BARBARA WALKER-HEIRS OF.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 430.]

APRIL 28, 1862.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. ELY, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, made the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Invalid Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Amanda Batts, Laura P. W. Young, and Betsey Murdock, children and heirs of Barbara Walker, report:

That they have examined the evidence in the case, from which it appears that Barbara Walker was the widow, now deceased, of Gideon Walker, who died in the service of the United States during the war of 1812; that the mother of said petitioners, the said Barbara Walker, was entitled to a half-pay pension by the laws of the United States, and made her application for said pension before Allen D. Scott, esq., surrogate of the county of Cattaraugus, in the State of New York, on or about the month of February, 1859, which was immediately forwarded to the department at Washington, and which remained on file until the 9th day of May, 1859, when a certificate was issued granting a pension to said Barbara Walker of eight dollars and fifty cents per month from the third day of February, 1853, to the 3d day of February, 1858. The following is a copy of said certificate:

Widow's claim.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

I certify that, in conformity with the first section of the act of February 3, 1853, Barbara Walker, widow of Gideon Walker, who was a quartermaster's sergeant in the 19th regiment of United States infantry, and died on the 16th day of December, 1814, is entitled to receive five years' half pay, at the rate of eight dollars and fifty cents per month, commencing on the 3d day of February, 1853, and terminating on the 3d day of February, 1858. Given at the Department of the Interior this 9th day of May, 1859.

Examined and countersigned.

J. THOMPSON, Secretary of the Interior.

GEO. C. WHITING,
Commissioner of Pensions.

On this certificate is also indorsed, in red ink, the following: "Amount due on this certificate, per Pension office calculation, $510." The evidence further shows that the said Barbara Walker, after making her application as above stated, died on the 7th day of March, 1859, leaving the said petitioners her only children and heirs; that they applied to the Pension office for the pension above mentioned in said certificate, as the heirs of their deceased mother, and were informed that the payment was refused. The Commissioner of Pensions refuses to pay the same, on the ground that the widow died before her application was granted. The petitioners allege that the pension was all due when the application was made; that the applicant had then complied with all the law required her to do, and the pension certificate was granted upon that application; that the pension was due the applicant, and was in the nature of a vested right to the amount granted, which, on her death, is equitably due to her heirs.

These facts, about which there is no dispute, have induced your committee to come to the unanimous conclusion that the claim of the petitioners is equitable and just, and they have reported a bill instructing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay said sum, declared in said certificate to be due Barbara Walker, to her heirs, the said Amanda Batts, Laura P. W. Young, and Betsey Murdock.

CONGRESS

,

ZINA WILLIAMS.

[To accompany bill H. R. No. 431.]

APRIL 28, 1862.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. GOODWIN, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, made the

following

REPORT.

The Committee on Invalid Pensions, to whom were referred the papers in the claim of Zina Williams, of the State of New York, for an invalid pension, have had the same under consideration, and report:

That the same papers were referred to the Committee on Invalid Pensions at the 3d session of the 34th Congress, and the proofs were then examined, and at the 1st session of the 35th Congress reports were made thereon by each of said committees, sustaining the claim.(Reports No. 166 and No. 47.)

The committee do not discover any reason for questioning the correctness of the views entertained by the said committee, and are, therefore, of opinion that the claim is reasonable, and that a pension ought to be granted, and they accordingly adopt the same report and the same bill as reported by the committee of the 3d session of the 34th Congress.

"The petitioner, Zina Williams, was called into the service in the war of 1812, so called, in September, 1814, from Montgomery county, New York, and marched to Sackett's Harbor, New York, where he was on duty without shelter, sleeping upon the ground; sickness prevailed in camp. and on the 1st of October, 1814, he was taken. sick of the prevailing camp disease, and was sent to the hospital, where he was attended by two surgeons. His sickness settled into a fever; his friends sent for him, and with difficulty carried him home on a bed; he was confined to his bed eighteen months; the fever concentrating in his left hip, causing great pain and contraction of the muscles, resulting in almost the entire loss of the use of the left leg; the disability continuing from that time to the present, and of a nature incurable; that he is a farmer, a sober, temperate, prudent man, and is clear from any charge of imprudence or exposure as the cause of the continuation of his disability."

The above facts are established by the testimony of two surgeons,

certified to be highly respectable in their profession, who saw him on his sick bed as he returned, and who then attended him, and who have ever since that time been his physicians, and who now, upon their oath, state that his disability is a total one. They further state that it is incurable, and can never be less.

It is further proven by the testimony of Samuel Freeman that he saw him on his sick bed returning home. The further testimony of Simon Frazer, John W. Shaver, and William Shaver, who were soldiers with him in camp, and who knew of his sickness in camp; and the further testimony of Isaac H. Williams and John Fish, and a second affidavit of the surgeons, all testifying to the sobriety of the applicant. All the witnesses certified to be credible, truthful persons.

The committee report a bill for his relief, and recommend its

passage.

37TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( REPORT 2d Session. No. 93.

JOHN MCGUINIS.

APRIL 28, 1862.-Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GOODWIN, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, made the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Invalid Pensions, to whom were referred the petition and accompanying papers of John McGuinis, report:

That the case rests upon the petition and affidavit of said McGuinis, unsupported by other sufficient testimony, and that, if the facts stated by the petitioner be true, there is no evidence that alleged disability was incurred while he was in the line of duty. Your committee, therefore, do not find in this case evidence sufficient to grant him the relief he prays for, and submit the following resolution:

Resolved, That the petitioner, John McGuinis, is not entitled to a pension, and that the Committee on Invalid Pensions be discharged from the further consideration of his petition.