The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1905-11-08
ROLL DECREASES
List of Uncle Sans Pensioners
Now Growing Smaller.
SOME PENSION STATISTICS
Over Three Billions of Dollars Have
Been Paid to Civil War Pensioners,
but Every Cent Was Deserved.


with headquarters in Des Moines dis
perses nearly eight millions of dollars
annually. 1t has on its rolls at this time
54,71O pensioners. 1t stands ninth in
number of pensioners among the eigh-
teen agencies in the United States the
largest being at Topeka. Kansas, and
the smallest at Concord, Vermont.
These facts and many others of q
similar nature, are of interest in view
of the change which is to be made In
the head of the department about
the fret of December. There is gen.
eral feeling prevailing that the pension
business is dying out, that so fast are
the survivors of the various wars going
down to death that but few years re-
main for the government to carry on
the wonderful work of dispensing mon
ey to the needy who have fought for
the Stars and Stripes, or to those they
have left dependent.
This is an erroneous impression,
which will better be appreciated by the
citation of few facts pertaining to the
present pension rolls of the United
States. 1t is fact that there is at the
present time on the pension rolls OF
this government one pensioner of the
Revolutionary war. This person is q
woman, the widow Of Revolutionary
soldier.
She must have been some years
Younger than her long deceased hus-
band, it is true, inasmuch, IS she was
born nearly thirty years after the War
of the Revolution closed, but she was
nevertheless pensioner, on the rolls
of the government after century and
a quarter of years. This woman, Es-
Their s. Damon, who resides at Ply
mouth Union, Vermont, is 81 years OF
age, and is the last of the Revolution
ary pensioners, with the exception OF
four Daughters of the Revolution who
are paid pensions under special act OF
Congress.
The last survivor of the War OF 1872
died only last May. he was Hiram
Cronk of New York state, who lived to
be one hundred years of age, and was
drawing pension on the rolls OF the
Buffalo agency at the time of his death.
He must have served bis country when
he was very young. Since his death
che government still pays 776 widows
of that war.
Coming down to later date, but still
many years remote. is the war with
Mexico from which there are 4,54O sur
yivors on the pension rolls, and 1858
widows. Still nearer is the War OF the
Rebellion with It's nearly million
pensioners distributed as follows: inva'
lids. or in other words survivors. 1884,
6Os; widows, 246,686; mothers, 6,643
fathers, lao.
Here is the list Of Spanish-American
war pensioners: Soldiers, 15,711: Wild
ows. 1,O6s; mothers, 1851; fathers, 47S
Not out Of the Business.
It will be seen by these figures that
there ia every reason to believe that
the United States government will be
in the pension business for many years
to come. In fact, the high water mark
of pensioners In this country was
reached only last January, when atthe
close of that month there were on the
rolls of the government 1,OC4, 096 pen
sioners. This gradually decreased I'M
til on July 1, 1905. at the close of the
fiscal year, tA.SS:e were but $685. AL.
The one million mark will never be
reached again, in the opinion of many
experienced pension employees. DR.. A
H. Thompson, acting agent for the
Iowa.N ebraska district at this time. II
speaking of this said that without
doubt, unless some legislation not nov
anticipated should be adopted. the pen
sion roll will gradually decrease until
it dies out, but that this date Is many
many years ahead. There were 1892
pensioners dropped from the rolls b!
death during the past year, the rate o
decrease being about per cent.
The high water mark reached las
January has been subject OF mucl
comment all over the country. 1t
attr buted largely to the lwell-knowl
"Crder 49," promulgated by the pen
sion department at Washington. D. @.
and commonly known as the "age or
der" Under This the age at whicl
survivors could draw pension withou
atfirst proving disability was lowere
from 65 to 81 years. and the govern
.ment department at Washington wa
naturally swamped with application
as result. This order took affect Jun
81. 1890, and is remembered by all vet
Grams, Under it IL, 436 we're prompt
added to the pension rolls.
During the last fiscal year, whic
- I'll, 4 tOnS Tho rovornm n