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Jaded_Prompt_15 t1_iwehfsn wrote

Reply to comment by gener4 in TIL the last Civil War widow died in 2020. by sturnus-vulgaris

> The war ended in 1865 and let’s say the guy was only 15 at the end of the war thus born in 1850. If he married a 25 year old at the age of 70 in 1920, SHE would still have been 100 at her death.

She was like 17 and his caretaker while he was on his deathbed.

They got married in name only right before he died because there wouldn't have been any work for her.

I don't even think there was a priest, but he wrote something in the family bible saying they were married and back then that was good enough.

So she got a widow's pension until the day she died.

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TheDrMonocle t1_iwelb5t wrote

>So she got a widow's pension until the day she died.

I may be wrong, but isnt it only $25? Also OP copied the article, apparently she never took the pension.

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Jaded_Prompt_15 t1_iwell13 wrote

It was a substantial amount around the Great Depression...

Which I'm pretty sure was around when they married.

But I'm going off memory, this just gets reposted constantly

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[deleted] t1_iwelox5 wrote

[deleted]

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[deleted] t1_iwgmfzc wrote

My grandmother claims to be a war widow even though her WW2 vet husband died of tongue cancer in 2001 and she didn't even meet him until the 1950s.

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RevengencerAlf t1_iwf8t7l wrote

What I've read is that she never claimed the pension and she didn't openly acknowledge it until very late in her life for fear of people jumping to the rather obvious (but in this case incorrect) conclusion.

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