Civil War Pensions

During the Civil War, soldiers who became totally disabled received a pension of $8 per month.  For soldiers who died, their widows could collect that $8 per month plus $2 for each of the soldier’s children under age 16.  At first, the pensions for widows terminated when the widow remarried though the children were still compensated.  Later, a widow who remarried could still receive the $8 per month, but only until her children were grown.  Payouts were made twice each year by a government paymaster.

Not surprisingly, there were problems with the pension system.  Many people were illiterate at the time, making the application process cumbersome.  The paymasters operated only in larger cities, requiring travel or the use of a proxy (who usually charged a fee).  For widows in particular, there may have been no official record of marriages or the birth of children, requiring many sworn affidavits to provide the required proof. 

With no enforcement mechanism, widows did not always report new marriages or chose to live “adulterously” to keep their pensions intact.  As a result, a law as passed in 1882 requiring pension recipients to be “of good character.”

In an earlier post, I discussed two of my great grandfathers who did not return from the Civil War.  John George Molz was killed during the Battle of Wilderness in 1864 while Isaac Reed succumbed to typhoid fever near Fredericksburg in 1863.  The families of both of these Union soldiers benefited from military pensions, but not without some difficulty.  Their pension case files, now online at Fold3, tell interesting stories.

Sophia (Gampper) Molz (at right in later years) promptly applied for and received a widow’s pension of $8 plus $2 for each of her four children (Ernstine, John George Jr, Carolina, and Susanna) in Bridesburg, Philadelphia.  While the pension for her children continued, Sophia’s reported her marriage to Jacob Yoos in 1865 and her stipend was terminated.  When Yoos became insane, she left him and lived with her sister in New York.  Five years later, and after serving as his housekeeper, Sophia married Joseph Meier, another Civil War veteran and a widower with four children.

After a change in the pension law in 1901 and after Meier’s death, Sophia could apply to have her pension from John Molz reinstated.  This request was denied because of her failure to divorce Yoos before marring Meier.  Sophia requested several rehearings claiming variously that she thought Yoos was dead when she married Meier, and later that Yoos’ actual death legitimized the union with Meier.  Again, her claims were denied.

While the pension examiner described her as “uneducated,” she was not to be cheated of the pension she thought she deserved.  Sophia applied again as the widow of Joseph Meier.  This too was denied on the basis that her marriage to Meier was bigamous and therefore invalid.  Sophia’s pension-related documents total 294 pages and includes copies of many family documents as well as depositions of her children.

Sophia continued to live in Bridesburg in the house that she and Joseph Meier built until her passing in 1920.  She and Joseph rest in the nearby Bridesburg Presbyterian grounds.

Mary Jane (Coleman) Reed (known as Jane) also requested a pension for herself and her three children with Isaac – Richard, Reuben, and Sarah Jane – in March 1863, less than two months after Isaac’s death.  However, this claim was abandoned because of Jane’s marriage to Henry Parker in September 1863. 

With the change in the law allowing benefits for widows with children even if they had remarried, Jane renewed her request in early 1869.  Perhaps because she was illiterate, Jane began by appointing Thomas S. Miller of Batsto as the guardian of her children.  Miller then applied for and collected the pension benefits retroactive to September 1863.  The first payment to Miller in May 1869 was a huge sum at the time – $683.25.  Through 1870, Miller was paid a total of $935.25 for the benefit of the children.

In October 1870 there must have been a falling-out been Jane Reed Parker and Thomas Miller.  Jane dictated a letter to the pension agency claiming that Miller had not made any payments in over a year and had spent the pension moneys to buy a horse and for drink.  She asked that he be removed as guardian.  The next month, Miller countered that he had made payments to various parties for the benefit of the children.  Among others, he paid Josiah Ford, Jane’s uncle, $100 for board and clothing.  This suggests that the children did not always live with their mother Jane and stepfather Henry Parker. 

Miller offered that he did not pay directly to Jane and Henry Parker because they would have spent the money for rum.  This disagreement resulted in an accounting by Miller that was accepted by the Burlington County Orphan Court as accurate.  It appears that pension benefits continued to be paid through Miller until 1877 when the youngest child, Sarah Jane, reached the age of 16.

Interestingly, the only known birth record for Sarah Jane Reed (at right in 1909), my father’s maternal grandmother, is the affidavit from midwife Elizabeth Moore contained in the pension case file.  While her brothers’ births were officially reported, Sarah Jane was somehow omitted. 

By 1900, Jane and Henry Parker had moved to Brookville in Ocean Township, Ocean County.  Jane passed there in 1902 followed by Henry in 1910.  They rest in the Reevestown Cemetery in what is now Barnegat, New Jersey.