Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-05-04
REVOLUTIONARY WIDOWS.
Five Still Living and Drawing Pen-
sions From the Government.

Nearly all Of the WIDOWS of the he
roes c. 1776 have passed away. You
ian count those who are left on the
fingers and thumb Of one hand. Al
The b ginning OF 1898 there were seven
! but within the year two died. Now
on7y a Quintet CT aged women directly
come IS us with the continental army
| The race to be the last surviving
widow Of a Revolutionary soldier has
| finally narrowed DOWN to five octoge-
narians The youngest is 81 and the
| oldest SO years OF age. Usually it IS
| a remarkable thing for one TO be So
| old as so, but in this case it is re
markable that the widow Of a man who
fought for the independence of Ane-
lea 12O years ago should today be so
young These five relics Of the Revo-
luton are still carried on the pension
rolls and each one OF them draws S12
month. By name and residence they
are as follows:
Esther S. Damon, Plymouth Union.
VT, "a years.
Nancy Jones, Jonesboro, Tenn, 81
years.
Rebecca Mayo, New bern, Va, IS
years.
Mary Snead, Parksley, Va, 81
years.
Nancy A. Weatherman, Elk Mill,
Tenn, SO years.
Their husbands respectively were
Noah Damon, who served in the Mas
sachusetts continental volunteers; Ste
phen Mayo, who served in the Virginia
continental volunteers; James Darling,
who served in the North Carolina vel
unteers; Bowdoin Snead, who served
in the Virginia volunteers, and Robert
Babcock, who served in the Virginia
volunteers.
of course every one of these wide
was extremely young when she mar
ried her Revolutionary soldier and eli
of the old veterans were tn eescore
and ten and upwards when they : i
these girls to the altar. From the il
formation obtainable today it void
seem that most of these marriages
turned out comparatively happy. In
some the old soldier was not draw ing
a pension when he married-certeinly
an evidence of some love on the IA
Of the bride. One or two of the u r
riages seem to have turned out quite
unhappily. In three of them the bride
has ever remained true to the m rory
of her first love, but one of them has
buried three husbands since she buried
her soldier lover. Another has buried
one besides her soldier. The three
who have never married have of course
drawn pensions continuously, but the
two who have since married have only
drawn pensions while they have been
actual widows.
Although the revolutionary widows
were quite numerous a decade ago, of
late they have been dropping off pref
ty fast The five who are left bid fair
to last quite a while; in fact, they are
about an equal match in the race for
the last survivor. From now On it
will Of course become more interesting
thar ever to see which widow shall
be the survival Of the fttest
here is something interesting about
esCh case. E her Sumner Damon,
widow CT Nah Damon, " no served in
the Massachusetts troops, lives in a
quiet New England village, Plymouth
Union, Vt. She is one of the younger
ones. She is also ere Of the three
WI have n t ri i 2ince the death
Of tt If rev, lutionary husbands. Her
maiden name was Esther Sumner, and
Noah Damon led her to the altar in
1885, when he was &c yea15 old. She
was just Il years old, and he lived Is
years after the marriage, passing away
in 1853, nearly haI4 century ago, a.
ne age Of "a. They did not live to
3ther, or, in fact, within so miles Of
each other for a number Of years be-
-)Ia he died. They separated about 10
ycs-s after the marriage. He went
D New Hampshire and lived with a
l. liter by a former wife until he
di !. Mrs. Damon remained in P ym-
outh, VT, and never word did Esther
hear from Noah. He died unknown to
z, and his son-in-law did not take
the trouble to inform Esther of his
&c tn, but after he had been dead sew
eral years she learned Of his death by
accident and Immediately applied FOR
a pension, which, of course, was q. dn
cd her, and which she has enjoy con
.inuously ever since. She is L 0w 81
years old, apparently in as good health
IS a woman could be at that age, and
here is no reason to believe that she
will not draw a pension for some time
ID cine.
Noah first applied for a pension in
1S4S, some time after the marriage: in
act, not until he was SO years old
He then resided in Plainfif1eld, N. II.
His pension was allowed for two yea ~
actual service as a private in the Mas
sachusetts troops. He enlisted ct Mi
ton, Mass. in April, 1775, at the sge
of Is, and served 10 different periods
of service. He was discharged in Ma
1880, after serving under Capts. EbeI =
ezer Tucker, Stark, Sumner, FrenCl2s
White, Lapham, Clarke, Crane, Rich
ards and Champney, and Coils. Gill,
Titcomb, Proctor, Reed, Halves ard
Maj. Heath He participated in the
battle of Long Island, and it is inter
estingly recorded that he receive
with the other members of his CON
pany, $50 each for voluntarily engaz
| ing to serve for the town Of Miltol
as reinforcements. August IA, 177S,
| they each received $50 more from the
| town of Milton "as part Of their en-
couragement to go in the expedition
against Rhode Island In January,