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Slater
06-07-20, 07:23
Well, that's amazing. Never would have thunk it:

"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."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/irene-triplett-last-person-collect-100048991.html
jsbhike
06-07-20, 11:29
That's also kind of weird considering the wife details, but couples where one or both have mild(or more) mental retardation aren't uncommon then or now.

Can't recall which side, but one of the last widows married her son-in-law soon after the father/husband died.
chuckman
06-07-20, 12:48
That's crazy. That was a long time ago, and it wasn't.

My great-grandfather was a young teenager and fought for North Carolina, he worked on a farm and the owner of the farm sent him in his place. In the '70s my grandfather would tell me stories that his father told him. I always found a little weird that we were only a couple family generations removed.
jsbhike
06-07-20, 12:55
That's crazy. That was a long time ago, and it wasn't.

My great-grandfather was a young teenager and fought for North Carolina, he worked on a farm and the owner of the farm sent him in his place. In the '70s my grandfather would tell me stories that his father told him. I always found a little weird that we were only a couple family generations removed.

An interesting was, and was not, a long time ago story.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-02-20/president-john-tyler-born-in-1790-still-has-2-living-grandsons
ABNAK
06-07-20, 13:24
Only 1/8th of my family was here in the 1860's, the rest came in the late 1800's or early 1900's. On that one side however I had a great-great-great grandfather who fought for a Pennsylvania volunteer regiment. What were they called then, something like "Six Month Wonders" or similar? He was in the "Seven Days Battles" and then his unit was held in reserve during Antietam (lucky for him). His limited enlistment expired right after that and he GTFO of the Army. His last name was Kerr.
BoringGuy45
06-07-20, 20:01
I gotta hand it to that guy for still having some lead in his pencil in his 80s!
hotrodder636
06-07-20, 20:19
Wow. Never even thought that would be the case based on how long ago the war was.
fledge
06-07-20, 21:29
Interesting tidbits:

The pension was $73/month. I wonder how it was adjusted for inflation.

According to the article, sounds like her dad would have likely died at Gettysburg if he didn’t defect prior.
titsonritz
06-08-20, 00:07
I gotta hand it to that guy for still having some lead in his pencil in his 80s!

Thinking the same thing. It reminds me of this one old boy down in Mexico in his 90's he had kids living with him from 2 to 75 years old, don't recall exactly how many kids he said he fathered but is was over 20.