Editor’s note: This week’s installment of Steve Bailey’s column on Anson County history consists of text from a “Declaration of Widow for Pension” deposition under the Mexican War Pensions Act of Jan. 29, 1887. The text is published here as copied from historical records:
On this 16th day of March 1888 personally appeared before me, Clerk of Superior Court, a resident of Deep Creek in the County of Anson in the State of North Carolina who being by me first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says;
I am the widow of Thomas Hildreth who served under the name of Thomas Hildreth as a Private in the Company commanded by Captain John F. Hoke in the 12th US Infantry commanded by Col. M.L. Bonham in the war with Mexico; that my husband enlisted at Wadesboro, N.C. in March of 1847 for the term of the war; that I was married under my name of Celia Williams to my said husband by Augustine Shepherd, Justice of the Peace, on the 3rd day of August of 1851 near Wadesboro, N.C. and lived with my said husband from the date of said marriage until the day of his death on the 9th day of February in 1865 when my said husband died at Elmira, New York while he was a prisoner of war during the final months of the Civil War and that I have not since remarried.
That my said husband being duly enlisted as aforesaid actually served 60 days with the Army and Navy of the United States in Mexico or on the coast or frontier thereof or en route thereto in the war with the Nation which service was as follows; I only know of my own personal knowledge that he enlisted as a soldier in the war with Mexico, that he went away with other volunteers and returned after the close of that war. He was honorably discharged on the 22nd day of July in 1848.
That my said husband was actually engaged in a battle in said war in the battle of Saltillo and the taking of the City of Mexico. This I learned from his own declaration. He was one of the first that entered the City of Mexico.
That I am 57 years of age and I was born in March of 1831 near Wadesboro, N.C. and that I am disabled by reason of partial paralysis of my sight, hand and arm. I claim pension by reason of the fact that I am dependent in whole or in part for my support upon my son Hampton Hildreth but not legally bound for my support and that such dependence as alleged consists in this that I live with the family of my son which consists of him, his wife and one child who furnish me with all the necessities of life.
During the Civil War Thomas Hildreth served in Campany G 40th North Carolina 3rd Artillery CSA. Enlisted as a Private (date unknown). On November 4, 1863 he transferred in “G” Company, North Carolina Light Artillery. He died of disease as a POW on March 2, 1865 at Elmira, New York. Died of pneumonia. He was listed as: on rolls, Oct. 31, 1864 (place not stated); POW, Jan. 15, 1865 Fort Fisher, North Carolina; confined Jan. 17, 1865 Elmira, New York (estimated day). He also had service in “I” Company North Carolina 36th Infantry (Buried in Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira, New York) (Source: North Carolina Troops 1861-65, A Roster).
This story was told by Celia Hildreth. Celia lived with her son, Hampton Thomas Hildreth and Nancy Jane Griggs after her husband went to fight in the Civil War. When the Union soldiers came through their property during the war, they would hide hams and other foods under a rope bed that had a curtain or a bed skirt around it. Celia would paint her face red and pull a scarf around her neck. When the soldiers would see her, they would ask what was wrong and she would tell them that she thought she had typhoid fever. Then the soldiers would flee in a great hurry and their food would be saved. The children called grandmother Celia a crippled grandmother and grandmother Nancy Jane a grandmother. Grandmother Celia was injured in a fall and could not walk (Source: Ancestry.com / Jimmie J. Stewart 735 3rd Ave. NW Aliceville, Alabama 25442).
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.