Examining Tennie's Claim That She Is George's Niece

I'm looking at Tennie Hill's claim that she is the niece of George Solifelt and gathering what evidence I have for analysis. Below is a "play by play" of Tennie's correspondence with the Veterans Administration who by 1935 was in charge of Union Pensions.

• Tennie writes to the Veterans Admin to let them know George has died. Asks them to send forms so you can get any pension due him because she took care of his expenses.  Sends copy of his death notice with this and notarized statement that from the funeral home showing she paid.
• Veterans Admin. writes back saying they need a certified Death cert.
• Tennie sends one along with notarized statement from minister who preached George's funeral
• Veterans Admin. sends letter to Notary in error.
• Notary attaches a noted letter with explanation that the wife mention ed on George's death record is deceased and that Tennie is his sole surviving heir. (screenshot 305)

• Veterans Admin sends letter to Tennie asking her to clarify what the death cert. of George says.  It said he was married and gave his wife's name.  If the wife is a survivor they need to know that as she would be the one who would qualify for any money due him.  If she is deceased they need to have a sworn statement of that with her date of death.
• Tennie returns that letter with a notarized statement typed at the bottom.  (screenshot pg 307)

• Veterans Admin sends letter to Tennie letting her know that accrued pension is not an asset of his estate and is not payable to heirs and is not liable for the payment of debts but may be paid to reimburse the person who bore the expenses of his last sickness and burial or who is held responsible for the payment thereof only in case he did not leave sufficient assets to meet such expenses or is not survived by widow or a minor child under the age of 16 yrs at the date of his death.  They enclose form for her to use if that is the case.
• Tennie completes the file and sends it back.

KEY STATEMENT FROM Pg. 1 of Reimbursement Application

KEY STATEMENT FROM Pg. 2 of Reimbursement Application

• She is awarded an accrued pension amount of $95 and they note that there is possible additional aid of $150 towards the remaining expenses.  She claimed  $3448 they approved only a certain amount for items of which the $150 possible deduction was subtracted leaving $753.60 I don't see anything on the document that give any indication that they paid anything other than the $95 amount to her and merely suggested she might be able to get $150.  

Let's look at what is being said and compare it to known information.

I tried to make a list of all the possible ways that Tennie might be George's niece but she seems to have explained it in the above snippets from the reimbursement application.....or does she?  Tennie's mother is Susan Carson of Williamson Co TN.  Susan's 1st husband John Ferguson was Tennie's father.  His family was also from Williamson Co TN  I am familiar with both families and that of Susan's 2nd husband(Tennie's step dad, James Polk Cook)  Tennie is on the census in the household of her Stepdad and her Mom in 1870 and 1880.  Susan Carson was not a sister of George.  If Susan Carson is not Tennie's Mom then the 1/2 sister that Tennie names in her will(and also listed as survivor in obituary) would not be her half sister.  That half sister's father is James Polk Cook.  What we know about George from his early life and that of his Mom, Eliza and his sister Wilhelmina is that they were all in Pennsylvania up until at least 1870 and that is documented.  It's  a case of Penn being mistake for Tenn(Which does happen in indexing a good bit)  Tennie consistently gives her state of birth 1862 in Tennessee.  George's only sister of record Wilhelmina married in 1870 and is living with her new husband, Henry Walters and her mom Eliza Solifelt(Saufeld in entry) in Lewiston, Dauphin Co PA.  There are no others in the household with them.

Tennie is the informant on George's death certificate yet she cannot name his parents.  That would be her maternal grandparents and you would have thought she would have at least attempted a guess at their place of birth.

All the evidence I have found, census records, kinships, death certificates, even her own will, provide clues which suggest that her statement about her being by birth the daughter of George's sister is false.  I believe she claimed to be his niece for several reasons.  There was money to be gained not only from the reimbursement but also she was still drawing her widow's pension and I don't know if she could have continued doing that after she and George left Arkansas and came to Kansas without having some backstory of why she was living with a man. The obituary that she included was one of two obituaries for George and I believe that it was written by Tennie.  I don't claim to know what, if any other relationship existed between George and Tennie, but I am 99.9% certain that they were not uncle and niece by blood.

Sources: 

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ57-SLQ : 29 May 2021), Willamina Walters in entry for Eliza Saufeld, 1870.

George Solifelt(Pvt., Co. E, 20th PA Cav., Civil War), pension application no. 580,089,

certificate no. 950,395, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications, 1861-1934; Civil

War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National

Archives, Washington, D.C.

“Mrs. Tennessee Hill Funeral Tomorrow,” The Iola Register, 12 May 1946, p. 1, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 23 Dec 2022).

"Will of Tennessee Hill," File #6782; Allen County Kansas Clerk's Office, Dated 14 Mar 1946. 

"George H Solifelt Standard Certificate of Death," State of Kansas, State Board of Health Division of Vital Statistics, Certificate #8581, DOD 30 Jan 1935, Filed 15 Feb 1935, informant Mrs. Tennie Hill.

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD8F-ZLD : 25 October 2022), Tennessee Cook in entry for James Cook, 1870.[Tennie is listed under the Cook surname.  Her half sister Sofie who is listed in her will is also in this census]

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDQ2-DMM : 15 January 2022), District 10, Bedford Co., Tennessee, United States; citing enumeration district 10 , sheet 12D, Household of James P. Cook.

[Tennie is again listed under her Stepdad's surname ]