Comments on: Civil War Widows Lunch Photo

Civil War Widows Lunch Photo

britain — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:26:16 -0800

Last Civil War Widows Do Lunch. Gertrude Janeway, the Union War widow, passed away Friday at 93. Live tonight on ABC, Alberta Martin will receive the grand prize -- one million confederate dollars and a 2003 Dodge Durango. [Just kidding.]

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:43:29 -0800

Hmmm. Let's do the math. Mrs. Martin, pictured in the first link, died in 1998 at the age of 97. That means she was born in 1901. Her husband, on the other hand, was a Civil War veteran. That means he would have had to have been at least fifteen years old by 1865. In 1901, then, he would have been about 50 years old, and by the time the lovely Mrs. Martin was old enough to marry, let's again say fifteen years old, her husband would have been 65. That seems a little odd.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:44:18 -0800

[I'm sorry, Mrs. Martin should read as Mrs. Anderson.]

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:52:40 -0800

The age disparities are not as bizarre as they seem when you realize that Civil War veterans came with a huge pension attached. In a manner of speaking, you could say that last surviving Civil War widows were the Anna Nicole Smiths of the antebellum era.

By: psychotic_venom

psychotic_venom — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:57:58 -0800

Well, they were that old. 70 and 80 year old's marrying 20 year olds. Wow. Strange times.

By: GaelFC

GaelFC — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:41:24 -0800

She never married again. Imagine living 60 years without your spouse. Only the ages here are reminiscent of Anna Nicole. When one of the parade of "oldest women in the world" died a few years ago, the article about her life said that her (one and only) husband had died in World War I. Not Two, but One. Imagine all the years she had to go through alone. Also, not that it matters much, but weren't they handing weapons to 12-year-old drummer boys and calling them soldiers by the end of the Civil War?

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:13:26 -0800

Certainly this sharply illustrates that slavery was not at all long ago. Not long at all.

By: ac

ac — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:31:26 -0800

Not long at all.

Hahahaha! Sorry

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:40:26 -0800

She never married again. Imagine living 60 years without your spouse. Only the ages here are reminiscent of Anna Nicole. Sorry to be cynical, but Civil War pensions were some of the biggest government social welfare outlays prior to the New Deal as the Socil Security Administration website reports. And in many cases, remarriage could void your eligibility for widow's pensions. The financial stakes were smaller, but the motives were just as pecuniary as Anna Nicole Smith's.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:55:04 -0800

The second article adds information that might help resolve several of the questions raised in this thread. 1 "John Janeway, who married her when he was 81 and she was barely 18." 2. She received a $70 check each month from the Veterans Administration. 3. "After he died, why it just seemed like a part of me went down under the ground with him," she said in the 1998 interview. "He is the only one I ever had. There wasn't anybody else."

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:22:05 -0800

I'm wondering if that $70 check has been adjusted for inflation. $70/month pension doesn't seem outrageously large for the 1870s yet seems ridiculously small for 2000s dollars.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:49:55 -0800

It was posted here on MeFi a while ago about a former slave (born in Africa and brought over on a slave ship) who was invited to one of the Apollo Moon Shot launches by NASA and asked what he thought -- he said he didn;t believe it was happening.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 07:11:30 -0800

When Alberta Martin's Confederate husband died in 1932, she was left to take care of their son on her own. Eight weeks later, she decided to marry again. And as it turns out, she was able to keep the Martin name. She married her late husband's grandson from a previous marriage. There was just a two-year age difference this time around. Ooog. Then the grandson would have had to help raise his own uncle....