Such was the case for my 3rd great uncle, Orren Thompson, brother to my Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma (Thompson) Moulton. Orren was a Civil War soldier. He never married and died from disease during the War according to his Civil War Registration Card. He died on August 19, 1864 in Chester, VA. while serving in Company F, 30th Maine Infantry.
For many years, I felt this was enough to fill in my family tree. But then websites like Fold3 began posting War records and pensions and made it easy to look at these records not just for ancestors, but also siblings, relatives, etc.
Orren Thompson's file contained a "Widow's pension," but as he was unmarried, how did he have a widow? Widow's pensions also contain the pension petitions for mother's of Civil War soldiers if the soldier was the provider of income for his parents or mother, etc and the soldier had no widow.
Orren Thompson was the son of Rufus Thompson and Temperance Labree who were married in 1831 in Corinna, Maine. He was born about 1835 in Cambridge, Maine according to the registration, but his family was residing in Corinna, Maine between 1830-1850, so his birthplace may not be correct. The family was said to be poor and census records show that Rufus owned little personal property. Their oldest sons left home before 1860 with their eldest daughters marrying once of age.
Orren enlisted December 7, 1863 at North Anson, Maine as a private. He died less than year later on August 19, 1864 at a hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania (not Virginia) from exhaustion following a fever. He was buried at Chester Rural Cemetery in Chester, PA.
Orren's mother applied for a pension the following June 1865. Her Pension application contains some interesting details. She personally wrote of how she and her husband were dependent on their son's income and her her husband was unable to work She also claimed that she had no other son to depend on and yet in 1865 when she filed her petition she had three younger sons ages 12 to 17 who were living at home. These sons Otis, Simon and Silas were also living at home with their parent even on the 1870 census as laborers. Charles Hoxie of Orneville did state in his testimony that Temperance had 3 sons under age 16 who lived with her.
Her pension also included as Doctor's statement on her husband's condition which it appears he suffered as well with problems with back pain and the urinary tract (possibly he suffered from kidney stones which could produce similar issues).
Other people who knew the family testified that Orren did support his family by purchasing necessities for his parents when he was alive as well the farm the they lived on in Orneville, Maine. A pension was granted to Temperance in 1866.
The family would lose another son, their eldest son, George Henry Thompson would die at the Battle of Petersburg in 1865. He was married with a child, so a pension was filed by his widow and on behalf of his daughter.
Temperance and her husband Rufus were residing in Orneville, Maine on the 1870 census, but by 1880, they were living in Ripley, Maine with their sons, Otis and Simon. The pension records state that the last payout of $8 was on November 18, 1885, but was stopped because of death, per a letter of January 15, 1886. It can be assumed that this was the time period which Temperance died. No death dates have been found for either Rufus or Temperance nor does anyone in the family know where they were buried.
However Orren's mother's pension record did provide some insight into the family during this time period that would have never been discovered otherwise.
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