The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-22
WHWT WHn1IHuEO
Stand Between Cynthia Simon
and a Pension.
She Married Geo. Webb Before
the Civil War.
HE WAS A SOLDIER.
She Is Entitled to a Pension as
His Widow.
But Married Three Times Since
Then and One Husband Is Lost.

H. W. Morrow, special pension ex-
aminer, is trying to locate John c.
Hammond or one OF his three chill
dren, Mary, Cherokee and John Ham
mond, jr. On the location of Ham
mond depends the issuance of pen
sion to Mrs. Cynthia Simon, who was
married to George Webb before the
war.
The case with which Mr.. Morrow
has to deal is burdened with a compli-
cation of marriages on the part of
Mrs. Simon. The woman's marriage
to Hammond in 1865, and the endeav-
or of pension examiners all over the
, country to locate the man, have been
without reward. The question of
| whether Hammond is alive, or. had
an undivorced wife at the time he
married Mrs. Webb, is a link in
chain of evidence that Mr.. Morrow is
very anxious to secure.
The woman who now is Mrs. Simon
was married to George Webb in the
early SOS. In 1861 Webb enlisted in
| Company A, LIST Nebraska Infantry.
He was wounded while in service and
in 1862 died in Nashville, Tenn.
| Her Second Marriage.
Mrs. Webb married John G. Ham
mond in Platsmouth, Neb, April %,
| 1865. Hammond had, three children.
Mrs. Hammond had four children by
her first husband. The couple came
| to Kansas in the fall of 1865 and To-
Gated in Doniphan county. Hammond,
so the woman says, cut wood and
worked on a farm. They lived near
| Doniphan, Wathena, and Palermo, but
| the woman cannot recall the name of
a neighbor in either community. One
| day two years after her marriage,
| Hammond deserted her, she says, and
| took with him his three children.
Husbands Nos. 3 and 4.
Sometime in the early 7O's Mrs.
Hammond married husband No. 8. A
few years later he died. Then she
| married Simon. Now Simon is dead.
After the death of husband No. 4,
Mrs. Simon asked for a pension as the
widow of George Webb.
In looking up Mrs. Simon's claim
to Webb's pension, the department
discovered that Hammond was no!
satisfactorily disposed of. Mrs. ST.
mon then informed the department.
that after the man deserted her, she
learned that he had a first wife living
at the time of her marriage. Conse-
quentlY. she says, her marriage to
Hammond was illegal and does not
stand between her and the desired
pension The pension department does
not know whether Hammond Is dead
or alive. They have no trace of the
] man after he left the woman in Don't
q phan county.
Mr. Morrow traced the records o.
the probate court in Plattsmouth
1 mond had married Elizabeth Stull il
1859. He also found that John c
Hammond had married Mrs. Webb IL
1865
Old. residents of Portsmouth sa!
that the John c. Hammond. who mar
ried the StUll woman lived with he
until his death in 1870. They point t.
the fact that several children wer'
4 born of the union and that none o
4 them bear the name of the John c
q Hammond children in the Webb case
I AS a consequence, the examiner says
q the Stun woman could not be Mrs
4 Webb's husbands first wife. 1t is no
& improbable that the man who married
Il the Webb woman might have borrow
ed Hammond'S name for conVenienc
sake
Witnesses Have Disappeared.
The StuI woman is dead. The par
q ties who performed the marriage Ger
: emonies are dead. If the Harmon
& who married Mrs. Webb is dead,
81 he secured a divorce from the wo
Il man. or if it can be shown that h
81 had an undiVorced wife at the time h
& married Mrs Webb, then the woma
81 ia eligible to claim Webb's pension. ]
8 Hammond is alive, or is undivorce
3 from Mrs. Webb or did not have
q legal wife at the time of his marriag
IS to the Webb woman, then the clair
3 will be rejected. No one has bee
e found who remembers the Webt
Hammond wedding, although partie
in Plattsmouth remember the Web
woman and also a man named Ham
mond, who married Eliza beth Stu11.
Mr.. Morrow is of the opinion tha
some of the pioneer residents of Don
. phan county may recall the Harmon