Dying on May 31 2004, Alberta Martin was the last living widow of a confederate soldier. Nearly 75 years after her husband's death, Alberta had been living in in Enterprise Alabama. Since the 1990s when she was publicly recognized as the last civil war widow, she had been living in "obscurity". While many criticized Alberta labelling her as a gold digger because of the near 60 year age difference between herself and husband, the marriage between Alberta and her late husband had been one of “convenience”.
Alberta Stewart, born December 4th 1906,was the daughter of small town Alabama sharecroppers who lead a frugal and impoverished life. With the death of her mother at age 11 Alberta had a harsh upbringing from her father.
At the age of 18, Alberta had met cabdriver Harold Farrow to whom she married and bore one son. However a raging alcoholic, less than 6 short months after the birth of his son, Harold was killed in a drunk car accident. In response to the tragic accident, Alberta's father had moved the two of them plus the baby to a house further south in Alabama. Their neighbor William Jasper Martin, was an 81 year old who was a widowed civil war veteran living off of a whopping $50-a-month pension. The elderly man quickly took to the young Alberta and frequently proposed the idea of a marriage but only as she needed help and money to raise her son. However after much a few short months of courtship, the two agreed on a marriage of "convenience" so that once Mr. Martin was gone, the young Ms. Stewart would sill have the means necessary to take care of her infant.
On December 10, 1927, Alberta Stewart officially became Alberta Martin, and a short 10 months later the two bore a baby boy for which they named William. While Alberta had told the times, " the old man was crazy about the baby," their married life was far from familial and cohesive. Alberta who often found Martin to be "hot tempered and jealous", explained that life was "hard but it was a good life too... We were happy". The two addressed each other as "sis" and "Mr. Martin" and war was seldom talked about except in snippets when William would be reminded of the hardships of the war such as the bitter cold and digging up and eating raw potatoes for food.
In 1998 during an interview with public radio, when asked if she ever loved Mr. Martin, Alberta said," I don't know. It ain't the same love that you got for a young man, if that's what your asking. he slept on one bed and me on the other one. People when they get old like that, they don't require kissing and hugging and necking and one thing or another. The old saying is, ' Better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave.'"
Less than 5 years after their marriage, Mr Martin passed away. Two months after, Alberta married Martin's grandson Charlie Martin. However upon her late husband William Jasper Martins death, Alberta was given no such pension as she had yet been recognized as a war veteran widow. It wasn't until 6 years after the death of Mr. Martin that Dr. Chancey, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans paid her a visit and secured Alberta a confederate widows pension.
Alabama senate decreed it a "pure joy" to grant her widows pension and till her deathbed Alberta was a symbol in the south and a "link to the past".
McLellan | Times Staff Writer, Dennis. “Alberta Martin, 97; Believed to Be Last Confederate Widow.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2004, articles.latimes.com/2004/jun/01/local/me-martin1.
Press, The Associated. “Alberta Martin, 97, Confederate Widow, Dies.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 June 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/us/alberta-martin-97-confederate-widow-dies.html.
“Alberta Martin.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Martin.
Leah, I liked how you told us Alberta Martin's whole story so that we could really understand how the last living widow of a confederate soldier came about. I was fascinated to find out that the marriage was one of "convenience" so that Alberta had the funds to take care of child. It was also very interesting to read that she married her deceased husbands grandson. However, although Alberta is a very interesting character, the fact that she collected pensions for so many years and that it was due to marrying a confederate soldier must have undoubtedly lead to criticism.
ReplyDeleteIt was fascinating to read about Alberta, her motives for marrying a man so much older than her, and the link to the past for people that came with her life. I wonder what motivated William to marry her, knowing he would die soon and all of his money would go to her from the pension. It's interesting to consider the possible impact Alberta could have had on the people around her. For children growing up in the 60s or 70s, 100 years after the Civil War, she would link them back to the era. However, it's possible she might have even stirred up some anti-Union feelings in the South for those who felt strongly about the Confederate cause that she reminded them of.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5155-2004May31.html
Thanks for writing this interesting article. It is interesting to consider Alberta Martin's ability to collect pensions in light of the scandal of the Civil War pensions in the late 1800s. This scandal was brought to light as more and more people were receiving Civil War pensions twenty years after the war. At this point, those who were receiving pensions should have been dying off. Surely, some people who were able to get pensions were doing it for reasons such as Alberta Martin's. The federal government attempted to restrict who could get these pensions, likely partially to limit those who became involved with veterans solely for the purpose of getting pension. However, because William Jasper Martin fulfilled the service requirements, the federal government could not deny Alberta Martin the pension once her husband died.
ReplyDeleteLeah great job very through! You never stated a final net worth of Alberta? I wanted to ask do you believe that she is a "gold digger" even through Mr. Martin new that there marriage was more of business agreement. I wounder if labels such as these where to shame them when in reality Mr. Martin got something in return, which was someone to be with him when he dies, a companion. You did a really nice job in giving us the full picture of Martha but did she use that money that she and her son inherited on lavish living circumstance or did she put it away and be more frugal with the money, spend things on only necessity. How does she tie into what we are learning she seems different from Hetty Green. She wasn't as money making motivated. I don't think she is someone to look up to unless she invested or used her own mind to expand of the original money that was inherited.
ReplyDeleteLeah- first of all, I thought that the title of your article was really unique. I liked you you gave us a full description of Martha's life to give the audience the ability to determine their own opinion on whether or not Alberta married due to promises of a greater fortune. I personally think, that when she was interviewed and gave the following response, "The old saying is, ' Better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave"- that she refers to an older man being able to provide for her. The phrase "old man's darling" reminds me of a present day "sugar-baby". What I thought was really interesting, after reading more about it- was that after William died, she married his grandson. Apparently, "the local Baptist preacher had to study the Scriptures before deciding she hadn't committed a sin." I thought it was fascinating how big of a part religion played after the atrocities of the Civil War. With nihilism and early existentialism emerging during this time period, I thought it was interesting how Christianity was still one of the main focuses in the South.
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/03/nation/na-widow3