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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset32922 and id is 1 raw text is:
54TH CONGRESS, SENATE. REPORT
2d Session. No.1454.
ANNA W. OSBORNE.
FEBRUARY 12, 1897.-Ordered to be ininted.
Mr. PAsco, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following
REPORT:
[To accompany S. 114.]
The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 114)
for the relief of Anna W. Osborne, have carefully considered the same,
and submit the following report thereon:
The claimant is the widow of John W. Osborne, who served for three
years during the late war as a member of Company E, Thirty-sixth
Massachusetts Volunteers. He reenlisted soon after his discharge in
June, 1865, and was appointed as hospital steward and served as such
until October 28, 1870, when he was accidentally killed at Fort Ripley,
Minn., where he was on duty at the time.
About three months before his death the hospital building at the fort
was destroyed by fire, and Osborne and his family, who were living in
the building, lost all they had. It is stated that Osborne, instead of
trying to save his property, exerted himself to rescue the patients and
save the property of the Government. This statement is supported by
some of the officers who were on duty at the post.
Before his death Osborne applied to the late Vice-President Wilson,
then a Senator from Massachusetts, for aid in securing relief, and some
letters written by him, acknowledging the receipt of the papers, are
before the committee. Some of the papers sent to Senator Wilson
were subsequently lost or mislaid, and among them an itemized state-
ment of the losses which, according to the recollection of the widow,
was among them. This loss is .supplied by the widow, who has sub-
mitted a list of the losses as full and correct as was possible after the
lapse of so many years. Her statement is that this loss amounted to
$800.
The death of her husband left the widow with three young children
depending upon her for support. She came to Congress with her claim
during the first session of the Forty-third Congress and asked for an
appropriation of $600, and a bill giving her this relief was passed in the
House of Representatives, but no action was taken in the Senate.
Since that time her claim has been frequently before the House and
a number of favorable reports have been made by the committees which
have considered the case. Similar bills have been introduced from time
to time in the Senate, but with no final results in any case.
The claim seems to be meritorious, and the House committees, after
careful consideration and, it is to be presumed, on sufficient evidence,
having frequently recommended the sum of $600 as fair and just, the
committee are disposed to accept that amount as a proper recompense
for the loss sustained, without looking for further evidence than that
contained in the record.
The committee therefore recommend that the bill do pass,
-S. Rcep. t-1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.usccsset/usconset32922&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)