The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-09

active interest in Grand Army and
Woman's Relief Corps matters.
AS briefly announced in these dis
patches on Wednesday morning, she
pleaded guilty in the Federal Court to
an indictment charging her with max
ing a fraudulent application for PEN
sion. alleging that she was the widow
of Silas j. Flynn. who served during
the War of the Rebellion in the 18th
Independent New York Artillery.
The arrest of Mrs. Flynn revealed
the life secret of herself and the
veteran whose widow she claimed to
be. More than twenty years ago she
couple eloped from the East. she leav-
ing a husband and he a wife, from
whom Neither ever obtained a divorce.
They came westward. living for a
time at Milwaukee and other places,
and then coming to Dakota with the
first great rush of settlers, settling at
Lake Preston in 1881. After reaching
Dakota they lived as husband and
wife, and the most intimate of their
wide circle of acquaintance never sus-
pected for a moment during all the
long years that they had never been
married. While residents of Dakota
they raised family. some of the child
rem now being grown.
Like a thunderbolt out of a clear
sky came the revelation that the couple
were not husband and wife.
During their residence at Lake Pres
ton both took great interest in Grand
Army and Woman's Relief Corps af-
fairs. Flynn died in May, 1900. and the
secret of their guilty love was revealed
in curious fashion. Mrs. Flynn friends
after the death of her supposed hus-
band. advised her to apply for a
x4ri1nxgsc 1,a -
%, 1890.
She hesitated, but they became so
persistent that she, fearing that if she
longer declined to do so the suspicious
of her friends would be aroused that
all was not right as between her and
the deceased veteran, finally consented
to sign the application papers and
make the necessary affidavits. Thus,
in the hope of keeping the secret of
herself and Flynn from the world, she
committed another crime, which drew
down upon her the sleuths of the Pen
sion Bureau. and resulted in her ar
rest, and the laying bare to the world
of the carefully guarded secret of
Flynn and herself. In her application
papers she claimed to have been mar
ried to Flynn at Lockport, N. Y, on
September 3, 1876 even giving the
name of a minister of the Gospel, who
was alleged to have performed the
marriage ceremony
Even then she might have kept the
secret to herself and Flynn had 1t not
been for other curious combinations of
| circumstancesIA About the time that the
Dakota Mrs. Flynn applied for a PEN
| sion as the widow of Silas j. Flynn,
the deserted wife of the old veteran,
Mary c. Flynn, CHANGED to read and
article in a newspaper which referred
| to the right of deserted wives of pen
sioners to share their tickle husbands
pensions.
She therefore made application to the
| Pension Bureau at Washington for
half the pension of Silas j. Flynn.
| Thus the officials of the Pension Blu
reau had two applications before them
for a pension on account of the SER
vices in the army of Silas ]. Flynn
The matter was referred to special
agents of the Pension Department for
investigation. They speedily ascertain
ed the truth as revealed in the papers
in the present case against the spurious
widow of the veteran.
1t is said that when the defendant in
the present suit was approached by a
pension examiner she readily confessed
everything. She had no desire whatever
to defraud the government, her only
object in applying for the pension be-
ing to allay suspicious on the part of
her friends that she was not the widow
of Silas J. Flynn, the man with whom
she had lived for a period of more than
twenty years.
Since the death OF Flynn she has
been earning a livelihood by sewing.
The minimum penalty for the crime
cimmitted by her in making a fraudu.
lent application for a pension is a fine
OF $1,000. Sentence will probably not be
pronounced upon her by Judge Car
land until Saturday of this week.