The last Civil War pensioner dies

The death of a 90-year-old North Carolina woman ended more than 130 years of federal government payments to her immediate family. Irene Triplett, who died on Tuesday in Wilkesboro, N.C., was the last recipient of a government pension associated with the Civil War.

How did she qualify? Her father, Mose Triplett, started out fighting for the South, but later defected to the North, The Wall Street Journal reported. His service in the Union Army earned him a monthly pension of $73.13 that went to his second wife—who was almost 50 years younger than him—after his death in 1938 and then on to their daughter Irene.

Dig deeper: Read part of Marvin Olasky’s biography of President Grover Cleveland, which discusses the development of the U.S. pension system.