Joseph J. Gravely

From Wikipedia.

JOSEPH J. GRAVELY  

September 25, 1828 - April 28, 1872 

He was the commander of the 14th Missouri Cavalry which was James Bolin's outfit.  James Bolin married Helen Jackson who died this past December 2020 and is regarded as the Last Civil War Widow.

Born in Henry County, Virginia.  He attended public schools as a child,  engaged in agricultural pursuits and taught school.  He studied law  and was admitted to the bar in Virginia and had a practice there.   On 1853 and 1854 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

In 1854, he moved to Missouri and was a delegate to  the Missouri Constitutional Convention in 1860.

During the Civil War, Gravely served as colonel of the  8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry Regiment in the Union Army.  In addition, he was a member of the Missouri Senate in 1862 and 1864.

In 1866, he was elected  as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives and served there from 1867 to 1969.

After that, he was elected lieutenant governor of Missouri on 1870 and served under Governor B. Gratz Brown 1871 until his death in Stockton, Missouri, on April 28, 1872.  He was interred in Lindley Prairie Cemetery near Bear Creek, Missouri.

--Old Secesh

James Bolin's Wives: Helen Viola Jackson Bolin

From Find-A-Grave site.

She is the one being called the Last Civil War Widow.  I have been writing about her since April.

The site has her listed as the second wife of James Bolin.

HELEN VIOLA JACKSON BOLIN

BIRTH:  3 August 1919  at Niangua, Missouri   Webster County

DEATH:  16 December 2020  (aged 101)   Marshfield, Missouri  Webster County

BURIAL:  Marshfield Cemetery   Marshfield, Missouri  Webster County

She is buried alongside here sister, Lena Jane Jackson Tiede.

The Widow's Secret-- Part 10: Helen Jackson, Last Civil War Widow

Shorty before Christmas 2020, about 20 people gathered at Marshfield Cemetery for Helen Jackson's graveside service.

On December 16, 2020, the 101-year-old woman, very likely the last Civil War veterans widow, died.  Her story made international news.

Perhaps Helen would have been pleased that Jimmy L. Bolin was there on that cold, blustery afternoon.  At 6-foot-11 and 300 pounds, he is Civil War veteran James Bolin's great-great nephew.   He looked nothing like James Bolin, but he was honored to serve as a pallbearer for the "Last Civil War Widow."

So, technically, Helen Jackson would have been his great-great aunt.

"At funerals, people don't like to take pictures," said Jimmy Bolin, a lifelong resident of Missouri.  "How we wish we did at this one.  This was a part of history...."

******************************

I took this from the April Civil War Times magazine.  This was written by John Banks.  John Banks, in my opinion is the best Civil War blogger out there.  He really lives his stories.  You can check out his bklog at (john-banks.blogspot.com).

A Connection to the Past, That Helen Jackson.  --Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret-- Part 9: Honors

But, all that secrecy was over by the time Helen Jackson died back in December,

The town of Marshfield, Missouri made her the grand marshal for the Fourth of July parade in 2018.  She was riding in a Chevrolet and told the driver, "Slow down, these people want to see me."

A stone slab with her name on it was placed on the town's Missouri Walk of Fame near the town square.  The school superintendent in Niangua gave Jackson, who never completed her education -- an honorary high school diploma for the Class of 1937.Her pastor set up a Facebook page "Helen Jackson, Last Civil War Widow."  

She received fan mail from all over the world.  A member of the Sons of Union veterans of the Civil War sent her a card each Christmas.

In 2019, Jackson sat down with a local historian for a lengthy oral history.  At the time she related:  "I didn't want them  all to think that I was a young woman who had married an old man to take advantage of him.... Mr. Bolin really cared for me.  He wanted me to have a future and he was so kind."

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret-- Part 8: The Last of the Lasts

So, it is possible that Helen Jackson is actually the "Last" of the Last Widows.

In 2004, Alberta Martin, a sharecropper's daughter who lived in poverty most of her life, died in Alabama at age 97.  She married Confederate veteran William Jasper Martin in the 1920s.  "Miz Alberta" loved the attention she got from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who would take her to conventions and rallies.

When I found out about her, I talked with my class about the marriage with the widely different ages.  All my female students could say was "Oooooohhhh."

In 2008, Maudie White Hopkins, who enjoyed making fried peach pies and applesauce cakes died at 93.  When she was 19  in 19345, she married Confederate veteran William Cantrell who was 67 years her senior.  Hopkins said that Cantrell supported her with his Arkansas state pension of  "$25 every two or three months" and left her his home when he died in 1937.

Helen Jackson's husband left her his Bible and eyeglasses and a bullet he kept during the wat along with memories.

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret-- Part 7: Lived Along Route 66 in Marshfield

Of course. Helen Jackson lived her whole life with heavy emotional baggage from her short marriage to James Bolin.  What would people think of her when  and if they found out about that staggering age difference?

In Marshfield, Missouri, she was employed at a wood-working factory and later as a substitute cook in local schools.  She lived alone in a farmhouse along Route 66 and became an active member of the Elkland (Mo.) Independent Methodist Church.

For 81 years, she kept her secret.

Then, her pastor, Nicholas Inman found out about her former marriage and he set out to find out if she was indeed the last Civil War widow.

