Martin CLAFFY

Case of Annie E. Trim, No. 1097533

On this 28th day of July, 1919, at Lake Placid, county of Essex, State of New York, before me, E.C. Miller, a Special Examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:

I was 64 years of age the 18th of last March; p.o. Address, Lake Placid. N.Y., Care Mrs. Lola Watson, who is my daughter, wife of Frank E. Watson. I am employed as a helper in the kitchen of the Theanoguen Club house here. I am the claimant in this case. I claim pension as the former wife of Martin Claffy, who served for three years and 9 months in Co. C, 143rd N.Y. Inf., under Gen. Curtis, and who died in the Ogdensburg Insane asylum on Dec. 9th, 1900. He served in the Civil War, and I do not know of any other service that he rendered: he enlisted as a private under Capt. Ransom.

At the time I married the soldier he had a brother named Patrick Claffy, then living in Montreal, Canada, and two sisters named Bridget and Maggie, also living in Montreal, Bridget being an old maid, while Maggie was married to Charles Putnam, an Engineer: both Maggie and Patrick were younger than the soldier. Patrick never married to my knowledge, and his sister Maggie has no children living. During the Civil War I think the soldier lived in Ogdensburg, N.Y., where he worked for 16 years for Tom Cochran, and David and James, his sons, and they had a daughter named Catherine. David I think is now Chief of Police in Ogdensburg, but James is in or near Heuvelton, N.Y. on a farm. Soldier has no other relatives in Ogdensburg, N.Y. Capt. Wells, of Ogdensburg, also knew the soldier in Ogdensburg. I do not know of others who knew the soldier in Ogdensburg.

My parents were John Barager and Charlotte (Jeffrey) Barager who also lived in Ogdensburg, N.Y. during the War, but afterwards they moved to Governeur, and different places all over. I have one brother living in Norwood, N.Y., names Norman Marshall Barager, who last worked in a paper mill I think. I also have two sisters, named Nellie, wife of Carey Marsh, of Massena, N.Y., and Martha, wife of Wm. A. Welsh, of Norwood, N.Y. He is a carpenter or millright, I think. He worked at Raymondville the last I knew when I came up here about two months ago, but he lives in Norwood, N.Y.

No, neither I nor the soldier had ever been married before we were married to each other. The soldier lived in Ogdensburg and in Prescott, Ont., before I knew him: he lived with his mother until she died, and after that he stayed with Mr. Cochran's people who lived at Heuvelton, N.Y., where he also knew John and Robert Berry, and their children, including a son, John Berry.

I was married to the soldier at Ogdensburg, N.Y. on the 24th day of August, and I think it was 31 years ago this coming August: I cannot be positive about the year, but it was on August the 24th: we were married by James Mack, a Justice of the Peace, in the presence of two young men who were in his office at that time, I never knew their names; but the soldier knew their names. There were no other witnesses. I have not been able to find any record of our marriage. I had a marriage certificate but lost it: I gave it to Edward Atwater, of Norfolk, who helped me get Mr. Claffy's pension after the soldier went to the Insane Asylum, and I drew his pension four years before he died, but I never applied for a pension as the soldier's widow, as I married again soon after on Sept. 10, 1901: I was married then to George W. Trim by Rev. Caleb Cobb, a Methodist minister then of Norwood, N.Y., in the presence of Alden Smith and his wife Pauline Smith. Alden Smith's home is in Skerry, N.Y. The soldier never was married more than once in his life, while I never married more than twice. After I was married to the soldier, we lived together as husband and wife, near the Kindred Church, near Rensselaer Falls, N.Y., about two years, and then we moved to Norwood, N.Y., and lived there about three years, and then we bought a place at Norfolk, N.Y. and moved there and continued to live together until the soldier was sent to the Ogdensburg Insane Asylum, where he died about four years after he was sent there, on Dec. 9, 1900.

I only knew the soldier for about one year before I married him. My parents lived in Norwood, N.Y. before I made the acquaintance of the soldier. I was well acquainted there with Mrs. Frank Ralph and his wife Martha, who live just across the road from my sister, Martha Welsh, and Mr. Mickey Harriman, and his wife Ethel.

