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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
57TH
CONGRESS, 2nd Session
JAMES W MESSICK
December 10, 1902 – Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed.
Mr Samuel W Smith, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, submitted the following
REPORT
(To accompany bill H. R. 5007)
The Committee on Invalid Pensions, to whom was referred the (H R 5007) granting an increase of pension to James W. Messick, submit the following report:
This bill proposes to increase the pension of the beneficiary named therein from $12 to $30 per month.
James W. Messick, the soldier named in this bill, who is now 83 years of age, who served as a sergeant in Company E Second Iowa Infantry, from May 5, 1861, to May 27, 1864, when honorably discharged, never applied for pension under the general law, but is now and has been since July 7, 1890, a pensioner under the provisions of the act of June 27, 1890, at the maximum rating, namely, $12 per month, for total inability to earn a support by manual labor, the result of injury to back, disease of heart, and senility.
The only certificate of medical examination in the case, made on December 31, 1890, found and rated him $6 for injury to back, $4 for old age, and $10 for severe deafness of the left ear.
There has been filed with your committee the statement of the beneficiary, setting forth that he served in the war with Mexico as a private in Company K, Third Ohio Infantry, and that he was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service; that he also served for three years in the Second Iowa Infantry; that he participated in the battle at Buena Vista, Mexico, and at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth, Bear Creek, Town Creek, and other battles during the civil war; that he is now suffering from piles, rheumatism, and kidney trouble, and that his present pension of $12 per month is wholly inadequate for his needs and insufficient for his support and maintenance; that he is wholly incapacitated for manual labor, but unable to prove the origin of his disabilities in the service of the United States, although he is fully satisfied that these disabilities were brought on by said service.
This statement of the beneficiary is corroborated by that of a number of officials of Fairfield County, Iowa, and others.
This soldier of two wars should not, in the opinion of your committee, suffer want at this great age when his physical condition is of necessity such as to make aid and attendance necessary, hence under established precedents an increase of his pension to $24 per month is warranted and the bill is reported back with the recommendation that it pass after the same shall have been amended as follows:
In line 8 strike out the word "thirty" and insert in lieu thereof the word "twenty-four." |