EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 19, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 3579, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Ellen Shea."
This beneficiary is an old lady and a widow. Her son, Michael Shea,
enlisted in January, 1862. The records show that he was sick on one or
two occasions during his service. He is also reported as a deserter and
absent without leave and in arrest and confinement fully as often as he
was sick. He was discharged January 20, 1865.
No application for a pension has been made on his behalf. The mother
filed a claim for pension in July, 1884, alleging that her son
contracted a fever in the service which resulted in insanity, which was
the cause of his death on the 10th day of March, 1884.
He was killed by a snow slide in the State of Colorado. The only hint
that his death was in any way connected with the service is the
suggestion that not having the proper use of his mind he wandered away
and was killed.
His mother now lives in Chicago and, I suppose, lived there at the
time of her son's death. There is very little evidence offered of any
unsoundness of mind, and his death occurring at Woodstock, Colo., it is
hardly to be supposed that he wandered that far. And as tending to show
that unsoundness of mind had nothing to do with his death it may be
mentioned that an attorney having the mother's application for pension
in charge withdrew from the case in October, 1884, for the reason that,
having made inquiries at the place where the soldier was killed, he
found that his death was caused by a snow slide, and that he was
informed that a number of other persons lost their lives at the same
time.