Tag: 19

James B. Garrison Civil War Pension File

Civil War Pension File – James B. Garrison
Partial transcription by Alexander Conrad, 2011

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DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL OR ADDITIONAL PENSION
Act of June 27, 1890. As Amended By Act of May 9, 1900

State of New Jersey, County of Cumberland.
On this 15 day of March A.D. one thousand nine hundred and one personally appeared before me, a Notary Public, within and for the County and State aforesaid, James B. Garrison aged 65 years, a resident of Bridgeton, County of Cumberland, State of N.J., who, being duly sworn according to law, declares that he is the identical James B. Garrison who was enrolled on the 31 day of Dec, 1863, in Co H 3rd NJ Vols in the service of the United States in the War of the Rebellion, and served at least ninety days and was honorably discharged at Washington D.C. on the 1st day of August, 1865. That he is totally unable to earn a support by manual labor by reason of general disability and rupture. Rupture is of right side and was incurred under following circumstances: brought on by shoveling coal, at the Bridgeton Gas Works, about 3 years ago.
That said disabilities are not due to his vicious habits, and are to the best of his knowledge and belief of a permanent character; that he has never applied for pension. That he has not been employed in the Military or Navel service other than as stated above.
That he did not serve prior to Dec 31/63 nor since Aug 1 1865.
That he hereby appoints with full power of substitution and revocation, Addison G. DuBois of Washington, D.C., his true and lawful attorney to prosecute his claim, and to receive therefor a fee of Ten dollars; that his Post-office address is 163 Fayette St Bridgeton, County of Cumberland, State of New Jersey.
[signed] James B. Garrison
Attest: [witnesses]
1.Isaac T Garton
2. William B Mires

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3-173
Eastern Division
Claim No. 1265.138
James B. Garrison
Co. H, 3rd Reg’t, NJ Vol. Cav.
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Washington, D.C., April 29, 1901

Sir:
Will you kindly answer, at your earliest convenience, the questions enumerated below? The information is requested for future use, and it may be of great value to your family.
Very respectfully,
M. Clay [can’t decipher last name], Commissioner

Mr. James B. Garrison
163 Fayette st., Bridgeton,
Cumberland Co., New Jersey

No. 1. Are you a married man? If so, please state your wife’s full name, and her maiden name.
Answer: Yes, Emma M. Garrison. Maiden name Ireland

No. 2. When, where, and by whom were you married?
Answer: Jan 1, 1859. Bridgeton, NJ, by the Rev Chas E Hill of the ME Church

No. 3. What record of marriage exists?
Answer: Have the Marriage certificate

No.4. Were you previously married? If so, please state the name of your former wife and the date and place of her death or divorce.
Answer: No

No. 5. Have you any children living? If so, please state their names and the dates of their birth.
Answer: Henry F. Garrison Born Dec 24, 1859
George E. Garrison, March 21 1862, Irvin I Garrison, July 29 / 65
James B Garrison, Aug 30, 1869, Harriet S. Garrison, March 24 / 72
Elizabeth B Garrison Dec 8 / 74, John S Garrison Feb 26 / 77
William J Garrison Aug 30 / 81, Frank C Garrison March 12 / 85

Date of reply, May 2nd, 1901 [signed] James B Garrison

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3-447
Eastern Division
Claim No 1265.138
James B. Garrison
Co. H, 3 Reg’t N.J. Vol. Cav.
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Washington, D.C., April 29, 1901

Sir: To aid this Bureau in preventing anyone falsely personating you, or otherwise committing fraud in your name, or on account of your service, you are required to answer fully the questions enumerated below. You will please return this circular under cover of the inclosed envelope which requires no postage. Very respectfully, M. Clay [can’t decipher name]. Commissioner

Mr. James B. Garrison
163 Fayette st., Bridgeton,
Cumberland Co., New Jersey

1. When were you born? Answer. March 25 1836
2. Where were you born? Answer. Deerfield, Cumb Co, NJ
3. When did you enlist? Answer. Dec 31, 1863
4. Where did you enlist? Answer. Bridgeton NJ
5. Where had you lived before you enlisted? Answer. Bridgeton NJ
6. What was your post-office address at enlistment? Answer. Bridgeton NJ
7. What was your occupation at enlistment? Answer. Waterman
8. When were you discharged? Answer. Aug 1st 1865
9. Where were you discharged? Answer. Trenton NJ
10. Where have you lived since discharge? Give dates as nearly as possible of any changes of residence. Answer. Have always lived in Bridgeton since 1849.
11. What is your present occupation? Answer. Labourer
12. What is your height? Answer. 6 feet, — inches. Your weight? 150. The color of your eyes? Blue. The color of your hair? Grey. Your complexion? Fair. Are there any permanent marks or scars on your person? If so, describe them. Scar on the back cut by an axe when young.
13. What is your full name? Please write it on the line below, in ink, in the manner in which you are accustomed to sign it, in the presence of two witnesses who can write:
James B. Garrison [signed]
Witnesses:
1. Joseph F Ehrlen [Not positive on last name]
2. John B[can’t decipher rest]

