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Perley’s Soldier’s Friend. Devoted to the Interests of our Heroic Defenders and their Hiers. Vol. I. No. 1.
Erie, Penn’a: Perley’s National Claim Agency, 1 January 1867. Vol. 1, no. 1. 4to newspaper (14.75” x 10.5”). 4 pp. Volume one, number one of this rare newspaper advertising government bounties available to Union veterans and their families—as well as special bounties for African-American veterans—through Perley’s National Claim Agency. According to a statement herein, 20,000 copies of Perley’s Soldier’s Friend were “distributed gratuitously” for the benefit of Union veterans (“our heroic Defenders”) and their families. Under the War Department’s Bounty Act of July 1866, mothers and fathers of deceased soldiers were jointly entitled to bounties. This publication reminds soldiers to file their claims for an additional bounty to be paid within one year, described as follows:
One Hundred Dollars additional bounty, can be obtained by soldiers enlisting for three years or the war and serving their term of enlistment or being discharged for wounds, providing they received no more than One Hundred Dollars Government Bounty, or by the heirs of those killed or who died in service Father and Mother must apply jointly. An additional Fifty Dollars Bounty, for all Soldiers enlisting for two years, and discharged as above, or heirs of same. No charge unless successful. Fifteen Dollars per Month, instead of eight dollars for losing the use of hand and foot. Twenty dollars per month for loss of two limbs or use of same. Twenty-four dollars pension for each Soldier’s child, in addition to the Widow’s Pension.
It is noted that hundreds of fathers and mothers have successfully obtained this additional bounty via Perley’s Agency, and some eighty-three men of Independent Battery B. or Erie, Pa. have had their accounts settled through the Agency. The text outlines the terms and conditions of the Bounty Bill and the Supplementary Act to the Pensions Acts, as well as an Act relating to increasing pensions of widows and orphans. Perley’s National Claim Agency is said to be “the only agency in Northwestern Pennsylvania where years of experience in the Departments at Washington can be found.”
A “proposed convention of colored soldiers and sailors” as well as a “Colored Soldier’s Bounty” are described as follows: “A call has been issued inviting all colored soldiers and sailors who served in the Union army or navy during the rebellion, and who believe that in sustaining the Union with the musket have won their right to the ballot, and who believe that they have not received from the government a due recognition for their services rendered in the hour of need, to meet at Philadelphia, Pa., January 1, 1867. The movement was initiated by the colored Soldiers’ and Sailors’ League at Washington...It has been decided by competent authority that colored soldiers are entitled to the extra bounty under the act of July 28, 1866, in all cases coming within the provisions of sections 12 and 13, and where they have received no bounty or a less bounty than one hundred dollars.”
Also included are advertisements for The Erie Weekly Gazette; The Erie Daily Dispatch; The Semi-Weekly Tidioute Journal, as well as ads for the Tyrian Lodge in Erie, Pa., dealers in sheet music and musical instruments, a photograph gallery, saloons, insurance agencies, grocers, real estate companies, breweries, business cards, a Pennsylvania normal school, and so on.
This title is not recorded in OCLC.
CONDITION: Light toning, very light wear, and light chipping at margins.
Item #5499
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