| SENATE 59TH
CONGRESS, 1st Session MARGARET A HOPE May 15, 1906 – Ordered to be printed. Mr Burkett, from the Committee on Pensions, submitted the following REPORT (To accompany bill H. R. 16253) The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 16253) granting an increase of pension to Margaret A Hope, have examined the same and report: The report of the Committee on Pensions of the House of Representatives, hereto appended, is adopted and the passage of the bill is recommended. The House report is as follows: Margaret A Hope, of Abilene, Kans., is the widow of James B Hope, who enlisted November 12, 1847, as a private in Company F, Fifth Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, war with Mexico, and was honorably discharged July 20, 1848. He reenlisted July 21, 1861, as first sergeant Company H, Seventh Regiment Iowa Volunteers, and was promoted to be second lieutenant March 13, 1862, and first lieutenant July 19, 1862, and captain December 16, 1862. He resigned April 3, 1863, but in the meantime he had, according to the record, received a gunshot wound of the face in action at Belmont, Mo., and a severe wound of the left shoulder at Corinth, October 3, 1863. Still later - namely, on May 25, 1864 - he was mustered in as a major of the Forty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out with field and staff September 16, 1864. The soldier died October 22, 1889; but in his lifetime he applied for and received a pension on account of disease of lungs and gunshot wound of right side of face, incurred in service during the civil war, and for these disabilities he was receiving the allowance of $14 per month at the time of his death. Mrs Hope applied for and is now receiving the pension of $8 per month, allowed under the act of January 29, 1889, to widows of soldiers of the war with Mexico. She married the soldier in 1849, and she is now about 80 years of age. It appears from letters on file with the bill that the soldier was killed in a railroad accident, and hence his widow has no title to a higher rating than she is now receiving under any existing general pension law. In the judgment of your committee the facts in this case are sufficient to justify a substantial increase of the pension, and the passage of the bill is respectfully recommended. |