Jacob W Bowman Deposition

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Case of Julia A Bowman, No. 327216

On this 5 day of Sept, 1896 at Carmi, County of White, State of Ill before C A ___, a Special Examiner of the Pension Office, personally appeared Jacob W Bowman, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this Special Examination of aforesaid pension claim, deposes and says:

I am in my 40th year. I am a farmer. My P.O. address is Brownsville, Ill. I am a son of Mrs. Julia A Bowman and a brother of the late Pleasant Bowman who was in the service of the late war but I do not know in what company and regiment he served.

My mother has 167 acres of land. I attended the farm in 1894. There is probably 35 acres of the land in the woods and when I attended it there was 50 (?)acres of the land in the woods. I cultivated about 25 acres only about 10 acres in oats and 15 in corn and about 10 acres of the land was rented to a man Larkin Stuffle and he had the land in wheat. Eli Andis leased about 7 acres of the land which was in the woods. He was to get the entire crop from the land for clearing it. None of the other land was in cultivation - part was in pasture and part was idle.

I was to have what I could make out of the land that I cultivated and my mother was to board with me. I did not pay the tax but I kept the fences up. There was no other consideration except that I was to board my mother. I was not to clothe her. Mr Stuffle how had 10 acres in wheat was to give one third of what he made. My mother received form Mr Stuffle in 1894 twenty odd bushels of wheat. I do not know the exact amount. I believe she received forty cents per bushel for the wheat.

My mother had no income at all except from the farm. From the estate she received $50 and a year's provisions. I cannot tell you how she disposed of her money but she disposed of part of it.

There is an ordinary frame house on the farm that has been built for 40 years and several log buildings used for barns. To tell you the condition of the land I will say that I could have gotten the land for the support of my mother and keeping of the fence but I pay $84 for the rent of 40 (80?) acres in preference. The land is old and worn and it is naturally poor. The PO address of Larkin Stuffle is Burns City, Martin Co. Ind. The P.O. address of Eli Andis is the same.

Jacob W Bowman