Fourth Generation Inclusive

SOLDIER’S APPLICATION FOR PENSION

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, COUNTY OF HALIFAX  }

On this 3rd day of July, A.D. 1909, personally appeared before me S.M. Gary, C.S.C. in and for the State and County aforesaid, Hilliard Gowen, age 73 years, and a resident at Littleton post-office, in said County and State, and who, being duly sworn, makes the following declaration in order to obtain the pension under the provisions of an act entitled “An act for the relief of certain Confederate Soldiers, Sailors and Widows,” ratified March 8, 1907; that he is the identical Hilliard Gowen who enlisted in Co. A, 14 Reg., N.C. State Troops, on or about the 15th day of Jany, 1862, to serve in the armies of the late Confederate States, and that while in service at Gettysburg in the State of Pa., on or about [blank] day of April, 1863, he received a wound or wounds, etc. [description] Shot in the ankle.

He further states:

That he is, and has been for twelve months immediately preceding this Application for Pension, a bona fide resident of North Carolina; that he holds no office under the United States, or any State or County, from which he is receiving the sum of three hundred dollars as fees or as salary annually; that he is not worth in his own right, or the right of his wife, property at its assessed value for taxation to the amount of five hundred dollars ($500), or has he disposed of property of such value by gift or voluntary conveyance since the 11^th of March, 1885; and that he is not receiving any aid from the State of North Carolina or under any other statue providing for the relief of the maimed and blind soldiers of the State.   /s/ Hilliard Goins

Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 3rd day of July, 1909.  /s/ W.E. Spruill, N.P.

Also personally appeared before me J.F. Newsom, who resides at Littleton post-office, in said County and State, a person whom I know to be respectable and entitled to credit, and being by me duly sworn, says he acquainted with Hilliard Gowen, the applicant for pension, and has every reason to believe that he is the identical person he represents himself to be, and that the facts set forth in this affidavit are correct to the best of his knowledge and belief, and that he has no interest, direct or indirect, in this claim. /s/ J.F. Newsom

Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 3rd day of July, 1909.  /s/ W.E. Spruill, N.P.

Also personally appeared before me [blank] a physician in good standing in said County and State and being duly sworn, says that he has carefully and thoroughly examined [blank], the applicant for pension, and finds such disability for manual labor as described below, by reason of wounds received while in the discharge of his duty as a soldier or sailor of North Carolina in the service of the late Confederate States. Applicant has an old gunshot wound of ankle. His disability does not amount to 3/4   /s/ Willis Alston, Signature of Physician.

Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 10th day of July, 1909.  /s/ W.E. Spruill, N.P.

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[Handwritten] “Colored!!  Did he enlist?!!!” [Stamped] APPROVED FOURTH CLASS

File of Hilliard Goins, North Carolina Confederate Soldiers and Widows Pension Applications 1885-1953, http://FamilySearch.org. Original, North Carolina State Archives.

In the 1860 census of Western District, Halifax County: Jerry Going, 57, farmer; wife Louvenia, 50; children Caroline, 20, Anderson, 15, Hilliard, 16, Henry, 13, Samuel, 12, Emma, 12, Safronia, 11, James, 10, Margarett, 9, Jeremiah, 8, and Louann Going, 3; plus, Joshua Monford, 31, farmhand.