Stories of "last" Civil War widows come around every so often.  The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War confirmed Jackson as the "last" publicly documented widow.  But, who knows if there are still any other widows out there harboring secrets of their own?

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret-- Part 6: Never Dated or Married for Fear of Reputation Being Ruined

Less than three years after the marriage, on June 18, 1939, James Bolin died at the home of his daughter, Martha, after a lengthy illness.  In the local newspaper, the 96-year-old veteran's obituary listed his next of kin as two daughters, besides Martha, two sons, 17 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and 9 great-great grand children.  There was no mention of Helen Jackson.

Helen Jackson did no go to the funeral service either.

Soon after Bolin's death, one of his daughters threatened to out Helen Jackson if she filed for James' veterans pension.  Petrified of having her reputation ruined by a revelation, she never did.

Around World War II, Jackson moved to nearby Marshfield, roughly seven miles from Niangua to escape potential "wagging tongues."  Worried that if she ever got serious about a man he would discover her secret, Jackson never dated or married.

Meanwhile her many brothers and sisters married and raised families.  Later, she cared for her aging parents.  Her mom died in 1953, her dad in 1972.  Her last sibling died in 2019.

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret, Helen Jackson-- Part 5: The Marriage With a 76-Year Age Difference

Helen Jackson accepted the old man's offer, but with strict ground rules:  She would keep her maiden name, go home to her family every day and tell only a few select people.  The couple's 76-year-old age difference would surely have created a scandal.

Bolin agreed.

On September 4, 1936, Jackson and Bolin were married in the living room of the veteran's house.  Shortly after the ceremony, Tommy Macdonnell, a teenage who was preparing for a squirrel hunt, and his father, Bolin's physician, congratulated the couple.  Keep this quiet, Dr. C.R. Macdonnell urged his son.

To cement the union, Bolin gave his bride a pink topaz ring that had belonged to his second wife, and the common law marriage was recorded in his cherished personal Bible, given to him decades earlier by a traveling evangelist.

Their union followed Jackson's guidelines:  cooking, housekeeping, chores and then she would return to her home every night.  Although her husband talked about Civil War "blood and guts stuff" all the time, Jackson paid him no heed.

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret, Helen Jackson-- Part 4: You'll Get My Pension When I'm Gone

In an after-action report regarding these unrepentant Rebels, 14th Missouri Cavalry Lt. Cpl. Joseph Gravely wrote:  "The band that crossed the railroad near Knobnoster on the 23rd instant were all that I could obtain any reliable information of.  At Warsaw and other points, I learned that the above-named band committed horrid outrages, murdering some ten or twelve discharged soldiers and citizens in Hickory and Benton Counties."

Unable to find the guerrillas, the soldiers returned to camp -- "men and horses in good condition" according to Gravely.

Following a divorce from his first wife during the Civil War, Bolin married Elizabeth Ferrell in 1868, and the couple had seven children.  After Elizabeth's death in 1922, James had no one to help with chores. So in 1936, James Jackson recommended his daughter, Helen, then a 17-year-old high school student.

The kindly old man  and teen grew close, but according to Helen, not in that way, as she began to help him with chores around the house, cleaning and washing.

One day, Bolin made an unusual proposal to Jackson.  According to Helen, he said: "I do not believe in accepting charity and I don't have money to pay you, so why don't you marry me so I can give you my Civil War pension when I'm gone?"

For a girl of modest means like Helen, James' pension check, perhaps $30 a month or more in the depression era was too enticing to decline.

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret, Helen Jackson, Last CW Widow Dies-- Part 3: Secretly Wed James Bolin, 93 (She Was 17)

Twice-married Civil War veteran James Bolin, a widower himself, also lived in Niangua, alone, in a small house near a lumber yard and train tracks.  In a photo from the 1930s, a seated Bolin, wearing a bowler hat, suit jacket, and dark vest - sported a large white mustache.  It's a pity the photo wasn't in color, because Mr. Bolin had the most vivid blue eyes.

When he enlisted in 1864, Bolin -- a 21-year-old farmer from Webster County -- had dark hair and a fair complexion.  The 5-foot-eight private served honorably with the 46th Missouri Infantry from the fall of 1864 to March 1865, and later was in the 14th Missouri Cavalry.

Although both units were kept busy, neither unit saw much fighting.

In the spring of 1865, the cavalrymen, including Bolin -- guarded the Wire Road (the predecessor of much of Route 66 in Missouri).  This was a favorite target of guerrillas because of the telegraph line along this vital route.

In late May, 1865, more than a month after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, the unit was sent to confront unrepentant Confederates in the border state, which sent troops to both sides during the war and in which much fighting took place.

--Old Secesh

The Widow's Secret: The Last Civil War Widow Died in December 2020-- Part 1

From the April 2021 Civil War Times by John Banks.

I first wrote about this in my RoadDog's RoadLog Blog back on January 18 when became aware of it.  I put it in that blog because of this woman's Route 66 connections.

Hard to believe as is the case, Helen Jackson is the widow of a Union Civil War soldier.  Especially amazing since that war ended 156 years ago.  Do the math.

And, she kept her marriage secret.

She was 17 when she married Civil War veteran James Bolin, who was 93 in September 1936.  That was some age difference.

Helen Jackson was "The Last Civil War Widow."

She died December 16, 2020, at the age of 101.

--Old Secesh