The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-16
AN INTERESTING CASE.
A New Ruling in the Pension Department in
Favor Of Mrs. Lake Of This County.

Yesterday Mrs. Josephine Lake OF Col
| witch. through Glenn & Baker was ap
prised of the fact that her pension claim
| which was appealed from the commits
siorer Of pensions to the department OF
| the interior was allowed. 1t was q very
| important case as there were peculiar and
| unusual circumstances surrounding it
Mrs. Lake is the widow of John Lake, late
| a member of Company Z. Fiftieth Illinois
infantry who died Oct. !. 1891. Mr. Blake
was pensioned during his lifetime for ma
larial poisoning and resulting disease OF
spleen and it was alleged that he died of
chronic rheumatism, contracted during
the war Mrs. Lake, as widow OF
the deceased fled her application
for pension, Nov. %, 1891. and it was re-
jected by the commissioners of pensions,
because of her inability to show that a
former marriage had been Dissolved by
death Of divorce prior to his marriage
with her. From that action the appeal
had been taken to the interior department
and was taken up and ruled on by Cyrus
Busey assistant secretary, who considered
the case on the question of legality of the
claimants marriage to John Lake 1t
was SuOWu Oy FcCcfo ctIOcuC0 LuaG LQfv
were married in Adams county, Ill, Sep
TENDER 81, 1875, and also shown tina.
they lived together continually until
his death: that they had children, three
Of whom are under 16 years of age. 1t
was shown that the soldier was previously
married in 1870 to one Emma E. Baker,
and was divorced from her in 1873, accord.
ing to the allegations of the claimant, and
on this point she offered, with other testi-
mony, that Of the said Emma +. Baker,
now married to man named Kinsiey and
living in Wilson comfy, Kansas. She
says she married Lake in 1870, and that
about a year later he left her. That from
that time she knew nothing of him except
in 1873 she received notice by seeing
published statement from a newspaper
that he had been divorced from her and
in 1874 she heard from some of
his friends that he Lad been killed
out west by the Indians; that she did not
know where the divorce proceedings were
had, but that. believing she was legally
divorced from the soldier. and further be-
lieving that he had been killed by the In
dams, she married Kinsley in 1876. with
whom she has since lived and coha bited as
his wife. This witness is said to sustain
an excellent character where she resides.
1t was also proven that the soldier repeat
eddy stated that he WAS divorced before he
the claimant, and while the
records of the divorce proceedings havs
not been found. the assistant secretary
says, in overriding the action of the COM
1.-THE claimant was married to the sol.
by the form prescribed by law; she
lived with him as his wife,
for sixteen years, and SO far rs the evil
dence shows, the legality of the marriage
was never disputed during all that time;
she bore children to him and is now bur-
dened with their support; she staid with
him in sickness and ia health until he
died; she has every moral right to be re-
garded as his lawful widow and in the |
opinion of the department she has also a
legal right"