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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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