Q. Can you fix the exact year of your marriage to the soldier from some other event that happened about that time?

A. Well, my daughter, Lola Margaret, now the wife of Frank E. Watson, who now stays with her sister-in-law in Kennedy's hardware store, Mrs. Joyce Kennedy, at Newman, I think she is now 30 years old and I was married 5 months and four days when she was born. That is as near as I can fix the year of my marriage. There is no other child of the soldier now living except Charles Patrick Claffy, but he went to work as a civilian in the war with Germany and I do not know where he is now. He is the youngest child of the soldier that is living, and was at Dexter, N.Y. when I heard from him last about a year and a half ago. Charles will be 28 years old the 8th day of next December.

George W. Trim had two sisters, or more, of whom I knew Polly who was the wife of Alex Fredenburg, who lived near Renoldston, near or above West Bangor. His brothers were all dead. He and his brothers were Jockeys, and they were all over. George Trim made his home between Reynoldston and West Bangor, N.Y., and his business was dealing in horses. After I married him I lived with him as his wife mostly at West Bangor, and later at Dickenson Center, N.Y., where he died Jan. 12, 1913, and I have furnished a copy of the record of his death. (B.J. 9) No, I never was separated or divorced from George Trim. A son of George Trim by his prior wife, also named George Trim, he now lives in Potsdam, N.Y.: I think he is a truckman: his father died at his house in Dickenson Center, and I stayed there also at that time, and I was also very sick at that time.

No, I have never remarried since my second husband, George Trim, died. Since his death I have lived at Norwood, N.Y. and here at Lake Placid. While here I have made my home with my daughter, Lola Watson, above named, most of the time, and I have worked out at housework or kitchen work most of the time. I also kept house for Mr. and Mrs. Allen E. Biccum or about two years until recently: I got tired of their children, as they made me very nervous.

I do not desire to be present, or be represented by attorney, during further examination of this case.

I have generally been known as Mrs. Annie E. Claffy, but since I have always lived with Mr. Trim as his wife until he died: since Trim's death I have always been known as "Mrs. Claffy", although those who know me well call me Mrs. Trim. I have lived here now for the last six years.

No, My second husband George W. Trim, never rendered any military or naval service for the United States.

The words "different places, in line 27, are interlined before signing.

I have heard the aforementioned deposition read, and it is correct.

All my children, Lola, Charles, and Carl, (who died) were baptized in the Catholic Church at Norwood when they were a few months old. My marriage to Claffy was also blessed by Father Fitzgerald, at Norwood, N.Y., after my children were baptized. After Charles was baptized.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 28th day of July, 1919, and I certify the contents were fully made known to depondent before signing.

E.C. Miller, Special Examiner

Martha J. Welch statement:

On this 5 day of August, 1919, at Yalesville, county of St. Lawrence, State of New York before me, E.C. Miller, a Special Examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared Matha J. Welch, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to her during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:

Age, 49 years; post-office address, Norwood, N.Y.; I am the wife of Wm. Welch, a carpenter and farmer. The claimant is my oldest sister, and lived around here most of her life. I have always lived here except about ten years that I lived Gouverneur, NY.

