JOHN JONES and
ALVINA (WILLIAMS DAVIS) JONES

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A LITTLE SOCIAL HISTORY

Another Side of the Story

Fishing was popular at Lake Jeanette on the grounds of the Home. Other amusements included horseshoes, tobacco-spitting, as well as theater, library, billiards, pool and cards. A baseball diamond and a grandstand seating 2000 was completed in 1900. A beer hall was established at the Home in 1886.

The buildings and grounds were beautifully built and maintained. There were activities of all types for the residents. It would seem to be a calm and tranquil place to live out ones’ days.

However, it’s possible things weren’t always wonderful. In the 1890s, there were accusations of staff members treating the veterans with cruelty. A New York Times article tells the story of Capt. James Vaughan. His experience from 1891 to 1893 was of intimidation of the veterans, calloused and even brutal treatment by the “policemen of the home”[1] and indifference from the administration. After he left the Home, (it appears he may have been asked to leave[2]), he wrote several letters to the Leavenworth newspapers and alluded to the Keeley cure, otherwise know as the Gold Cure. This was purported to be a cure for alcoholism. Apparently the governor of the Home and the Board of Managers decided to take in men needing to be cured of alcoholism, and displaced or denied entrance to the home to old, indigent soldiers for whom the Home was built. Was there money to be made by admitting men seeking the cure? Was it an altruistic decision by the governor and board of managers? If so, what about the elderly veterans who were denied a home in their last years?

Did John Jones take the Keeley cure? It’s possible John was an alcoholic. There is no judgment in that assumption, just surmising from the family stories and from the fact he died of cirrhosis of the liver (and no, not everyone who dies of cirrhosis of the liver is an alcoholic). The gold cure was a popular treatment for alcoholism between 1879 and 1939 and apparently the governor and board of the Home believe it would help the veterans.

So why have a beer hall if alcoholism was a problem? They thought it was better to control access to alcohol on the grounds of the home. Members were only allowed a small quantity of 5% beer a day in The Dugout, a beer hall and snack bar in the Amusement Hall. Serving beer on the grounds prevented the men from going into Leavenworth to the beer halls where hard liquor was available. There was less drunkenness after the beer hall opened at the Home than before. It stayed open until the 1920s when those in the temperance movement persuaded the board to stop serving alcohol at the Home.

Link to Soldiers Brutally Treated

Link to Keeley Cure aka Gold Cure

Commemorative History, 100th Anniversary, 1885-1985[3].

The Western Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was established in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1884. Veterans eligible for residence here included veterans with non-service related disabilities.  The Home was organized much the same way as they had experienced the military in their youth. Residents were required to wear military uniforms and were organized into companies with company officers. Buildings that housed the veterans were called barracks. They were subject to the Rules and Articles of War as if they were still in the Army. Veteran’s in their uniforms walked in formation to retreat and reveille and funerals. In the Commemorative History, funerals were described like this: “Funerals were a wonderful sight to experience in those days…Everyone was honor bound to attend the funerals, dressed in their original uniform, Navy, Army, whatever. They had an open caisson with two sets of horses that were really prized. At the far end of the lake there was a plank bridge. When those horses hooves hit the bridge, it would echo down the valley. After the funeral the men would go over the hill to the river and celebrate the funeral.” Quote by Bob Retter, son of the Home’s Chief Engineer, who grew up on the station.

Civil War Pensions

A brief history...Starting in 1862 a pension was granted to soldiers who could prove when and where they served and that a disability had occurred while they were in the service. By the time the 1888 presidential election was held, the issue of pensions for all veterans who could prove need, whether or not they had been injured in the war, was one of several reasons Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, by a vote of the electoral college. (Cleveland won the popular vote by a narrow margin, but Harrison carried Indiana and New York state in the electoral vote.) President Harrison reorganized the Pension Bureau and pushed for a disability bill. The June 27, 1890, "Dependent and Disability Pension Act" allowed for any disabled Union veteran who had served at least ninety days to receive a pension, whether or not they had been disabled while serving in the military. The final version also provided a pension for widows of veterans and their children who were under the age of 16.

 Link to Dependent and Disability Pension Act

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[1] "Soldiers Brutally Treated," 27 October 1893, NewYork Times, images, page 7, col 1; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 June 2009).

[2] "U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 1866-1938," online database with images, James Vaughan, p. 4316,  Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 July 2017); citing NARA Microfilm Publication M1749, Dept of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15,Washington, D.C.

[3] Commemorative History, 100th Anniversary, 1885-1985, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Leavenworth Kansas; photocopy of original book, Leavenworth Public Library, accessed 25 June 2009.