Second in a new series on my Union Army ancestor Arthur Bull’s reapplication for a US Civil War pension and his family’s life at the time.
In November 1884 — four years after he applied and twenty years after he served — a Pension Board medical referee ruled that my ancestor Arthur Bull was sufficiently disabled to receive a Union Army pension. He was 51 years old.
The month before, a team of doctors at my great-great grandfather’s local Pension Board — in Utica, Oneida County, N.Y. — recommended he be compensated at a rate of 1/4 disability.
However, the medical referee at the US Pension Office in Washington, D.C., recommended a higher rate. In his 12 Nov. 1884 response to Arthur’s attorneys R.S. and A.P. Lacey, the referee said:
Claimant is entitled to a rating of 1/2 for Disease of the Heart. If clean face is appended to the brief it will be so endorsed.
There may have been sighs of relief in the Bull household at this finding, as it put Arthur one step closer to receiving his pension. Yet more proof was needed before the pension office would start sending payments.
Background checks begin
So Arthur’s attorneys collected a series of affidavits and reports — from doctors and family members who had known him since the Civil War ended — to verify that his disability was war-related. I found these bundled together in his pension file.
| PENSION AFFIDAVITS/REPORTS – Pvt. Arthur T. Bull – 6th NY Heavy Artillery | |||
| Year | Date | Names | NYS Location |
| 1881 | 25 Jan. | Edward C. Tamkins & William Whitney | Binghamton |
| 1884 | 15 Sept. | D.D. Douglas, MD | Port Leyden |
| 1884 | 22 Sept. | G.P. English, MD | Boonville |
| 1884 | 22 Oct. | Pension Board doctors | Utica |
| 1885 | 15 Sept. | S.E. Watson | Limestone |
| 1885 | 22 Sept. | M.W. Smith, MD | Limestone |
| 1885 | 1 Oct. | M.W. Smith, MD | Limestone |
| 1885 | 30 Nov. | William Whitney (supplementary) | Binghamton |
The 1881 affidavit from Arthur’s brothers-in-law Edward C. Tamkins (husband of his sister) and William Whitney (husband of his wife’s sister) was summarized by the attorneys — since it was previously submitted to the Pension Board. The later affidavits and doctor reports are more detailed.
Combined, they tell the heart-rending saga of Arthur’s struggle with war-related illness as his ability to work declined — a story that will unfold here on Molly’s Canopy over the next few weeks.
Bull family diaspora
These documents also trace the Bull family’s trajectory across New York State during Arthur’s declining years. They traveled from the Southern Tier (around Binghamton, N.Y) to the Adirondack region (near Port Leyden, Boonville and Utica) and finally to Western New York (around Limestone).
The period from 1880 to 1900 is a difficult one for locating and researching an ancestral family. There are few remaining remnants of the 1890 federal census, which was destroyed in a fire — and a significant gap also exists between the 1875 and 1892 New York State censuses.
Yet because my great-great grandfather applied for his Union Army pension during this period, his file provides many precious clues about family names, relationships and geographic locations that help fill out his ancestral story.
What do these pension records tell us about Arthur Bull and his family in the 1880s? Please stop back for the next chapter in his story.
© 2016 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.