Wilson L Starkey Marriage

Here is one of the two letters enclosed in the pension packet that indicate that Wilson L Starkey had been married once. The letter is from his ex father-in-law. This was one of the last pages in his mother's pension packet, so would not have been included in a partial packet. Through out the rest of the pension, Wilson is listed as being unmarried and without heirs. Come to find out that only means he was unmarried without any heirs at the time of his death. It did not mean he had never married.

This is one of two such letters. The other one lists the name of his wife and her death date.

Wilson L Starkey Pension Papers

Over the next few posts I am going to be posting various pages from Wilson L Starkey's mother's pension file. There are about 62 pages in the file, so it would be difficult to post all of it at one time.

Here is the official Service Record/ Statement submitted by the Adjutant General's Office

Wilson L. Starkey

Corporal Wilson L. Starkey

Co. "C" Illinois Volunteers

Died at the age of 27 while assigned to Signal Duty

On the Hospital Ship "Red Rover"

Died apparently during the night of July 26th 1862

Service records put his death on the 26th or the 27th.

Official death certificate states 27 July 1862.

He was buried at Spanish Moss Bend on the Mississippi River, Louisiana

Wilson L Starkey was the son of Benjamin Starkey and Mary C. Ridgeway. His brother William Coulton Starkey is my 3great-Grandfather. Wilson was married for a short time to Eleanor R. Stone, who died in March 1860 (She died at her parents house in Rockport Illinios). Wilson was born in Greece, Monroe County, New York.

The information came from his mother's pension records. She had claimed a mother's pension on his service. The mother's statement only stated that he was unmarried and had no living heir. However, in the pension file there are affidavits that state he was married, but his wife had died leaving no heirs.