This application is straightforward enough until the officer’s widow reveals family secrets and unconventional living arrangements. Events described in this lengthy pension file include residences in Florida, New Jersey, and New York; the Spanish-American War and World War I; and foreign nationals.
Last week’s post included research notes from documents dated June 1892-April 1924. Today’s post includes research notes from documents dated 1925-1926. The final post includes research notes from documents dated 1927.
Invalid — 465,488 / 834,526
Widow — 1,231,070 / —–, Caledonia Ouvert
Death Certificate, Charles Overt, 26 February 1925
[place of death] 1218 Washington St., Asbury Park, Monmouth County, New Jersey
[name] Charles Overt
[residence] 1218 Washington St., Asbury Park, Monmouth County, New Jersey; 25-year resident in the city
[sex / color / status] male / white / married
[wife’s name] Calectonia Walker
[age] about 76
[occupation] retired
[birthplace] Cairo, NY
[parents’ names and birthplaces] unknown
[informant] Calectonia Overt, 1249 Washington St.
[death date] February 26, 1925
[attended deceased] Feb 1, 1925- Feb 26, 1925
[cause of death / contributory] ruptured aneurysm – abdominal / hemorrhage
[physician] O.R. Holters, MD, Asbury Park, NJ
[burial] Mt. Prospect Cemetery
[burial date] March 1, 1925
[undertaker] David B. Reidy, Asbury Park, NJ
Sworn Statement (Form 3-289a), Celedonia Overt, 5 October 1926
53 years old
“I have no middle name … 52 Eighth Avenue, New York City, is my temporary address. My permanent address is 1218 Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, New Jersey. My occupation is teaching music and doing dressmaking. I teach the piano. In New York City I lived with a Mrs. Clara Wheaton. I live there off and on during the year….. I did not serve in the World War in any capacity. My husband did not serve in the World War in any capacity and I did not have any relative serve in the World War in any capacity. My parents are dead. My father was Frank Crawford. My mother was Harriet Walker. I was born in Worcester, Mass., January 14, 1873. I have no brothers and I have no sisters. I had two brothers who died in Florida many years ago. My brothers are not survived by any widows or children. I may have some distant relatives somewhere in Florida but what their names are and where they live I do not know and I have never known. I was born in Worcester, Mass., and my parents moved to Jacksonville, Fla., and we lived there until I was about ten or twelve years of age and then we moved to Paltka, Florida, and left there when I was about sixteen years old and went back to Jacksonville. When I was about 19 years old the family moved to Pablo Beach, Florida, and we were living there when I married the soldier. At Pablo Beach there were no churches or justices of the peace so we were married in Jacksonville which is very near to Pablo Beach. The soldier’s parents must be dead. I never knew them and I have no knowledge whatever concerning them. I do not know the names of his parents. The soldier has no living relatives. He had brothers and sisters but they are all dead. I was present at the burial of two of his sisters who were the last of his family. They were both single when they died. The soldier had no cousins, nephews or nieces living. I do not know of a relative in the world he has living. The soldier was born in Cairo, New York, on February 13, 1845. So far as I know … he lived all of his young life at Cairo, NY, and in that vicinity. I met him at Pablo Beach, Fla., and I think he had been there for 5 or 6 years before I met him. The only persons I have ever heard of who knew my husband before I did is a man named Gibbs and a woman named Miss or Mrs. McBeam. They both lived in Asbury Park, NJ, but I cannot find Mr. Gibbs. … I do not know his first name. He was a very old man the last time that I saw him and that has been two years ago. I do not know where he lived there… He used to come to our house. Mrs. Grace Holliman of 1219 Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, knew him and perhaps she might know more about him than I know whether Mr. Gibbs is living or deas … Miss McBeam also lives on Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, New Jersey.”
“The soldier and I were married at Jacksonville, Florida, on October 19, 1893. We were married by the Rev. Jos. A. Brown, Rector of St. Philip’s Church, at a friend’s residence … I have never given birth to a child or children …. The soldier died at Asbury Park, NJ, on February 26, 1925…. Since the soldier has been dead I have divided my time between Asbury Park and New York City. I have lived only at Mrs. Wheaton’s where I am now in New York City, and in Asbury Park, I take a room at Grace Holliman’s at 1218 Washington Avenue, and then I also stop at Mrs. Schmerler, at 110 Euclid Avenue. Lock Harbor, New Jersey … I knew the soldier’s sisters.”
“At the close of the Spanish American War the soldier and I moved from Jacksonville, Florida, to Asbury Park, NJ, and we made Asbury Park our home until he died.”
Deposition, Richard Gibbs, 8 November 1926
about 71 years old; residence, 121 West 134th St., New York City
“I formerly lived at Asbury Park, New Jersey. My occupation has always been a hotel waiter. I have known this claimant … for about the past 30 years. When I first met the claimant she was in Asbury Park living with Charles Overt as his wife. …. I knew Overt since 1882. I then met him on Staten Island but lived in New York City. He was from Poughkeepsie, NY. He had two sisters there and they died there. He has no sisters living now and he has no relative living that I know of. … About five years after I met Overt he went down to Florida. He went down there with a hotel man named Dick and he was down there for some years and then he came up from Florida and settled in Asbury Park, and lived there until his death… The only wife he ever had was the woman whom he married in Florida. Her name was Walker before he married her. When the claimant came here to New York to live Overt lived with her mother, a Mrs. Walker until she died. Mrs. Walker died about 2 years before Overt died and after Mrs. Walker died then Overt got some man to come there and live with him and to look out for him. … I know his name but I can’t think of it now. …. I last saw the claimant at the funeral of Mr. Overt and have not seen her since.”
Deposition, Grace E. Holimon, 4 December 1926
43 years old; residence, 1218 Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ
“I am the wife of Isaac T. Holiman, a painter. I have known this claimant … for more than the past 24 years and I knew her husband the same length of time. When I met [them] they were living together here in Asbury Park … They lived in the same house with me for a while and then we bought the place and they moved just a few doors down the street. … She was employed in some chocolate factory in Philadelphia and she would come down here at different seasons, most at holidays.”
Deposition, Mary F. McBean, 4 December 1926
64 years old; residence, 1261 Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ
“I am the widow of Florence L. McBean. I first met Mr. Charles Overt … about 1884. He was then delivering coal in New York City in the neighborhood where I lived and he was known as the old bach….He was well along in years at that time. … I came here in 1888 and Overt was there when I left. I did not see him again until about 1894 or 1895, when he came in my restaurant at Asbury Park, New Jersey. ,,, Shortly after that he brought Mrs. Walker to my restaurant and he introduced her as his mother-in-law and in all that time I never saw his wife. I understood that his wife lived in New York City.”
Deposition, C. Virginia Baker, 4 December 1926
40 years old; residence 1233 Washington Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ
“I am the wife of Charles Henry Baker, a hodcarrier. I have known [this claimant] for the past seven years, but I knew her husband … longer than I knew the claimant. …. Mr. Overt was like a saint and he never said one word against the claimant.”
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 
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