Confederate Widow’s Pension of Margaret E. Jones Guest

 

Application for Pension by a Widow of a Confederate Soldier

(Under Act of 1910, as Amended by Act of 1919, and Constitutional Amendments of 1920 and 1937.)

 

Questions for Applicant to Answer:

State of Georgia,

Banks County.

Personally appears before me, Mrs. M. E. Guest of said State and County and hereby applies for the pension allowed by the Act of 1910, as amended by the Act of 1919 and the Constitutional Amendments of 1920 and 1937, and submits testimony to support the same, and, after being duly sworn, true answers to make to the questions propounded, answers as follow, to wit:

Section 1.

1. What is your name, and where do you reside? (Give Post Office and County)

Mrs. M. E. Guest.  Lula, Ga., R. F. D. #2, Banks County Georgia.

2. How long and since when have you been, continuously, a bona fide resident citizen of the State of Georgia?

All of life.

Give date, or year, of your birth.

January 9th 1849.

Age?

88

3. (1)When, (2)where and (3)to whom were you married?

January 4th, 1880.  Hall County Georgia.  William G. Guest. [copy of marriage record supplied showing ceremony performed by P. P. Reynolds, Minister of the Gospel.]

a. Have you married since the death or first and soldier husband?

No.

b. When and where did your first husband die?

March 15th, Rabun County Georgia.

c. Were you residing together when he died?

Yes.

d. If not, how long had you resided apart?

[blank]

e. Are you now a widow?

Yes.

f. Have you or your husband heretofore been paid a pension by the State?

No.

g. If so, when and for what cause were you or your husband placed on the roll?

[blank]

Section II.

Answer the following questions if your husband was not a pensioner:

1. When, where and in what Company and Regiment did your husband enlist as a soldier in Confederate Army or Georgia Militia.  (Give name of Colonel or Captain.)  State whether Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Reserves, State Guards, State Militia or State Troops.

Bartow County Georgia at Adairsville, Georgia.  Roper Company, 18th Georgia Regiment.  Rank Sergent (sic) [official records indicate William G. Guest was a Private.], “Bartow Yankee Killers”. [Company F 18th Georgia Regiment]

2. When and where did the Commands of your husband surrender or discharge from the Service?

At the close of the war.

3. Was your husband personally present with his Command when it was surrendered or discharged?

Yes.

[The remainder of the questions in Section II deal with the circumstances of the soldier if he was not present with his Command at the end of the war and all answers are blank.]

Signed: Mrs. M. E. Guest (X her mark), Applicant

Sworn to and subscribed before me, this the 4th day of September, 1937

R. L. Sullivan, Ordinary of Banks County.

 

Questions for Witness as to Marriage and Service of Husband.

State of Georgia,

Banks County.

L. B. Jones of said State and County is hereby presented as a witness in support of the application of Mrs. M. E. Guest for the pension provided by the Act of 1910, as amended by the Act of 1919 and the Constitutional Amendments of 1920 and 1937, in said State, who, after being sworn true answers to make to the questions propounded, answers as follows, to-wit:

1. What is your name and where do you reside? (Give Post Office and County.)

L. B. Jones.  Homer Georgia, Star Rt.

2. How long and since when have you known Mrs. M. E. Guest applicant?

About 75 years.

3. Where does she now reside, and since when has she been, continuously, a bona fide, resident citizen of this State?

Lula, Ga., R. F. D. #2 Banks County Georgia.  All of life.

4.  When and to whom was she married?

Willliam G. Guest.

How do you know?

Lived together as man and wife.

5. How long and since when did you know William G. Guest, her husband?

About 75 years.

6. When and where did Hall County Ga. [should be the name of the applicant’s husband]

the husband of the applicant die? 

I do not remember.

7. Were the applicant and her husband living together as husband and wife at the date of his death?

Yes.

8. If not, how long did they live apart before his death?

[blank]

[The remainder of the questions deals with the service record of the applicant’s soldier husband and the answers are all blank in this witness statement.]

Signed: L. B Jones, Witness

Sworn to and subscribed before me, this the 28th day of September, 1937.

R. L. Sullivan, Ordinary of Banks County..

 

Ordinary’s Certificate.

State of Georgia,

Banks County.

I, R. L. Sullivan, Ordinary of said County, do certify that I know Mrs. M. E. Guest the applicant for pension; that she is the person she represents herself to be, and that she has been continuously, a bona fide resident citizen of said State since January 1st, 1920; that I also know L. B. Jones, the witness who swears to the service of husband and/or marriage; that both of them are now residents of said County and were duly sworn by me before signing the foregoing affidavits, and that they are truthful and trustworthy and their statements are entitled to full faith and credit.

Given under my hand and seal of office this 28 day of Sept. 1937.

R. L. Sullivan, Ordinary of Banks County.

 

Typewritten acceptance letter re the pension application.

State Department of Public Welfare

Hurt Building

Atlanta.

 

Hon. R. L. Sullivan, Ordinary

Banks County, 

Homer, Georgia.

Whereas:

Mrs. M. E. Guest, widow of William G. Guest,

has filed in this office an application for the Georgia pension allowed to widows of Confederate veterans; and it appearing that the late husband of this applicant performed actual military service as a Confederate soldier and was honorably separated from such service; and that the applicant was married to said soldier prior to January 1st, 1920, and that she has not remarried; it is, therefore,

Ordered:

That said applicant be admitted to the pension roll of the State of Georgia for the month of January, 1938, and thereafter; and that a copy of this Order be sent to the Ordinary of said County.

This, the 27th day of December 1937.

Signed: L. Thomas “Pat” Gillen

Director, Confederate Division

State Department of Public Welfare.

 

Note-Margaret E. Jones Guest, 1849-1945, is buried at Hickory Flat United Methodist Church cemetery in Banks County, Georgia.  She shares a stone with her son, James (Jim) Guest, 1886-1913.  Her exact date of death is unknown.  The burial place of her husband, William G. Guest, is also unknown at this time.

 

Contributed by Ron Nichols, NICHOLSRON18@aol.com

 

Compiled and transcribed 2006 by Jacqueline King