Confederate Widows' Pensions

[18thVirginia]

The list of Confederate widows pensions for Texas can be accessed here, but to find the information, you'll have to look at familysearch.com or ancestry.com:

https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/pensions/

Here's some pension information for Ellen Bennett of Grayson County, Texas.

 

[18thVirginia]

This is the affidavit that Mrs. Bennett has lived in Texas since before 1900 and that she has not remarried.

 

[18thVirginia]

A statement by someone who served with the deceased soldier was often required for Confederate Widows Pensions, affirming that he was loyal to the Confederacy. William C. Coleman had served with Alabama cavalry units.

 

[18thVirginia]

Mississippi Confederate Widows Pension lists are available at http://www.mdah.ms.gov/arrec/digital_archives/pensions/.

Also at https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1936413

Mississippi began granting pensions in 1888, but they were only available to veterans wounded in their service or to their widows and/or orphaned dependents.

Here's one granted to Mary Emily Brown Mills, widow of John Henry Mills.

 

[GS]

I have records of my twice-great grandmother applying for widow's benefits to the State of Alabama, but none of her ever receiving a penny. She lived until 1903. Likely, the State was too deep in its economic woes, the destruction of its little infrastructure that it had before the War, and other challenges... to care.

 

[18thVirginia]

I'm unsure about the Confederate pension records and rationales for any given state. Your gggreat might have applied in the period before there were many widows' pensions issued or when there were income and asset restrictions. Or been entangled in bureaucratic snarls, like that which beset Mary Bethard's application shown above.

Here is the Alabama Archives site: http://www.archives.state.al.us/index.html

Okay, just found this on the ancestry.com that Alabama did not grant widows pensions until after 1899

During the 35 years after the Civil War until 1900, only disabled soldiers were receiving a pension from the state of Alabama for their service. In 1899, the State Legislature authorized pensions for Confederate veterans who weren't disabled and resided in Alabama or for their widows. https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1593
​

Alabama Civil War Service Cards File

http://www.archives.state.al.us/civilwar/index.cfm

 

[18thVirginia]

Confederate Widows Pensions - Tennessee https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/tennessee-confederate-pension-applications-soldiers-widows

Tennessee widows pensions were first issued in 1905. Sample widows pension:

 

[18thVirginia]

Tennessee Confederate Widows in a Parade
https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/tennessee-confederate-pension-applications-soldiers-widows

 

[18thVirginia]

North Carolina Confederate Widows Pensions

Sample File from North Carolina Confederate Pensions
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/File:North_Carolina_Confederate_Soldier's_and_Widow's_Pension_Applications_DGS_4810273_14.jpg

About North Carolina widows pensions:

Widows of soldiers who were killed in service were entitled to the same benefits as long as they did not remarry. Any person, however, who owned property with a tax value of $500.00 or received a salary of $300.00 per year from the nation, state, or county was not eligible. The law was amended to include widows of soldiers who had died of disease while in service. In 1901, a new pension law was passed, in which, "Every person who has been for twelve months immediately preceding his or her application for pension bona fide resident of the State, and who is incapacitated for manual labor and was a soldier or a sailor in the service of the State of North Carolina or of the Confederate States of America, during the war between the States (provided, said widow was married to said soldier or sailor before the first day of April, 1865)" was entitled to a pension. No person holding a national, state, or county office for which he received $300.00 annually, no person with property valued at $500.00 or more, or no person receiving aid under laws for relief of totally blind and maimed was eligible (inmates of the Soldiers' Home, recipients of pensions from other states, and deserters were excluded from benefits under the pension acts, although inmates of the Soldiers' Home were granted quarterly allowances of $1.50 in 1909 -- increased to $3.00 quarterly in 1913).
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1911763

​

 

[18thVirginia]

Arkansas Confederate Widows Pensions - Arkansas Archives - http://archives.arkansas.gov

Arkansas started giving pensions to Confederate widows and mothers in 1915. Confederate veterans became eligible in 1891.

​

Arkansas records at ancestry.com https://search.ancestry.com/search/...401&o_lid=0000703401&o_sch=Affiliate+External

At familysearch.com https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Arkansas_Confederate_Pensions_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

Arkansas has an archival section where you can look up family names. http://archives.arkansas.gov/research/browse-archival-collections.aspx

 

[18thVirginia]

Florida Confederate widows pensions:

In 1885, Florida started granting $5.00 a month pensions to veterans. Over the next 3 decades, Florida changed residency requirements, added militia members and widows and changed financial qualifications and amounts of pensions as new Confederate pension bills were put forth in every session of the Legislature.

The widow's application is filed with that of her husband and includes her full name, date and place of marriage, date and place of her husband's death, her place and length of residence in Florida, and proof of her husband's service. Some early applications also include the widows' date and place of birth. Confederate pensions were awarded to residents of Florida regardless of the state in which their service was rendered.​

Florida Confederate Pension applications: https://www.floridamemory.com/collections/pensionfiles/

 

[18thVirginia]

The Florida records seem quite easy to access.

A sample Florida Widows Pension Application

https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/167936

 

[18thVirginia]

Kentucky Widows Pension Applications

https://search.ancestry.com/search/...401&o_lid=0000703401&o_sch=Affiliate+External

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/e...pplications_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

Sample Soldier's Application

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/File:Kentucky_Confederate_Pension_Applications_DGS_434_1.jpg

 

[18thVirginia]

http://www.pspl.org/event/kentucky-confederate-veterans-and-widows-pension-records-1912-1946/

 

[18thVirginia]

A Kentucky Confederate Widows Pension application filed in 1929. http://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2012/02/

This blog page has a great description of the whole application: http://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2012/02/

The widow Forsythe and her husband had been married in 1886, when she was 26 and he was 41 years old. A statement from her physician explained that Helen Forsythe was no longer able to work and earn a living.

"Three or four years ago, I caused her to break up housekeeping," the doctor said. "She was a running a rooming house and making a good living and because of my advise (sic) she sold out and had to quit because she wasn't able to do it."
http://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2012/02/​

 

[18thVirginia]

Missouri Confederate Widows Pensions

Missouri Archives - https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/

Missouri granted pensions to veterans only, none to widows.

 

[18thVirginia]

North Carolina Widows Pensions
North Carolina Archives http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us

At ancestry.com https://search.ancestry.com/search/...401&o_lid=0000703401&o_sch=Affiliate+External

At familysearch.com https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/North_Carolina_Confederate_Soldier's_and_Widow's_Pension_Applications_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

North Carolina started awarding pensions in 1885 with widows pensions for soldiers killed in the war, provided they did not remarry. Pensions were $30.00 for a year. In 1901, the General Assembly enlarged the pension requirements to include all those soldiers who were incapable of working, and their widows.

 

[18thVirginia]

North Carolina Widow's Pension application of Martha Hoxit

http://www.ncgenweb.us/transylvania/Martha-Hoxit's-Widow's-Pension-Application.html

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

SO many were issued SO late!! 1905! Seems part of bringing our country together again should have been ensuring this happened immediately, post war.

Some of the Tennessee widows in that parade look awfully young, don't they? A part ofIs the car from around 1910? Those wonderful hats were, I think. Say they married as late as 1870- wives should be gosh, 60 or 70, being generous, no?

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

BTW, this thread is an amazing resource for all kinds of things- it's crazy how much information was required so viewing these files can give someone a LOT of news on ancestors.