Outside Topic OT - Last Civil War Widow Dies

[Genuine Realist]

i recognize this isn't sports, but it also isn't political, and it is somewhat incredible.

In 1936, then 17 year old Helen Viola Williams married 93 year old James Bolin, a Union soldier and veteran of the Civil War. Of course the marriage was a fiction. The girl had befriended the v old man, and he wanted her to have his survivor' pension benefits. 

Mrs. Williams-Bolin lived to be 101 and died this last December. The last surviving Civil War widow.

[slide]

thanks GR.

more:  https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-tr...idow-dies/

[oldalum]

 https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-tr...idow-dies/

He enlisted on April 10, 1865, and the Civil War ended on May 9. A "bounty" of $100 (!) was credited to whoever recruited him.

[Spiny_Norman]

Makes me think of this novel (which is NOT about Helen Viola Williams) - https://www.amazon.com/Oldest-Living-Con...0375726632

[lex24]

Great story thanks GR

[ca245]

If there are any lawyers reading this thread, reminds me of studying the Rule against Perpetuities and the Case of the Unborn Widow in law school...

[French Rage]

Reminds me of how John Tyler, born 1790, still has a living grandson.

[Phogge]

Reminds me of how John Tyler, born 1790, still has a living grandson.

Could it be BobbbbbbK? I think he voted for Coolidge.

[BostonCard]

Time is funny.

Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of Snapchat than to the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
As of four years ago, the oldest living person was born closer to the signing of the US Constitution than to today.
Oxford University is older than the Aztec civilization.
Harvard University was founded before Isaac Newton published his laws of motion and gravity.
We made it to the moon only 66 years after the Wright brothers invented human flight.
Woolly mammoths were still alive when the Great Pyramid at Giza was built.
When the first Star Wars movie came out, France was still executing people by guillotine.
The Ottoman Empire still existed when Paramount Studios was founded.
Betty White is older than sliced bread.
If they made a That '90s Show and waited the same amount of time after the decade as That '70s Show waited after the '70s, the show would be made in 2017.
The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated the same year Nintendo was founded.
Some of the world's whales that are alive today were born before Moby-Dick was written.
Pluto didn't even get to complete one orbit around the sun between the time it was discovered and the time it was declassified as a planet.
9/11 happened closer to the fall of the Berlin Wall than to today.

h/t to Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwan...u-say-whoa

BC

[CompSci87]

i recognize this isn't sports, but it also isn't political, and it is somewhat incredible.

In 1936, then 17 year old Helen Viola Williams married 93 year old James Bolin, a Union soldier and veteran of the Civil War. Of course the marriage was a fiction. The girl had befriended the v old man, and he wanted her to have his survivor' pension benefits. 

Mrs. Williams-Bolin lived to be 101 and died this last December. The last surviving Civil War widow.

For comparison, my great-grandmother was a Civil War veteran's widow too. She married my ggf in 1866 and died in 1936, the same year Helen Viola Williams married her Civil War veteran.

I sent for my ggf's military records from the National Archives a few years ago. Among the papers were a couple of affidavits from folks who knew them, attesting that my ggm was really married to my ggf and that neither of them were married to anyone else either before or after.

[M T]

Along the theme of long times between generations, my mother went on a turnabout in the USS Constitution in the 1980s and told the Captain that her grandfather was an officer on that ship nearly 150 years earlier.

[slide]

For comparison, my great-grandmother was a Civil War veteran's widow too. She married my ggf in 1866 and died in 1936, the same year Helen Viola Williams married her Civil War veteran.

I sent for my ggf's military records from the National Archives a few years ago. Among the papers were a couple of affidavits from folks who knew them, attesting that my ggm was really married to my ggf and that neither of them were married to anyone else either before or after.

similar story with my old boss.  both of grandfathers were with Lee at Appomattox.  my old boss is still going strong.

[newguy]

Makes me think of this novel (which is NOT about Helen Viola Williams) - https://www.amazon.com/Oldest-Living-Con...0375726632

i've actually heard of that novel.  176 Amazon readers give it 4 stars out of 5.
now if only 247 would say the same about our football recruits.......

[Phogge]

Love "The National Razor." French women knit while heads roll.

[cctop]

If they made a That '90s Show and waited the same amount of time after the decade as That '70s Show waited after the '70s, the show would be made in 2017.

This one has me curious.

Happy Days was about 20 years after the 1950's period in which it was set.
The Wonder Years was about 20 years after the 1960's period in which it was set.
That 70's Show was about 20 years after the 1970's period in which it was set.

It's now 2020, and we're still getting period pieces set in the 1980's.  For example, the new Wonder Woman movie is set in 1984.

What happened to the 1990's and early 2000's that period pieces seem to have stopped with the 1980's?

[Phogge]

Cells took over and everybody is now Cecil B DeIphone.