A few observations on the Henry F Hill Case File

In a previous blog post I mentioned that I would be ordering documents pertaining to Henry F Hill. Henry was the 2nd husband of Tennie Ferguson Hill. Tennie is the step daughter of my great granduncle James Polk Cook(1836-1888). The copy of the file detailing an investigation into the practices of Henry F Hill pension attorney/agent was ordered from NARA on September 8th and arrived yesterday(Nov 12th). It contains 95 pages. I read thru some of it last night and will be doing an outline of what is covered on each page hopefully this week. This is the same process I used with the copies of the TN Supreme Court Cases I'd ordered from TN State Library and Archives. My outline for the papers from Williams vs. Putman has been a great help when I need to find a specific item in the file. So yes...pretty much a finding aid. 😀

The dates on the papers cover the time period from 1883-1902 as given in the archives catalog entry.  The handwriting runs the gamut from beautiful penmanship to "chicken scratch" as shown in the images below.

 




While Henry F Hill's reputation was recorded as good here(Fort Smith?) it was noted as bad in Ozark.  This was repeated throughout the file.  I haven't yet received the pension file but I will post an update when it's received and I've had time to look over it.

Source:
Case File of Henry F. Hill(Archive Catalog https://catalog.archives.gov/id/147050790); Case Files of Attorneys, Agents, Pensioners, and Others Relating to the Prosecution of Pension Claims and the Investigation of Fraudulent Practices, ca. 1862-1933;Veterans Administration. (7/21/1930 - 3/15/1989),(Most Recent) Department of the Interior. Bureau of Pensions. 1849-1930 (Predecessor) Veterans Administration. Bureau of Pensions. Law Division. (7/21/1930 - 7/1/1931) (Predecessor)Record Group 15 (RG 15); National Archives Building, Washington, DC (NAB).