Richard Colden, Company K

Richard Colden’s pension application includes testimony of two prominent residents of Portsmouth, Virginia: Israel C. Norcom and Jeffrey T. Wilson. When a community leader vouched for a claimant, the researcher would do well to look into that person’s life story. Exploring the connection between the claimant and the witness has the potential to deliver interesting and useful material that would otherwise be missed.

 

Invalid — 905,270 / 917,358

Questionnaire, Richard Colden, 31 May 1889
[living children] Richard born August 28, 1857, William Walter born August 27, 1866…

 

Neighbor’s Affidavit, Albert Jones & Albert Crump, 2 January 1891
[Jones] 48 years old; resident of Portsmouth, Va. and [Crump] 50 years old; resident of Portsmouth, Va. … personally acquainted with Richard Colden for 27 and 30 years, respectively … “We are well and intimately acquainted with the claimant Richard Colden having lived near neighbors to him and have seen him nearly every day since his return out of the army and have worked with him and know that he suffers from defective sight and rheumatism of the back legs & arms which disabilities disable him to the extent of at least one half.”

 

General Affidavit, Albert Jones & Albert Crump, 11 December 1893
[Jones] 51 years old; 1117 Clifford St, Portsmouth, Va. and [Crump] 50 years old; Chestnut St, Portsmouth, Va. … “living in the same community with him and known him all the time as an upright hardworking man”

 

Letter from US Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia to Richard Colding, 818 Columbia Street, Portsmouth, Va., 8 February 1900
Sir:
Believing you to be physically unable to perform the duties of a comon laborer in the Yard, the Board at its meeting this day declined to permit your registration.
Very respectfully,
C.K. [illegible]
Lieut. Cmdr., U.S. Navy
Recorder, Board of Labor Employment

 

General Affidavit, M.C. Riddick, 17 December 1903
63 years old, Suffolk, Nansemond Co., Va … “Phillis Colden was my nurse and her first husband died several years before the marriage to her second husband which second marriage occurred before the civil war. She was married to Richard Colden on my father’s farm five miles from Suffolk. I do not remember the exact date but about the, or sometime during the year of 1855. I am unable to fix the year, remembering it being the year that the yellow prevailed in Norfolk.”

 

General Affidavit, Nathaniel Knight, 21 December 1903
74 years old, Berkley, Norfolk Co., Va. … has known Phyllis Colden, the claimant, all her life, she having been born and reared in the same neighborhood on the farm adjoin that on which I lived in Nansemond Co, Va … also knew Alfred Pierce, her first husband … Pierce died in the year of 1848 or 1849 in the state of South Carolina where he was hired out to work on a railroad.”

 

Affidavit, I.C. Norcom, 4 January 1904
“46 years old, Cor of Green and Caledonia Streets, Portsmouth, Va. …is well acquainted with the real estate owned by Richard Colden … consisted of a house and lot upon which he lived, at No. 818 Columbia St. in the city of Portsmouth, Va, worth $500.00, and a house and lot located on High Street extended in Norfolk Co. near Portsmouth, worth not more than $200.00 … I am informed that the will of the said Richard Colden left the real estate to his wife, the claimant, for life, but I do not know this to be so, as I have not seen the will…”

 

General Affidavit, Jane Small, 22 January 1904
“78 years old, South Norfolk, Norfolk Co., Va. … has known Phyllis Colden for at least 60 years …. Her first husband had died, or was reported to have died, in the South where he went with other hands from the neighborhood to work on what we called the ‘Alabama Railroad’”

 

General Affidavit, George H. Colden, 24 January 1904
“61 years old, 629 Pearl St, Portsmouth, Va. … is the brother of Richard Colden …”

 

Deposition, Israel C. Norcom, 20 April 1904
“45 years old, principal of third district school, cor Green and Calidonia [sic] Sts, Portsmouth, Va. …They lived near my school on Columbia St. …”

 

Deposition, Phyllis Colden, 22 April 1904
60 years old

 

Deposition, Jeffrey T. Wilson, 22 April 1904
60 years old; bailiff, US Court; Carroll St, Portsmouth, Va. … I knew the claimant Phyllis Colden well. She died about two months ago in Portsmouth, Va. I was at her funeral. I think that she died between the 15 and 20 of Feb 1904. She never owned any property in her own right that I ever heard of. Her husband Richard Colden willed the home to her where they lived on Columbia St, Portsmouth, Va., No. 818 I think and also a house and lot on High Street extended. I witnessed the will. The property on Columbia St. is worth between $500 and $600 and the High Street property is worth from $200 to $300….The house on High Street is in bad condition…Rosetta Johnson [lived in the house on High Street rent-free for life] She is old and he allowed her to live in it as a matter of charity, I suppose. She was in no way related to the soldier nor did he ever live with her. When I got acquainted with him in 1866 he was living with Phyllis as her husband and continued to live with her until he died.”