Hardin County, Iowa Thomas Findley Pension Increase of pension for Thomas Findley Serial-Set-ID: 4261 S.rp.1010, Apr. 8, 1902, 2 pgs. 57th Congress, 1st Session Senate Report No. 1010. Thomas Findley __________________ April 8, 1902.—Ordered to be printed. ___________________ Mr. McCumber, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following: Report. (To accompany H. R. 2981) The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 2981) granting an increase of pension to Thomas Findley, having examined the same and report: The report of the Committee on Invalid Pensions of the House of Representatives, hereto appended, is adopted and the passage of the bill is recommended. The House report is as follows: This soldier, now 57 years of age, served as a private in Company K, Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers, from August 24, 1861, to July 25, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. He was taken prisoner at Nolensville, Tenn., December 28, 1862, and paroled two days thereafter, and received a flesh wound of the right leg in action at Jonesboro, Ga., September 1, 1864. He never applied for a pension under the general law, but is a pensioner under the act of June 27, 1890, at the maximum rating provided for therein, namely, $12 per month, for total inability to earn a support by manual labor, due to disability arising from injury to right hand and leg, disease of digestive organs, rectum, urinary organs, and rheumatism. During the prosecution of this claim the soldier stated that he was wounded in the right shin at the battle of Jonesboro, in 1864, and that in May, 1879, while walking along the sidewalk at Steamboat Rock, Iowa, he slipped and fell on his right hand, injuring the same, and that he had suffered from rheumatism since 1881. The last medical examination of the soldier, made by a board of pension examining surgeons on July 7, 1897, found him 5 feet 11 & ¾ inches high and weighing 240 pounds, and found him suffering from stiffness of the right wrist joint, for which the board rated him $6; a scar of a gunshot wound on outer aspect of right tibia, rate $2; enlargement of liver, with considerable abdominal anasarca, rate $2; slight tenderness of both kneejoints, rate $2; lost of teeth, $4; conjunctivitis of both eyes, rate $2; and diseases of kidneys, evidenced by a large amount of sugar, rate $10. In the opinion of the board of surgeons the combined disabilities disabled the soldier from the performance of any manual labor. There has been filed with your committee the affidavit of the pensioner to the effect that he is now 60 years of age; that his foot has bothered him more or less nearly ever since his discharge; that he has been troubled with diabetes during all that time, but worse of late years, and especially so for a year or so before his leg was amputated, in February, 1898, at which time it was not supposed he could live; that the same old trouble is making itself felt in an aggressive form, with ulcer under the great toe of the right foot, and tends to make him a cripple, the same as the left great toe did for a long time prior to the amputation of his left leg; that he has no property and no means of support except the pension of $12 per month. There has also been filed medical testimony showing that the soldier, in October, 1897, suffered from callouses and ulcerations under each of his great toes caused by chronic diabetes; that in January, 1898, diabetic gangrene appeared in the left extremety; that the left leg had to be amputated at the kneejoint on February 21, 1898; that diabetic symptoms still remain, also trouble with the great toe of the other extremity; that he is a man weighing 230 pounds, very unwieldy, and only able to get around by the aid of his artificial limb, which was given to him by the citizens of his town. Other proof filed with your committee shows that the beneficiary has no means of support aside from his pension and has an invalid wife dependent upon him. A petition signed by a large number of citizens of soldier’s town asking for Congressional relief in his behalf as an act of justice has also been filed. From the above it will be seen that this soldier gave four years of service to his country; that he was wounded while in the service; that his left leg has been amputated since the war, and that he is in such a condition from other disabilities, some of which may no doubt be attributed to his military service, that he is past all labor, hence an increase of his pension to $24 per month appears justified. The bill is reported back with the recommendation that it pass. Submitted by Cathy Danielson Copyright © Genealogy Trails All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.