Retirement in the 19th Century?

Fritz1255

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Apr 20, 2005
This question comes from searches that I have done on my Civil War relatives. Every one of them that survived the war collected an "invalid" pension, claiming that their health was ruined due to conditions they endured while enlisted. I have no idea if this was true or if they were "gaming the system", but it does bring up a question - what source of income would a retiree have at the time? Obviously not Social Security. Did businesses provide pensions of any kind? Or did they depend on their adult children for support? One particular individual who did not have children spent the remaining 60 years of his life filing for pension increases, and the impression I got from his pension file is that the pension examiners got pretty weary of the process. His pension file was about 700 pages, and I am still slogging through it!
 
Great question @Fritz1255 !!! I know some public employees, like teachers, started receiving public pensions in the mid-1800s. Other businesses followed around 1875 with it becoming fairly commonplace by the 1920s. I think the Civil War pensions became a basis for Social Security decades later.

Farming dominated the economy for most of the 19th century and most men worked as long as their health held out. As they aged, they typically reduced their hours and turned the most physically demanding work over to their sons or hired hands. I have read that in the year 1880, half of Americans worked on a farm and 78% of American men worked past age 65.
 
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As noted already, pensions were a new thing in the 1860s. The soldier pensions were the first of their kind and a really big political issue. At first a vet had to have suffered his debility as a direct result of his service. However, the GAR successfully lobbied to get the law amended such that any debility qualified and that drastically increased the rolls. Pensions were the majority of the federal budget for a long time.

Generally, people continued working as long as they could and did often live with relatives when they couldn't work. As for CW veterans, after the war organizations like the GAR operated old soldiers homes (the basis for the later Veteran's Administration) and a lot of poverty-stricken, invalid soldiers spent their last days in one of those. Larger cites also sometimes had poor farms and those took in a number of the worst cases of those without any family or resources.

It was tough getting old in the nineteenth century (ain't that easy now !).

Oh, and as for pensioners just bluffing their way into the big bucks that didn't happen much because the pension board required documentation and scrutinized the applications. They had to because the government was spending so much money on pensions that they couldn't afford to just give them away without proof.

puck_pensions.jpg
 
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Great question @Fritz1255 !!! I know some public employees, like teachers, started receiving public pensions in the mid-1800s. Other businesses followed around 1875 with it becoming fairly commonplace by the 1920s. I think the Civil War pensions became a basis for Social Security decades later.

Farming dominated the economy for most of the 19th century and most men worked as long as their health held out. As they aged, they typically reduced their hours and turned the most physically demanding work over to their sons or hired hands. I have read that in the year 1880, half of Americans worked on a farm and 78% of American men worked past age 65.
Social Security originated in Germany circa late Nineteenth Century. If memory serves at least several nations had it prior to the US one of which was New Zealand. Social Security is much different then a military pension because everyone who has worked X amount of years is entitled to one. Bismarck chose the age of 65 because the average German male per insurance actuarial data died at 65.
Leftyhunter
 
This question comes from searches that I have done on my Civil War relatives. Every one of them that survived the war collected an "invalid" pension, claiming that their health was ruined due to conditions they endured while enlisted. I have no idea if this was true or if they were "gaming the system", but it does bring up a question - what source of income would a retiree have at the time? Obviously not Social Security. Did businesses provide pensions of any kind? Or did they depend on their adult children for support? One particular individual who did not have children spent the remaining 60 years of his life filing for pension increases, and the impression I got from his pension file is that the pension examiners got pretty weary of the process. His pension file was about 700 pages, and I am still slogging through it!
I would think that vets getting pensions still got various odd jobs as best they could. The income tax didn't become law until 1913 so all jobs were off the books.
By 1913 ACW vets are at least in their early seventies so what ever job they got didn't pay much so taxes wouldn't be an issue especially as back then only the wealthy paid income taxes.
Leftyhunter
 
I would think that vets getting pensions still got various odd jobs as best they could. The income tax didn't become law until 1913 so all jobs were off the books.
By 1913 ACW vets are at least in their early seventies so what ever job they got didn't pay much so taxes wouldn't be an issue especially as back then only the wealthy paid income taxes.
Leftyhunter
For the most part back then family took care of family, might be 3 generations living on the same piece of land
 
For the most part back then family took care of family, might be 3 generations living on the same piece of land
Good point I forget that once upon a time family meant something. I have dealt with a lot of homeless vets so it's easy to forget that once upon a time there was more family structure. Not to say there weren't homeless vets from the ACW. In fact in Los Angeles around the turn of the 20th Century local citizens bought land for homeless ACW vets in what is now the Westwood section of Los Angeles . On the intersection of Wilshire Blvd and Bundy Drive one can see the old homes.
Leftyhunter
 
Good point I forget that once upon a time family meant something. I have dealt with a lot of homeless vets so it's easy to forget that once upon a time there was more family structure. Not to say there weren't homeless vets from the ACW. In fact in Los Angeles around the turn of the 20th Century local citizens bought land for homeless ACW vets in what is now the Westwood section of Los Angeles . On the intersection of Wilshire Blvd and Bundy Drive one can see the old homes.
Leftyhunter
I have 1870's county atlases, often multi generations lived in one house, but one will also see small family acreages with multiple dwellings.
 
I have 1870's county atlases, often multi generations lived in one house, but one will also see small family acreages with multiple dwellings.
No doubt. It's just after dealing with so many homeless vets over the years that once upon a time at least many families did take care of their injured vets family members. Not to say 21st Century families don't take care of their disabled veteran kinfolk but it's a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.
Leftyhunter
 
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