioner’s fund
@@basicallyno1722 Age doesn't matter when collecting a pension - as long as she was old enough to marry and can prove marriage she was entitled to it, despite duration of marriage . They said the two were married three years til he died, but did not live together so I can see his sisters' point. The Civil War pension was even offered to women that remarried.
Helen lived at her parents house; did she even take care of her “husband”? Everyone hating on the stepdaughter, but maybe she knew something we don’t??
During the Reagan Administration there was a big push to reduce government agencies to save money. Most agencies of course fought to keep their budget and manpower. One man actually asked for his department to be shut down. He and his secretary were the only employees remaining of the Union Veteran's Pension Bureau. While some Veteran's Spouses were still alive, he felt that another agency should take over as no Union Veterans were left alive and only a few spouses were still alive. Many of these remaining spouses were women who married these Veterans, when the men were elderly and the girls were teenagers, to get their pensions.). Soon afterwards he got his wish. The Veterans Administration took over and handled the Union Veterans spouse's pensions until the last one died in 2020.
It was a business arrangement. She kept living with her parents, and he wanted his caretaker to have his pension after he died. Times were tough in the depression.
Confused by this. I mean, she’s interesting, but aren’t you technically only a civil war widow if your spouse dies, you know, **in** the civil war? I could marry someone now who was in Desert Storm…. if he dies, that doesn’t make me a Desert Storm widow.
No she's not. My aunt is still alive and she's a civil war widow. Her husband was born in 1848 and was a private in 1865. He was 93 in 1941 when he married my grandmother's sister who was 16 at the time. She's 98 and still kicking. She also didn't collect a pension. He died two years later and she also never remarried. He never collected a pension himself because he came from money and had no children so she got everything. Not rich per se but he never needed to collect a pension so she didn't but we have photos of her wedding day which was no secret. We have all the pertinent records including birth, death, marriage. We have the obituary from when he died listing her as his widow. We have photos of him in his uniform alongside other members of his unit. We have over 30 photos of him taken before 1900 so there is an extensive photographic record of his life. We have the letter from the congressman turning down the appointment to officer that is addressed to his father. The letter states that at 17 he was too young to be an officer in the union army but not a private. He never completed high school which probably factored into that. There are also three living witnesses to the wedding besides the documentation and all have signed affidavits. Census records from 1850 to 1940 show him as living in the same house that entire time beginning as a minor and eventually as head of house with siblings and a maid at one point. City directories exist from the 1880's to the 1943 one showing his last entry as being alive and married to my aunt. Probate records show her as widow and sole heir. I could go on but you get the point. Her autobiography will be published within a year of her death whenever that happens. She's still writing it. The two years she was married to him are very interesting. They traveled all over the place for about a year until he got sick. FYI, he was also a veteran of the Spanish American war and met 7 presidents, the Wright Brothers, Edison AND Tesla and Einstein. He sailed on the Carpathia to Europe to explore Europe and returned on the trip immediately prior to the one where the Carpathia rescued the passengers from the Titanic. At various times he owned three businesses, was a school teacher, a Sunday school teacher, a Teamster and in his later years got his PhD and taught history for a while. In the year he was married to my aunt they explored from Alaska to Argentina riding motorcycles and mules and trains and whatever was available and even spent a little time in the Amazon rain forest. I still have the orchid she brought back for my mother when Mom was little. I believe her book will be titled "My Life As A Civil War Widow And Other Adventures." But that might not be a final title.
I'm going ot look for it!! Has she considered applying for the pension now? It would certainly make the news. I bet the VW would make a special exception to him not fighting on foreign soil, lol.
You can see why the elderly man cared more for his caretaker than his own daughter... I've worked in senior care and this is one of the most emotionally distressing parts of the job I was not prepared for... Seeing how children treated their parents when their parents needed them...
