Long before there were televisions and crime scene investigators, the US government was engaged in such investigations. I am fascinated by the civil war pension file of my husband's ancestor, Jacob Stuck. His pension
file reads like an episode of CSI as the investigator post-humously attempted to recreate Jacob Stuck's love life and death.
Jacob Stuck was married three times, never divorced. He lived in central Pennsylvania
primarily with the exception of an intriguing trip out West. He served in the Civil War for the Union in D Company 74th Pennsylvania Infantry. He survived the war, applied for an invalid pension, and died in 1894. The pension file investigates who is his rightful widow: wife #2 Sarah Miller, mother of two of his children, who subsequently married John Foust, or wife #3 Sophia Wagner with whom he had eleven children.
His third wife with whom he had eleven children was his most prolific genetic legacy. It is for these Stuck descendants and for my husband's line that I finally digitize this pension file. Attached is the first half of the summary of the legal investigator's conclusions on this interesting case.
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