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View Full Version : News Missouri woman believed to be last Civil War widow dies


Deberg_1990
01-07-2021, 11:03 PM
Ummmmmm. Wow. She was 17 and he was 93 when they married in 1936



https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/missouri-woman-believed-civil-war-widow-dies-75116731


'FALLON, Mo. -- Helen Viola Jackson's 1936 marriage to James Bolin was unusual to say the least: He was 93 and in declining health, and she was a 17-year-old schoolgirl.

Bolin was also a Civil War veteran who fought for the Union in the border state of Missouri. Jackson was almost certainly the last remaining widow of a Civil War soldier when she died Dec. 16 at a nursing home in Marshfield, Missouri. She was 101.

Several Civil War heritage organizations have recognized Jackson’s quiet role in history, one that she hid for all but the final three years of her life, said Nicholas Inman, her pastor and longtime friend. Yet in those final years, Inman said, Jackson embraced the recognition that included a spot on the Missouri Walk of Fame and countless cards and letters from well-wishers.

“It was sort of a healing process for Helen: that something she thought would be kind of a scarlet letter would be celebrated in her later years,” Inman said.

Jackson grew up one of 10 children in the tiny southwestern Missouri town of Niangua, near Marshfield. Bolin, a widower who had served as a private in the 14th Missouri Cavalry during the Civil War seven decades earlier, lived nearby.

Jackson’s father volunteered his teenage daughter to stop by Bolin’s home each day to provide care and help with chores. To pay back her kindness, Bolin offered to marry Jackson, which would allow her to receive his soldier's pension after his death, a compelling offer in the context of the Great Depression.

Jackson agreed in large part because “she felt her daily care was prolonging his life,” Inman said.

They wed on Sept. 4, 1936, at his home. Throughout their three years of marriage there was no intimacy and she never lived with him. She never told her parents, her siblings or anyone else about the wedding. She never remarried, spending decades “harboring this secret that had to be eating her alive,” Inman said.

After Bolin’s death in 1939, she did not seek his pension.

She also realized the stigma and potential scandal of a teenager wedding a man in his 90s, regardless of her reason. In an oral history recording in 2018, Jackson said she never spoke of the wedding to protect Bolin's reputation as well as her own.

“I had great respect for Mr. Bolin, and I did not want him to be hurt by the scorn of wagging tongues,” she said.

Inman and Jackson were longtime friends. She was a charter member of the Methodist church where he serves as pastor. One day in December 2017, she told Inman about her secret marriage to a much older man. She mentioned in passing that he fought in the Civil War.

“I said, ‘What? Back up about that. What do you mean he was in the Civil War?’” Inman said.

Inman checked into her story and found that everything she told him was “spot on.” Officials at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield sent him copies of Bolin’s service information. She identified where he was buried, in Niangua.

She also kept a Bible that he gave her — in which he wrote about their marriage. Those written words were good enough for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and other heritage organizations to recognize Jackson’s place in history.

After a lifetime of avoiding her past, Jackson embraced it in her final years, Inman said. She spoke to schoolchildren and had a Facebook page dedicated to her. She enjoyed getting cards and letters.

She also found new peace. A stoic nature that kept her from shedding tears at her own siblings' funerals seemed to evaporate.

After Bolin’s relatives found out about Jackson's role in his life, they went to the nursing home and presented her with a framed photo of him.

“She broke down and cried,” Inman recalled. “She kept touching the frame and said, ‘This is the only man who ever loved me.’”

Pitt Gorilla
01-07-2021, 11:35 PM
Wow, that's pretty cool. Neat piece of history.

Hoopsdoc
01-08-2021, 04:22 AM
That’s an amazing story. Wow.

Frazod
01-08-2021, 06:15 AM
This reminds me of the story of Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who is the still-living grandchild of John Tyler, the 10th U.S. President (served from 1841 to 1845).

Dunerdr
01-08-2021, 12:09 PM
Why not file for the benefits though?

Chiefshrink
01-08-2021, 12:23 PM
:clap::clap::clap:

wazu
01-08-2021, 12:24 PM
Why not file for the benefits though?

Sounds like she ended up feeling too ashamed and wanting to keep it secret. This is a pretty damn sad story actually.

Boxer_Chief
01-08-2021, 02:22 PM
Would you rather have Helen Viola Jackson or Mahomes for the next 10 years?

- Deberg (probably)

Megatron96
01-08-2021, 03:02 PM
That's incredible. I drove right past Marshfield maybe hundreds of times back in the late '80s to the mid-'90s, I guess. Would've been really fascinating to have interviewed her back when i was studying Am. History.

eDave
01-08-2021, 03:03 PM
Reported for pedophilia. Yeesh.

Graystoke
01-08-2021, 03:08 PM
Wow, that's pretty neat.
93 and 17 is a pretty big age gap.
My Great Grandpa was 75 when he married his wife of 33.
They gave birth to my Grandfather and my Great Grandpa lived to see him graduate high school

Deberg_1990
01-08-2021, 03:12 PM
Reported for pedophilia. Yeesh.

Glad she clarified there was no intimacy.

Megatron96
01-08-2021, 03:45 PM
you're kind of weird, Deberg.

TinyEvel
01-08-2021, 05:04 PM
Big week for civil war news.

KCWolfpack
01-08-2021, 05:27 PM
The question I have is (and that the article didn't answer): Has the government actually been paying out this guy's Civil War pension to this lady all this time (over 150 years after the war ended)?

kevrunner
01-08-2021, 05:42 PM
The question I have is (and that the article didn't answer): Has the government actually been paying out this guy's Civil War pension to this lady all this time (over 150 years after the war ended)?

I read in another article that she never made a claim for his pension.

“After Bolin’s death in 1939, she did not seek his pension.”

http://https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/missouri-woman-believed-to-be-last-civil-war-widow-dies/2021/01/07/910f6eb2-5128-11eb-a1f5-fdaf28cfca90_story.html

kevrunner
01-08-2021, 05:47 PM
Pension payments grew gradually over time starting with that $8/month for a completely disabled private in 1862. A law passed in 1912 increased the rate to a maximum of $30 a month for both Civil War and Mexican War veterans

TimeForWasp
01-08-2021, 05:55 PM
Gold digger



jk

Pasta Little Brioni
01-08-2021, 06:36 PM
you're kind of weird, Deberg.

Yup. Odd as fuck threads

DaneMcCloud
01-08-2021, 06:40 PM
The saddest part is the very last line of the story

|Zach|
01-08-2021, 06:43 PM
This is incredible.

Rain Man
01-08-2021, 06:45 PM
Whenever she did icebreakers at meetings, I bet she always won the "Two Truths and a Lie" thing.

redfan
01-08-2021, 06:55 PM
Reminds me of Irene Triplett, the last surviving child of a civil war veteran. She passed just last year and was receiving a pension.

ROYC75
01-08-2021, 07:22 PM
Old folks back in the day were very private. I agree the age difference is odd, BTA some folk just did these crazy off the wall things.

But this is just a sad story of her caring this around all of this time.

scho63
01-08-2021, 07:40 PM
Wow, that's pretty neat.
93 and 17 is a pretty big age gap.
My Great Grandpa was 75 when he married his wife of 33.
They gave birth to my Grandfather and my Great Grandpa lived to see him graduate high school

POS REP to your Great Grandfather! :LOL: