Today's seemingly endless maze of forms needed to apply for a military disability pension is nothing new. Extensive questions and forms have been with us since the government began awarding pensions to veterans of the Revolutionary War. In the earliest years, preprinted forms were a rarity, but there were still specific questions that had to be answered and various forms of proof to be provided.

The veteran had to give as complete a description of his military service as possible and had to either provide his discharge papers or an explanation as to why he did not have any and then secure affidavits from people who knew he had served. Additional affidavits were required to certify the veteran's or his widow's inability to support themselves.

Proof of marriage was to be provided either by sworn records from the office where the marriage was recorded or by affidavits by those who were present at the marriage. When such proof was not available, the veteran could supply sworn statements from people who had known the couple to have been married. A widow would also have to provide the proof and then provide sworn statements that she had not remarried since the veteran's death. She also had to provide sworn statements regarding her husband's death.

There was also a series of questions regarding any children of the veteran and although specifically aimed at determining if any dependent children were still living at home, these were sometimes answered regarding all the veteran's children, including those grown and gone from home. Such information can be a family researcher's treasure trove of information.

Later, veterans from the War of 1812 and the Civil War had much the same sort of questions to answer and proof to supply, although more and more there were preprinted forms to rely on. After the Civil War, even veterans of the earlier wars had to swear that "at no time during the late rebellion against the authority of the United States" did they "adhere to the cause of the enemies of the government, giving them aid or comfort."

Sometimes several of the required proofs would be covered in affidavit by some friend of relative such as the following from the pension file of Civil War veteran John Noe, sworn to by Francis Hall in 1907. Hall was married to Esther Cawood, half-sister of John Noe's widow, Juliann Osborn Noe.

Hall swears that "he was well acquainted with John Noe, the soldier named above, in his lifetime and have been acquainted ever since we was boys together and well acquainted with his widow, Juliann Noe, and have been ever since her girlhood. That he was present and saw John Noe married to Juliann Osborn at the house of William Hall's in Owsley County...in July 1865.

"They have lived together as man and wife from that time up to the time of said soldier's death in March 1907. Neither of them was ever previously married. Claimant has not remarried since the death of her said husband. That she has no real property and but little personal property...her said husband was a very poor man...lived on rented land at and prior to his death."

In her widow's application, Juliann simply states that none of their children are under 16 years of age but, in 1898, John, in his pension application, listed all their children: Edward, william, John, Marthy, Hiram, Molly, Leander, Sally, Harvey and Dora although only the last three were then under 16 years of age.

Even if a pension claim was rejected, there is probably a wealth of family information in the application. There were many area Civil War veterans who in later years were shocked to be rejected on their pension claims as they had not known that their service in the Harlan County Battalion or the Three Forks Battalion did not qualify them for federal pension as these were officially state units.