Maria Rice: Widow

Following Horace's death, his widow Maria applied for a widow's pension in June 1890

Maria lived in Wisconsin following Horace's death until 1890. She then moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1891

A.S. Long swears that Maria is afflicted with an organic disease of the head/heart and that is she without means to support herself

Document from the Bureau of Pensions asking Maria to prove that she has not remarried since Horace's death

W.E. Mussey swears on Maria's behalf that she has not remarried after Horace's death

Joseph Langdon and Ollie Coffell, who were neighbors of Maria in St. Joseph, Missouri, swear that in the past five weeks they have known her, she has not appeared to remarry

In December of 1892, Maria's application for a pension is denied

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text-mined image created by Voyant

This visual shows a text-mined comparison of the words from our documents most relevant to Maria. It provides an interesting way to view the information provided to us by comparing select words. For example, "Maria" and "pension" are used a similar amount of times. This is because a lot of our pension documents are actually from Maria as she fought for her pension after Horace's death. It is also interesting to note how frequently the word "marriage" is used because her marriage to Horace as well as her marital status after his death were constantly in question by the Pensions Office.