Rachel Luttrell and Her Widow's Pension Woes-Part 1

Rachel (Schmuck) Luttrell was the wife of Hugh Lawson Luttrell. When he died 23 July 1886 she applied for a widow's pension. She had to jump through a lot of hoops to get it too. The file is over one hundred pages and packed with all sorts of information, that I have been combing through the past few days. One page jumped out at me in particular and made me smile. It is a general affidavit dated 10 September 1888 from William J. Hutton, age 43, from Osceola, St. Clair County, Missouri. His voice comes through very clear and his statement also proves my suspicions about Hugh being in Missouri by 1856. I thought I would share it with you.

"I knew Hugh L. Luttrell during his life time and first became acquainted with him in 1856, he was then quite a young man. I was then quite intimate with him and learned his history quite well. He and I frequently met in society and together called upon young ladies in the community where we lived, and I know from the facts aforesaid and from my whole acquaintance with him that he was never married until he married Rachel Smuck [Schmuck] sometime in the year 1867 or 1868 or 1869. This was the only woman he ever married, and I further served with him during the war. He was in the 8th M.S.M. and I was in the 6th M.S.M. yet we were frequently thrown together and had he ever been married further than stated I would have known it. I knew his wife Rachel Smuck and do not think she was ever married until she married Luttrell, or I should have heard of it."


I can only imagine how he must have been around the young ladies in the community! This was one of many affidavits that Rachel would collect.