"The last person to receive a US government pension from the American civil war has died.
Irene Triplett was 90 when she died last Sunday in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Her father, Mose Triplett, fought for the Confederacy and the Union in the civil war, which began in 1861 and ended with the defeat of the slave power in 1865. He applied for his Union pension 20 years after the war and in 1930, when his daughter was born, he was 83."
Cool story. There must have been more than a few young women that married old veterans for the financial security of a military pension and then had children with them. Lot's of testosterone back then.
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Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010
As explained in the article, in the Great Depression there were men whose sole attractive feature was their Civil War pension—-well maybe also their advanced age and the likelihood the “union” if you’ll pardon the pun would not last long. Wife was a poor, probably mentally disabled girl who would no longer be a burden to her parents. Interesting the daughter—subject of the article—hated living with her odd couple parents.
_________________________ “ What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”— Lord Melbourne
Posts: 18070 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004
Cool story. There must have been more than a few young women that married old veterans for the financial security of a military pension and then had children with them. Lot's of testosterone back then.
or lack capability to do dna testing.
Posts: 2543 | Location: KY | Registered: October 20, 2001
It was very common for young girls -- not always the prettiest or most marriageable in the village -- to marry old civil war veterans almost as a duty to take care of them in old age and incidentally to benefit from their pensions, which would then support her when she became a widow. The last civil war veteran died in 1956! This is why there were confederate widows homes in the South at least into the 1980's. These small pensions at least provided something, during good times and bad. It is not clear how the pension transferred to the daughter in this case, but her mother was probably very young when she married the old vet.
Posts: 1597 | Location: Virginia, USA | Registered: June 02, 2007
Originally posted by mikeyspizza: All together, the family collected $73.13 for 155 years, for a grand total of $136,021. Not a lot when you think about it.
$73.13 in 1913 (48 years after the pension started) was worth the equivalent to $1,893 today.
Inflation calculators don't go back much further, but reading an old census suggested that a family earning $100/ month in 1900 was doing well.
Her father, Mose Triplett, fought on both sides of the Civil War, first as a rebel and later as a Yankee. Mose realized he was on the losing side after falling ill before the Battle of Gettysburg. Almost 92% of his unit, the 26th North Carolina Infantry, was wiped out in the fighting.
Facinating story.
Complete guess on my part, but maybe Irene was determined to be mentally disabled and as a result was allowed to inherit her father's pension upon the death of her mother.
I don't know this for certain, but I assume that if pensioner dies with minor children, the minor children are entitled to the pension until they reach the age of majority.
If the child is determined to be mentally or physically disabled, then the child may be entitled to the pension for her or his remaining life.
It is still incredible to think that the lady was the daughter of a Civil War veteran.
Posts: 6623 | Location: Virginia | Registered: January 22, 2001
