Evening star., 1925-11-27
DISTRICT VETERAN
COLLECTS POLICY
Man, e5, Is Considered L.
gaIIy Dead by Insurance
l Company.

Having been declared technically
"dead," Mai. S. Willard Saxton, &C.
year,old veteran of the Civil War and
retired Government einploye, has col
lected his own life insurance from the
local Office of one of the large insur
ance companies.
Under established rules of the com
pany Mai. SaXton expired" COM
pletely and satisfactorily on August
13 last. when he celebrated his 96th
birthday. The company holds that
when a person reaches the age of So
years he IS, for the purposes Of life
insurance, at least, as dead as though
he had been under the sod all these
years, and so it came to pass that
Mai SaXton the other day received
check. made out to himself and wife,
for $760, the total amount for which
he insured his life SS years ago.
The check was turned over to the
aged couple by Paul Primm, local
agent for the company.
Wife's seth Birthday
incidentally, this happens to he the
S9th anniversary of Mrs. SaXton's
birth, and the pair celebrated the
event in quiet fashion. On January
26, next, they will observe their 63d
wedding anniversary.
Maj. Saxton is far from dead, how
ever. lie let the insurance agent
know that fact. too, when he was pre-
sented with the check which tech
niCally proved him to be deceased. He
IS quite active, despite his years. and
walked TO the Thanksgiving service
at the All Souls Unitarian Church
yesterday from his home at 1347
Harvard street. The church is located
at Sixteenth and Harvard streets. He
frequently takes long strollS about the
Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Maj SaXton was born in 1929 at
Deertield, Mass. He attended the dis
trict schools and at the age of Is went
to Greenfield. Mass, to learn the trade
of printer in the office of the Franklin
Democrat. From lS45 To lS4S he was
printer on the Harbinger. organ of
the Brook Farm Association of West
Roxbury. Mass, a social body number
Ing many literary persons among it's
membership including Charles A.
Dana, George William Curtis, ct al.
Made Journey West.
Leaving this organization, he went
to Boston and pursued his trade as
printer until 1858, when he went West
with his brother and engaged in en-
gineering work on the Great Northern
Railroad in Indiana. Building rail-
roads on the Wabash proved too
strenuous. however, and in 1854 he re-
sumed his trade in Cincinnati Later
he became foreman of the Eagle and
Enquirer, daily paper in Memphis.
Tenn.
He was commissioned by President
Lincoln as an aide -de-camp in 1862
and was assigned TO the staff of his
brother, Gen. Rufus Saxton, COM
manding Beaufort, S. C. In March.
1865. he received from Secretary of
War Stanton a commission as brevet
major, also signed by President
Lincoln.
After the war he was appointed a
clerk In the office of the first con-
troller of the Treasury and was pro-
NOTED to chief of the division of war
rants and appropriations. In 1885 he
became the storm center Of a contro-
verSy over efforts to replace war vet
erans by more efficient" employees
He was asked to resign, refused to do
SO, and was denoted and later dis
missed. In 1889 he was reappointed
to the controllers office, but again be-
came the object of a "shake-up' in
1898 and was reduced. In 1895 he
was assigned to the lighthouse board
and rose to appointment clerk of the
service. He was retired for age sew
eral years ago.