Q. Was your sister ever married before she married the soldier Martin Claffy?

A. Yes, she was first married to John Buck, who worked at carpenter work when he was here. She was married to John Buck when I was only a little child. John Buck was a son of Hiram and Caroline Buck, both dead. John Buck has a brother now living in Norwood, named George Buck, a car inspector, who I think lives on Prospect street, beyond the school-house. John Buck also has an older sister named Julia Williams, wife of John Williams, who lives at Potsdam, NY. And John Buck has a younger sister named Minnie Ludrick, wife of Mosea Ludrick, or now the widow of Moses Ludrick, of St. Regis Falls, N.Y. I could not tell you who married my sister to John Buck, but it must have been either a Methodist minister or a Justice of the Peace. My sister herself told me she was married to John Buck in the third house from here, and my sister must have been quite young then. After my sister was married to John Buck she lived with him as his wife a number of years; long enough to have three children, named Fred Buck, the oldest, who is now in St. Johns Hospital at Ogdensburg, N.Y., sick with the rheumatism; George Bock (sic), now a car-repairer at Norwood, NY; he lives across the street from George Buck, his uncle above named; and their youngest child, John died here about four years. When their youngest child was about a year old, then John Buck left my sister and her three children, and went off to Watertown, N.Y. with a colored woman, and he was still living with her, as I heard, about two years ago; the last I heard from them they were living in Syracuse, N.Y., as I was told, but I do not know on what street. At the time John Buck left my sister they lived just across the street from us, and I think then I was all of ten years old. John Buck was quite a man to be running with a different women, and he got in with this colored woman and went off with her, as above stated. No, I never heard of any divorce being obtained between my sister and John Buck: I think my sister started once to get one at Potsdam, N.Y but whether it was ever carried out to completion, or not, I could not say. After that my sister always stayed around here up to the time that she married the soldier, Martin Claffy.

Q. What do you know about the marriage of your sister to Martin Claffy? when were they married, and where and by whom?

A. I remember that they went to Ogdensburg to get married, and I think I was then 17 years old. I know I was then not yet married myself, and I was married to my present husband on Jan. 2, 1892, as shown by my marriage certificate, from which I have just taken this date of my marriage. My sister Annie was married to Martin Claffy several years before I was married.

After my sister was married to Martin Claffy they always lived together as man and wife until he went to the Ogdensburg Hospital for the Insane, where he was for about four years before he died, about eighteen years ago. A short time after his death my sister Annie married again to George Trim, at Norwood, N.Y., and thereafter lived with George Trim until he died at Dickinson Center, N.Y., about six years ago, and since then my sister Annie has lived here with me and at Lake Placid with her daughter, where she is now, and she has not married again since the death of George Trim.

I never knew much about the soldier, Martin Claffy, before he married my sister: but I know he was a very nice man, and good to his family. The oldest child of my sister Annie, by Martin Claffy, is named Lola, and she was baptized at Norwood at the Catholic Church and Mrs. Marcella Ludrick, who still lives next door to us, was God-mother to Lola, who is now the wife of Frank Watson, of Lake Placid, but he has left his wife, and two children.

I do not know where my brother, Norman Barrager (sic), is just now; he often goes off when he feels like it, but he is around here most of the time, especially when is not working.

I could not say whether the soldier, Martin Claffy, ever had been married before he married my sister Annie, or not, but I do not think he was, as I think he would have told about it if he had been: he was a good man as far as we knew about him.

I have heard the foregoing deposition read, and it is correct. No, I am not financially interested in this case, but hope that my sister will get a pension. My sister and the soldier always got along well together, and she looked after him for six weeks after he went crazy, and watched him night and day.

Mrs. Martha J. Welch, Deponent.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of Aug., 1919, and I certify the comments were fully made known to deponent before signing.

E.C. Miller, Special Examiner

A letter to the Commissioner of Pensions, from the Special Examiner

Albany, N.Y, Sept. 30, 1919

Commissioner of Pensions:

Claim No. 1,097, 533, Annie E. Trim, P.O. Address, Lake Placid, Essex Co., N.Y., formerly widow of Martin Claffy, Co. C, 142 N.Y. Inf.; All papers herewith, and report as follows:

REFERENCE:--To determine fact and date of claimant's alleged marriage to soldier; whether either had been previously married; whether claimant's second husband procured a divorce from her, and whether she remarried since the death of her second husband Trim. (See letter of Chief of Board of Review attached as "Exhibit A".)

NOTICE:--Claimant was duly advised of all her rights and privileges in the premises, but waived all further notice and was ready to give her statement at once.

REPUTATION:--The claimant now bears a good reputation in all respects. She does Kitchen work at the Theanoguen Club at Lake Placid, and the Secretary of the Club, of whom I inquired to locate the claimant, spoke very highly of the old lady. She testified with apparent frankness and candor, and from her manner of testifying when I took her initial statement, I believed that she had told me the truth. In the course of the subsequent examination I learned of a prior and undisclosed marriage on her part to one John Buck, from whom she was never divorced and who is still living, as hereinafter mentioned.

