North Carolina woman who was the last person to receive a Civil War-era pension dies at age 90, WSJ says

WASHINGTON — The last person to receive a pension from the U.S. Civil War, has died at the age of 90, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Irene Triplett, daughter of Civil War veteran Mose Triplett, died Sunday in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, following complications after surgery. According to the newspaper, she received a pension of $73.13 a month from the Department of Veterans Affairs for her father’s service, which began more than 155 years ago.

According to the Journal, Pvt. Triplett enlisted in the Confederate 53rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment in May 1862 before defecting to a Union regiment two years later. 

In 1924, when he was 83 years old, he married 34-year-old Elida Hall and the two had Irene. Mose Triplett died at the age of 92 in 1938.

Irene Triplett lived a tough life. As a child, she told the Journal in 2014, she was beaten by her parents and her teachers alike. After her father died, Triplette and her mother lived several years in the Wilkes County, North Carolina, poorhouse, the Journal said. Medicaid and her small Civil War-era pension helped pay for her residence in care homes through the years, as well.

Click here to read the full Wall Street Journal story.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/irene-triplett-last-person-to-receive-civil-war-era-pension-dies-at-age-90.html