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American Civil War

Last person to receive pension from Civil War, $73.13 monthly, dies at age 90

The last person in the United States to receive a Civil War-era pension died late last month at age 90.

Irene Triplett received a monthly check for $73.13 from the Department of Veterans Affairs as her father, Mose Triplett, deserted the Confederates just before Gettysburg and later joined the Union army.

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported that Triplett was living in a North Carolina nursing home before she died May 31.

According to the Post, Triplett received the monthly payment because she suffered from cognitive impairments and qualified as "a helpless adult child of a veteran." Mose Triplett married Elida Hall, his second wife and Irene Triplett's mother, in 1924.

Mose Triplett was nearly 50 years older than Elida, and he was weeks away from turning 84 when Irene Triplett was born in 1930.

Mose Triplett died in 1938.

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According the Journal, both of the Triplett women had mental disabilities. Unable to support themselves, the two moved into a "poorhouse" in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1943. When that facility closed in 1960, the two moved into a private nursing home. 

Elida Triplett died in 1967.

Irene Triplett lived in the same nursing home until 2013, when she moved to a nearby skilled-nursing facility, the Journal reported.

According to the Post, Triplett had broken her hip recently and died of complications. She was unmarried; her brother died in 1996.

The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956 at the age of 109, according to the VA. The last Civil War widow died in 2008 at the age of 93.

Triplett was not the only person receiving benefits tied to service in 19th century wars. Citing the VA, the Post reported that 33 surviving spouses and 18 children receive benefits tied to the Spanish-American War, which was fought in 1898.

Speaking with the Journal in 2014, Triplett described a challenging upbringing where she faced regular beatings.

"I didn’t care for neither one (of my parents), to tell you the truth about it," she told the newspaper. "I wanted to get away from both of them. I wanted to get me a house and crawl in it all by myself."

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