Pension to Woodson, Mary S.

The following data is extracted from Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Grover Cleveland.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 23, 1886.

To the House of Representatives:

I return herewith without approval House bill No. 7073, entitled "An act granting a pension to Mary S. Woodson."

Henry Woodson, the husband of the beneficiary named, enlisted in September, 1861, and was discharged in October, 1863, on account of valvular disease of the heart.

The application for pension on behalf of his widow was filed August 5, 1881.

She concedes that she is unable to furnish any evidence of the date or the cause of her husband's death.

It appears that he left home in March, 1874, for the purpose of finding work, and neither she nor her friends have ever heard from him since. His death may naturally be presumed, and the condition of his family is such that it would be a positive gratification to aid them in the manner proposed; but the entire and conceded absence of any presumption, however weak, that he died from any cause connected with his military service seems to render it improper to place the widow's name upon the pension rolls.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

Source: Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Grover Cleveland

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