This record was transcribed by Penny Bennett Casey from the "Pensions and Increase of Pensions",which pertained to the Bill that was approved in 1917 for pension benefits for the Indian War Veterans.

CALENDAR #728

70TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION

SENATE REPORT #722

APRIL 6, 1928

S. 3084 – George R. Odle, 734 Tenth Street, Clarkston, Wash., served in the Nez Perce Indian war from June 15, 1877, under Capt. D.B. Randall’s company of Idaho Volunteers to July 28, 1877.  His claim under act of March 4, 1917, was rejected by the Bureau of Pensions February 8, 1926, on the ground that the official records of the  United States afford no evidence of claimant’s service, or payment for service in the above-named organization in 1877 as alleged.  His name is not borne on the roll of the company on file in the archives of the State of Idaho.  There is no record of his service in the Senate Docket No. 82, Fiftieth Congress, and the evidence furnished, manifestly the best obtainable, fails to show that he rendered a pensionable service.  His claim was repeatedly denied reopening.  The service of this company is pensionable if it is shown they had 30 days’ actual service.

The testimony of Frank A. Finn (should be Fenn), a comrade, is as follows:

I personally know that George R. Odle was one of the volunteers in Capt. D. B. Randall’s company, in the Nez Perce Indian war, in 1877.  I know that he assisted in building the stockade in which the settlers lived at the outbreak of the hostilities in June, 1877.  I recall that for several days he was detailed with other members of Captain Randall’s company herding horses that were held in reserve for the use of the volunteers engaged in scouting and field operations. At one time that summer he and I, together with others, were detailed to assist settlers in gathering up their range stock and driving it to a place of safety and that among the animals we helped save from the hostile Indians was a considerable flock of sheep.  I was with Captain Randall when he was killed at the Cottonwood engagement July 5, 1877, and was present at his burial a few days later in the cemetery at Mount Idaho.  I know that George R. Odle was one of the sentries on post near the cemetery at the time of his funeral

This statement is corroborated in the main by several other comrades.  The claimant was born January 22, 1862, and is 66 years of age.  A stockade was built at Mount Idaho that served as a rallying or meeting point of the volunteers and where women and children were brought and placed in the rude fort for protection.  It appears that Mount Idaho was the location of the main body of the Indians.  These settlers succeeded in driving the Indians away from that community over the Clearwater, up the trail toward Montana.

The committee recommends that he be pensioned at the rate of $20 per month. 

 

 

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