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Act of April 19, 1908
DECLARATION FOR WIDOW’S PENSION

State of New Jersey, County of Cumberland.
On this 23 day of April A.D. one thousand nine hundred and eight, personally appeared before me a Justice of the Peace within and for the County and State aforesaid, Emma M. Garrison, aged 69 years, a resident of Bridgeton, County of Cumberland, State of N.J. who, being duly sworn according to law, declares that she is the widow of James B. Garrison, who enlisted under the name of [blank] on the 21 day of Dec, A.D. 1863, as a private in Company H in the 3 Regiment of N.J. Cav Vols and served at least ninety days in the late Ware of the Rebellion, in the service of the United States, who was honourably discharged Aug 1 1865 and died Apr 11 1908.
… That he was never employed in the military or naval service of the United States after the day of Aug 1 1865. That she was married under the name of Emma M. Irelan to said James B. Garrison on the 1 day of Jan A.D. 1859 by Rev. Charles E. Hill at Bridgeton, NJ, there being no legal barrier to such marriage; that she had not been previously married; that her said husband had not been previously married. That she has not remarried since the death of the said James B. Garrison.
… That her post-office address is 163 Fayette St. Bridgeton, County of Cumberland, State of N.J.
[signed] Emma M Garrison
Attest: [witnesses]
1. Frank C. Garrison
2. John Garrison

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Emma M Garrison
Bridgeton NJ
657697 ACT APR
163 Fayette St
DROP REPORT – PENSIONER
DISBURSING DIVISION
Oct 10 1922
Check No. 5258197 $30 dated Oct 4 1922, Section 5 returned by postmaster with information that the above-described pensioner died Sept 6 1922, has been canceled.

Ansel Irelan Obituary

One of my more exciting discoveries with the addition of the Bridgeton Evening News to GenealogyBank.com, the obituary for my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Ansel Irelan:

Ansel Irelan, one of Bridgeton’s oldest citizens, died at his home on Atlantic street early this morning, after an illness of several weeks with kidney affection.
Mr. Irelan was born in this city 76 years ago last July and has lived here nearly ever since. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Addi Ayars, and six children were born to them, four of whom are living. His wife died several years ago and deceased has since lived in the old home, Atlantic just above Broad street. The children who survive him are Emma, wife of James Garrison; Mary Ann, wife of John Neukirk; Lizzie, wife of Joseph Westcott, and Ansel, Jr., the only son.
Deceased was a ship carpenter by trade and when the gold fever broke out he was one of the original “forty-niners” who left this city to seek their fortune in the Golden State – California. He in company with his brother, William Irelan, Capt. Charles Woodruff, Tudel Clark, the late Edward Collins and others, left Bridgeton for the gold fields.
He came back to Bridgeton and has since resided here, working at his trade of ship-carpentering until within a few years. When the steamer “Golden Gate” which left San Francisco with one million dollars in gold on her was sunk, Mr. Irelan, with his brother William, and others took the contract for raising the gold. This was a thrilling experience in his life and the company came near losing their lives from Mexican bandits.

I was able to confirm that William Irelan did indeed raise some of the gold from the “Golden Gate” steamer, although neither Ansel or anyone else in William’s company was mentioned. Nor were Mexican bandits mentioned in any account I have yet found. I suspect that may have been an embellishment as the story was told again and again back home in Bridgeton.

William stayed in California and his son, William Irelan, Jr., made a name for himself in Mineralogy. He was California State Mineralogist from 1886-1892. He has a biographical essay in A history of the new California: its resources and people (1903), in which his father is also mentioned.

This week in my genealogy

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to post more to this poor neglected blog. So I’ve decided to start a weekly post, This Week in my Genealogy, highlighting some of the people in my Conrad-Todd-Garrison-Carman database.

And to show how far behind I am in updating the web version of that database, I am going to start with two people who are not even on that site, along with their brother whose information is way out of date. Georg Peter & Johannes Hornef were born December 28, 1824 in Otterberg, Germany and are one of the few pairs of twins that I have in my database. They were born to Georg Peter Hornef & Katharina Cherdron. I found them through the FamilySearch Record Search pilot. Their older brother, Jacob Hornef, was my Great-great-great grandfather who emigrated to Philadelphia in the 1840’s. He was born on January 2, 1819 in Otterberg. I’ve already posted about my Hornef discoveries through Record Search, which is also where I found Jacob’s birth information, so I won’t go into it much here.

From some of my newest finds, to one of my earliest. Actually this wasn’t my find at all, but my grandfather’s. When I first became interested in genealogy, my grandmother brought out some papers of my late grandfather’s research into the family history. Included were the Civil War pension file records of his grandfather James B. Garrison. One hundred fifty years ago this week, on Jan 1, 1859, James B. Garrison married Emma M. Ireland in Bridgeton, NJ. The image below is from those pension file documents. Click on it to see the full-sized scan.

jbgpensionthumb1.jpg