EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 19, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 9034, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Lydia A. Heiny."
The husband of this beneficiary served in an Indiana regiment from
August, 1861, to March, 1864, when he reenlisted as a veteran volunteer
and served as a private and teamster to July 20, 1865, when he was
discharged.
There is no record of any disability, and he never applied for a
pension.
On the 12th day of December, 1880, in leaving a barber shop at the place
where he resided, he fell downstairs and died the next day from the
injuries thus received.
His widow filed an application for a pension in the year 1885, alleging
that her husband contracted indigestion, bronchitis, nervous debility,
and throat disease in the Army, which were the cause of his death.
The claim was rejected upon the ground that the death of the soldier was
not due to an injury connected with his military service.
While there has been considerable evidence presented tending to show
that the deceased had a throat difficulty which might have resulted from
army exposure, the allegation or the presumption that it caused his
fatal fall, it seems to me, is entirely unwarranted.