Deposition
Case of Mary Joy, No. 630863
On this 27 day of July, 1899, at Elkhart, county of Polk, State of Iowa, before, me M.C. Davis, a special examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared Harrison Welch, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:
I am 60 years of age; my post-office address is Elkhart, Iowa; occupation, farmer.
The tin-type picture just shown sure is a picture of my brother-in-law, Jacob Johnson-my wife's brother (my wife is dead, has been dead two months). I recognized this picture without any intimation from any source as to who the picture represented. It looks very much as Johnson did in service. He and I were both in the 2nd Iowa Battery, Light Artillery. After the war Johnson got in some trouble over in Dallas County and went to Missouri, but I don't know just where, and I think he was married there. He did not write to us, but heard of him through some of his relations here. No, he was never married before he left this county. It was somewhere in the sixties that he left this state. I understood that the sheriff shot him at the time he escaped, but I have no personal knowledge of the facts. I heard he was shot in the leg. No, Johnson was not wounded in service that I had any knowledge of. I was in service four years, with the battery. He was my brother-in-law, then of course I knew him intimately.
I have always understood that after Johnson went to Missouri he was known by the name of Joy-forget the first name-yes, Charles Joy, that is the name I have heard he took after he left here. I knew Jacob Johnson from the time he was a little boy and until he left this state and went to Missouri and I know he was never married up to the time he left here. He was younger than my wife, she was 55 last February. Johnson would be-well now, I am not positive that he was younger than my wife-he may have been the next older. My daughter says he was two years older than her mother. Johnson was tall and slender-not quite 6 ft. He was not real light complexion, but was not dark-had red cheeks-blue eyes and hair just middling dark-always a farmer. He weighed probably 160 lbs. No, I never made an affidavit in this matter-never saw his widow. I have understood the questions asked me and my answers are being recorded.
Harrison Welch
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Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27 day of July, 1899, and I certify that contents were fully made known to deponent before signing.
M.C.Davis (Special Examiner).
Inability Affidavit
To be executed only by the claimant.
State of Missouri, County of Jasper, ss: In the matter of Call no. 2 & 3 Pension Claim No. 863938 of Jacob Johnson 2nd Battery Iowa Light Artillery.
On this eleventh day of March, A.D. 1891, personally appeared before me A notary public, in and for aforesaid County, duly authorized to administer oaths, Jacob Johnson a resident of Alba, in the County of Jasper, and State Missouri, whose Post Office address is Alba, Jasper, Missouri well known to me to be reputable and entitled to credit, and who, being duly sworn, declares in relation to aforesaid case, as follows: That he is unable to comply with requirements of the Pension Office as to injury to his ears for the reason that he does not know the whereabouts of the Captain of his comrades; but the said claimant declares that his ears were injured during the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the war of the Rebellion, that while asleep under a heavy gun said gun was discharged while he was yet sleeping on the ground under it; that the concussion so injured his ears as to cause the blood to ooze from them-that from that time he has been almost totally deaf. That he is unable to prove except by one witness the circumstances of the loss of his arm which occurred on this wise; Jacob Johnson the above named claimant declares under oath that during the month of October 1881, in the mines of Colorado he was preparing shot or blast to be used in said mines a premature explosion occurred which tore his hand and the lower part of his arm off. That has one witness, James Duncan who corroborates this statement. He respectfully requests that the testimony of himself and James Duncan be accepted in lieu of himself and two witnesses as he has no other witness living and that he never belonged to a military or naval organization other than the 2nd battery Iowa Light Artillery.
Jacob Johnson
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 27 day of July, 1899, and I certify that contents were fully made known to deponent before signing.
M.C.Davis (Special Examiner).
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Davenport Daily Gazette
Davenport, Iowa
Tuesday Morning, Nov. 13, 1866, Iowa News. Page 2
Jacob Johnson and T.J. Stanfiehl were arrested in Dallas county last week for slaughtering cattle and selling the beef without consent of the owners.
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Additional child of Charles F. & Mary [Shoup] Joy were:
Son Leonard Joy b. abt. 1878 d. bef. 1900