Brown County Confederate Pension Applications

The Index to Confederate Pension Applications provides the names, county of residence, and pension number of some 54,634 approved, rejected, and home pensions issued by the Texas government between 1899 and 1975. The listing for a widow's pension includes her husband's name as it appears on her application form. If the husband also applied for a Texas Confederate Pension, the number of that pension (or the specification "Rejected" or "Home") is noted as well.

Confederate veterans and their widows were dependent upon the generosity of the already impoverished former Confederate states for any postwar pension benefits. In awarding pensions for Confederate service, Texas, like most other southern states, confined its relief payments to veterans or their widows resident in Texas since 1880 who were disabled or indigent. Therefore, the index of applicants for Confederate pensions in no way represents a complete roster of Texas residents who had fought for the Confederacy.

If you do not immediately find the name you are researching it might be because the person did not submit an application for a pension. However, the names in the listing are based on the spelling given on the endorsement page of the printed pension application form. If that name is somehow misspelled, the misspelling is reflected in the computer entry. (For example, a week before his death, W. C. Akin applied for a Confederate pension; subsequently his widow Susan applied for a pension in her own name. The request for records from the United States Adjutant General and many other affidavits in the pension application spell the name as Aiken.) Check all possible spellings of a veteran's surname before deciding that he or his widow did not apply for a pension.

The Confederate Pension Applications were transferred to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) from the Office of the Comptroller of Public Accounts between 1934 and 1980. Even then, some application files were identified as missing. Although the names and associated file numbers are known, the records themselves are no longer available. There is value, however, in knowing the applications actually existed, along with the limited information that is to be found in the index. The entries are clearly recognizable by the word Missing which appears next to the application number. Patrons should not request photocopies of these non-existent records.

The application forms and their attached records and correspondence are on file in TSLAC's Archives and Information Services Division. You may request copies of the files by telephone, regular mail, or e-mail. To obtain an approved pension, give the applicant's name and pension number. If the Index lists the pension application as a Rejected or a Home pension, give the applicant's full name as it appears in the index, the county of residence, and "Rejected" or "Home," whichever is appropriate.

Each file will vary in number of pages and content; therefore, the Archives staff will copy each complete file requested and bill you for the total number of pages reproduced

©2007 Pecan Valley Genealogical Society