The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1883-11-24
A Long Wait For a Pension.
Washington CORRESPONDENCE Boston Adj
v~ertiser.

~vertiser.
Looking over some old papers in the
pension office the other day, the
difference between the old time and the
present methods of granting aid to sol
diers became very noticeable. Now, al
most any old soldier easily obtains re.
lief; then it was a matter involving the
c~lear5st proofs. In some cases even alb
iect poverty seemed necessary before
the government interposed to give re-
lief. One case, from the long CORE
sDoudence and interesting character Of
the claimant, is a sample of many. The
papers are very VOluminOus. They be-
Gin in 1919, when Col. Paul Dudley Sar-
geant Of Sullivan, Maine, asked for a
pension. His memorial showed that in
l772 he lived in Gloucester, Mass,
where he organized q body of minute
men. From his forwardness in the in
dependent cause he was blaCk-listed and
compelled to flee to Amherst, N. II.
Here he organized a regiment Of militia,
and SO ready was he that, before day
light on April the 10, 1775, he was on
his way to Concord with his command,
which Afterwards became q part Of
W]ashinEton's army, and was the first
BODY Of troops to enter Boston
after the evacuation the next March.
Here he fitted out the first privateer of
and took several prizes, with the pro-
cecds Of which Sargent paid his troops
out Of his own pocket. In June he
marched to New York, was IL all the
battles there, so that big regiment was
reduced from 727 men to 1877. He took
part in the battle Of Trenton, and soon
after resigned his commission for i'll
health, but kept on fitting out priv
ateers, of which he sent fOrtY-s6Ven sail
to sea. In later years his property was
lost by mislOrtunes, anu at the time
spoken of he was reduced to poverty,
living upon the sCant proceeds of a ferry
at Sullivan, the sole use of which had
been granted him by vote Of the county.
The pension was granted Mt first, but
soon taken away, or the score that he
was rich. He made an indignant pro-
test, and filed an inventory at the war
department, by which it appeared that
he was worth 81 $40, every little item of
household furniture appearing sCrup-
ulously in the shedule. The pension
was refused, although ample testimony
was shown that the old veteran, now rs
years old, owed about 1000. In 1923 he
made another effort. His ferry had
been superseded by a bridge, his occu-
patton was gone, and the schedules an
nexed to his inventory showed that the
scanty property had diminished to
1855, of which $500 represent
ed the tumble-down house in which he
lived, with his wife, three maiden
daughters, and a granddaughter. His
letter to John c. Calhoon, then secreta-
Ty Of war, was most pathetic, and REIN
forced by the testimony of judges of va
rious courts, to his deserving condition,
and of creditors to debts ten times the
value of his home. Still nothing was
done. The handwriting of the CORE
spondent showed the growing infirmi-
ties of Colonel Sargent, who in 1926 sent
again in trembling characters "the third
and last schedule to be made by Paul
Dudley Sargent, a colonel in the revolu-
tionary war. have not any property,
nor any income whatever. The fact is
/ have been living fer four years IN
charity and the sale of my furniture,
which is now entirely gone" At last,
! convinced that he was not too rich TO be
pensioned, at the age of eighty-one
and after he had waited in bitter dis
tress so long, the official granted him $40
a month, but too late to be of much good
for he died soon after. This is the rec
ord of the pension given so grudging.
ly, and withheld Illegally from the man
who led the first New Hampshire troops
to Concord, fitted out the first pri-
%vateer, AMI gave all his private means
without stint to the cause of indepen-
dence. 1t is in striking contrast to the
prodigal bounty now shown in dealing
with the yet young survivors Of Ii late
a