A Logger Who Lost His Sight, His Health and Everything in His Wife's Name
A former New York volunteer, once a man of some means, leaves Olympia for the Soldiers' Home at Orting with his property gone and his eyesight failing.
Wm. H. Anderson, formerly of the 116th New York volunteers, a member of Geo. H. Thomas post of this city, will go to the Soldiers' Home at Orting today, to pass the remainder of his days there. Anderson is a logger and was formerly a man of some means. He is nearly blind and his health is failing. In addition to this his wife deserted him some time ago and it is said got the best of him to such an extent that all his property is in her name.
“He is nearly blind and his health is failing. In addition to this his wife deserted him some time ago and it is said got the best of him to such an extent that all his property is in her name.”
Anderson's fate — a veteran whose savings were swept into a spouse's name, his sight and health gone, ending his days in a soldiers' home — is a reminder that elder poverty and the gaps in a care system are not new. The 116th New York volunteers and the Grand Army post that claimed him are gone; the Soldiers' Home at Orting survives as a cemetery, a quiet witness to how the region cared for the men it had used.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.