Inside The Life And Death Of The Last Civil War Widow Rischgitz/Getty Images
By Karen Corday/Jan. 21, 2021 10:09 am EDT/Updated: Feb. 1, 2021 9:17 pm EDT
It s hard to imagine that anyone alive in the year 2020 would have an incredible, zero degrees of separation personal connection to someone who fought in the Civil War, but when Helen Viola Jackson died in December 2020, it was the end of an era. Jackson, 101 years old, was thought to be the last living widow of a Civil War veteran, as reported by
The
Washington Post.
This unlikely partnership came to be in 1936 when Jackson, just 17 years old, married James Bolin, 93. Bolin was a neighbor of Jackson and her family in the small town of Niangua, Missouri. Jackson s father volunteered his teenage daughter to stop by Bolin s home each day to provide care and help with chores. To show his appreciation for her work, Bolin offered to marry Jackson so she would receive his military pension after he died. Jackso
Last known widow of a Civil War soldier dies at 101 Tim Balk
Helen Viola Jackson, the one-time spouse of elderly Union soldier who wished to leave her his pension, died last month at 101 as the last known Civil War widow, according to Sons of Union Veterans.
Jackson died Dec. 16. at the Webco Manor nursing home in Marshfield, Mo.
She was 17 when she married James Bolin, a 93-year-old who had served in the 14th Missouri Cavalry, according to the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, where she volunteered.
Bolin wanted to pass his pension on to Jackson after she volunteered to do chores for him, and they did not live together after they married in 1936, according to the festival. He died three years later, and she never collected his pension.
Last Civil War Veteran s Widow Dies Aged 101 Published January 6th, 2021 - 12:39 GMT
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16, at the age of 101. (Facebook)
Highlights
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16 at her Missouri nursing home aged 101.
The last known widow of a Civil War soldier has died at the age of 101, ending a remarkable life story that she had kept to herself for over 80 years.
When Maudie Hopkins of Arkansas died in 2008, it was believed that there were no known Civil War widows left in the nation.
Then, in December 2017, Helen Viola Jackson of Marshfield, Missouri, decided to tell her own astonishing tale.
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16 at her Missouri nursing home aged 101
She had married Civil War veteran James Bolin in 1936, when he was 93
Bolin asked her to marry him because he wanted her to have his Union pension
Bolin died three years later, but Jackson never claimed his pension
Bolin s daughter threatened to ruin Jackson s reputation if she took the money
Jackson said that Bolin was a kindly man who wanted to help her financially
Jackson never remarried or had children, and devoted herself to her community
By Zack Budryk - 01/05/21 09:56 PM EST
A woman believed to be the last living widow of a Civil War veteran has died at 101.
Helen Viola Jackson died Dec. 16 at Marshfield, Mo.’s Webco Manor Nursing Home, the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival said in a statement.
Jackson recently told a minister she had married James Bolin, a 93-year-old widower who served in the 14
th Missouri Cavalry, when she was 17, according to the statement. The Daughters of the Union Veterans were able to corroborate her account based on historical documents.
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Bolin, who “did not believe in accepting charity,” asked Jackson to marry him so that he could leave her his pension amid the Great Depression, she told a historian in 2018. The two were married Sept. 4, 1936. He died less than three years later.