WITNESSES:--All the witnesses also testified with frankness and candor, and impressed me as telling the truth. I soon learned of claimant's sister, Matha J. Welch, of her prior marriage to John Buck, and this is confirmed by an alleged Uncle (but he says he is claimant's cousin) named John Henry Finch, and also by John Buck himself, both of whose depositions are attached. The evidence is positive in regard to this prior marriage, and John Buck himself does not claim he was ever divorced from her, nor even that he himself ever remarried, although he raised a family of colored children by a colored woman with whom he has been living since he left his wife, and no record of a divorce in either St. Lawrence or Jefferson County was found. If John Buck had obtained a divorce, it would have been much to his interest to tell me about it.

CLAIMANT RE-CALLED:--, and FINAL STATEMENT:--After I had seen John Buck I returned to the claimant and confronted her with the adverse evidence of prior marriage and non-divorce on her part, and she then surprised me by promptly stating that she had a twin-sister named Mary Elizabeth Barager (she being named Annie Elizabeth Barager) and that it was this twin-sister of hers that had been married to John Buck; that this sister died from a bad disease (probably syphillis) in Cornwall, Ont., and that to conceal and hush up the fact and cause of her death she arranged with her mother (who has since died) to take the place of this deceased twin-sister, and that only her own mother and one or two others, now dead, knew that she had taken the place of her twin-sister as alleged. She also frankly admitted that she could not now show, and stated that she did not desire to show, that it was her twin-sister, and not she herself, who was married to John Buck. She informed me that John Buck's three oldest sons, Fred, George and John Buck, had always considered her their mother, and she never wanted them to know any different, even if she never got a pension, and positively and unhesitatingly stated that she would rather never have a pension, much as she needed it, than to let these children, or her younger sister, know that she was not the mother of these children, even if she was able to prove that she was not their mother, which she admitted she was not now able to do. She stated that she looked exactly like her twin sister, Mary Elizabeth, and that John Buck himself, at this late date, would not be able to tell that she was not the same person whom he married under the maiden name of "Barager" about 1872. She claimaned that none of her brothers now living knew that she had impersonated her sister, and she did not want them to know. I wrote to her cousin, John Henry Finch, who is much older than any of claimant's brothers or sisters, but his reply attached shows he has no knowledge of a twin sister. I also wrote to the Registrar General of Ontario, Canada, who has charge of all old death records of Ontario, but he was not able to find any record of the death of the claimant's alleged twin-sister, Mary Elizabeth Buck during the years 1879-80-81, which was about the time fixed by claimant. In spite of all my efforts, I could not verify the truth of claimant's statement that she ever had a twin sister, and she herself said that she could not, and would not, do so.

At Ogdensburg, N.Y. I hunted up in the office of the Town Clerk, the old Justice of the Peace Mack, James Mack, and although I looked through several of his old dockets I failed to find any record therein of any marriage he ever performed, and he either kept them in some other book or never made any record of them at all, the same as most Justices at that time did, although Old Squire White of Ogdensburg, N.Y. kept a separate and very complete record of all marriages performed by him, of which there were many. However, in the view of the age of claimant's oldest daughter by Claffy, there can be no doubt she was married to the soldier before June 27, 1890. If the record of her marriage to Claffy (if one could be found) would show that she married him under her maiden name, it might be some evidence of no prior marriage, but as many widows marry the second time under their maiden name, this would not be conclusive, or sufficient to overcome the evidence herewith.

RECOMMENDATION:--Consideratio by the Chief of the Board of Review.

Respectfully submitted,

E.C. Miller, Special Examiner

P.S. If the Birth Records of Williamsburg, near Winchester Springs, in Ontario, Canada, are complete as far back as March 18, 1855, when claimant and her twin sister were born there, if a copy of that record would be deemed sufficient corroboration of her final statement to overcome the adverse testimony herewith, I might obtain such a copy, if the Bureau will so advise me. The search will cost about 25 cents, and the copy an additional quarter or 50 cents, if a record is found. This could be obtained by correspondence.

Respectfully,

E.C. Miller, Special Examiner