He then went away and I did not see him again for a year and a half. He then came back and wanted me to live with him again but I refused to do so and he kicked up a row so I moved away to get rid of him. He followed me around so finally he came there to the house sometime in the fall of 1876, I think it was, and I took him in but he would not work and finally after about six months I broke up and moved away and left him. I never saw him afterward.
My said husband, William H. Young, was killed somewhere up country by falling out of a Wagon, as I understood. I do not remember what year that occurred but I think it was sometime in 1879 or 1880. I do not remember the place where he was killed. His body was brought to his mother's house from which place he was buried. His mother was then living in this city but I do not know the street she then lived on but it was down town around 4th and Poplar Sts. I do not know who the undertaker was that buried him, but he was buried in Odd Fellows cemetery, I think. I did not attend his funeral but I sent all four of my children to the funeral and my daughter can tell you now all about that. My said husband has no relatives now living except a sister Wilhelmina Miller who lives on N. Reese St. No sir, neither I or my husband were ever divorced nor did we ever apply for a divorce after our said separation. No sir, there was no papers drawn up between us for separation. I do not know if he ever lived with any other woman after he left or not. I knew nothing about him for three or four years before his death. He was a very dissipated man during the last years of his life. I do not knew whether he ever applied for a pension or not. We were married just before he went into the army but he had never been in the army before our marriage. My parents had to support me while he was in the army. No sir, I did not live with any man in the marriage relation after my said husband separated from me. My four children were then living and I kept them with me and supported them. At the time my husband died I was living in rooms on Boudinot St. with a young married couple named Joseph Wallace and his wife. After my husband died I remained a widow until I married John A. Pfingstag, but I do not remember the date of my marriage to him although I have furnished a certificate of the fact.
Like I said, she was terrible with dates. She doesn't remember even the year that her said husband died. Now granted they were very much estranged, and she didn't even attend his funeral. But she doesn't remember the date of her second marriage either.
Well my great-great grandfather certainly was "dissipated" - if he was twenty-four in 1864 then he was only 39 or 40 when he died. How sad. And he made his family's life a hell too, following his wife around then refusing to work - probably too drunk to work. She moved away twice to get rid of him.
Cecelia Young made it very clear to the special examiner that when her husband died she was still married to him and therefore eligible for a pension. But then she married Pfingstag, which might have jeopardized the pension. But Pfingstag had a secret...