Last Civil War widow dies after keeping secret most of her life

Helen Jackson was, by most every account, the last surviving widow of the Civil War.

[NoNo-ngsl]

I think the fact the witness was still alive was a miracle itself. Just wow.

[mcq]

My mother was born in 1918, and she says she remembers when she was young, seeing Civil War veterans marching in Memorial Day parades in her town.

[jmace]

In 1975, I worked with a woman who was 75 years old. Her father was a Civil War veteran who fathered her at age 65. In about 2005, I worked with a guy whose father was born in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in 1905 and his grandfather was a Civil War veteran. It was not terribly uncommon in the South for an elderly veteran to marry a young woman as they received a veteran's pension for their entire life. It seems like it is so far away, but my grandfather (as a very small child) was hidden in the loft of their cabin "when the Comanches came" in Texas.

[StormyMonday]

This wasnt uncommon. My great grandmother befriended a widower at a nursing home. To repay her for her kind caring, he married her a few years before his death and gifted her his railroad pension

[bkind]

Her husband just wanted to take care of her as she took care of him. How sad that this happened to Helen. May she rest in peace.

[camoss]

The last person to collect a Civil War pension was a woman named Irene Triplett, who died in 2020 at the age of 90. Her father, Mose Triplett, was first a private in the Confederate army before defecting over to the Union. He was just shy of his 84th birthday when she was born in 1930, and was nearly 50 years the senior of his second wife, Elida Hall, who was 34 when Irene was born. Since she had mental disabilities, Ms. Triplett qualified for the pension as the helpless child of a veteran. She received $876 per year.

According to VA statistics from 2020, there were still 51 widows and children collecting Spanish-American War benefits.

[OcotilloTom]

This actually wasn't unusual for the time. The Depression and other events at the time made it hard on folks, this was just one way to survive. Good for her.

[SWog]

This isn't exactly what I thought of when I read "Civil War widow".

[daenerysdivine]

A Vietnam veteran at a nursing home asked me to marry him, I kindly refused. He said he wanted me to have his house, car, etc. since I was so nice and I took good care of him. I still said no, but that it was kind of him to offer. He was so sweet. Always asking how I was and offering life advice. He told me some interesting things that happened in his life. He was a great guy.

[robertwilson]

My coach, John Hottenstein, told us that his mother was the last surviving recipient of a Civil War veteran’s spousal pension. At Coach’s funeral in Humboldt, Kansas in the 1990s we observed at the family plot that his mother was 19 when she became John’s father’s third wife. John’s dad was born in 1848 and served as a drummer boy for the Union. He married John’s mother after his first two wives died when he was in his mid 70s. She survived into her 80s, still collecting the last Civil War pension.

[conmanumber]

This is very common for caregivers. I looked after a lady who was in this situation after looking after a Veteran. She was allowed to live on the estate till her last days.

[theoldhunter]

My great grandmother was born in 1896. Her father was a civil war veteran whose wife passed and left him with several children. He married a widow that was much younger with several children. They produced several children together. My great grandmother was the last of the yours, mine and ours children. She passed in 1997 at the age of 101. RIP Maggie Bolt of Jenks, Oklahoma.

[johnwilliams]

That was actually more of a business Arrangement than a marriage

[janetclaireSays]

It's so sad that Helen wasn't able to get his pension since it was his wish. I'll bet she could have really used it back in those days.

[sharonloomis]

That was not nice her being threatened like that. Glad she was finally recognized. Now, who was it that said a woman cannot keep a secret?

[bryan]

RIP Helen. I hope you're with your family again in the afterlife.

[MyLateralThawts]

I remember another story less than five years ago about the last Civil War pension being paid to a daughter of a veteran. She passed on since then, but her father had an interesting service, as he was a veteran who first served with the Confederacy and later volunteered and saw action with the the US army while the war was still being fought.

[marjoriemoser]

Heartbreaking that her stepdaughter was as cruel as she was. Silence is a testament of pureness of heart💜

[shariberry]

Truly remarkable, and very sad that she was treated like such a terrible secret, when it was he who asked her to marry him in the first place. I have a picture of my mother's paternal grandfather, a Union soldier who survived, with his wife, they both look extremely elderly and frail and this was taken in 1930.
My son worked in an old building in Austin, Texas that used to be a nursing care home for widows of the Confederacy. The last widow they had living there left in 1963.

[IndiaHavenwyck]

I met a man in 1989 who's father was a Civil War veteran. The man was 94 at the time. His father was much older than his mother. His parents were married in 1892, and he was born a few years later. His father passed away in 1942. He still had his father's fire arms, a uniform, a tent, his horse's saddle, and his discharge papers. I met with he and his wife on numerous occasion and heard many stories of what life was like for a Civil War vet.