They may call me Emma, but my name is Emmar. On 7 March 1918 Emmar Osenbaugh attempted to make it clear just what her name was. The locals “here in Woodburn Iowa,” may have called her Emma, but her Christian name was Emmar. Sometimes the “partys” who make out affidavits for her render her name […]

Emmar wraps up her October 1918 testimony with her marriage to John Osenbaugh whom she had known for a few days when they married. And, as Emmar stated, it was either she move to Ottumwa or marry Osenbaugh. John Osenbaugh was fifteen years older than Emmar when they married. Apparently Emmar was going to live […]

Emmar had a relationship with a man named Gideon Town and that relationship resulted in a daughter Lillie. Gideon took off with the unnamed grass-widow and they were gone three weeks. The grass widow returned to her father’s home near Cromwell. Gideon never came back. He had children but no property and Emmar made no […]

The unnamed step-daughter of Emmar (Sargent) Pollard in Ashland, Nebraska, was older than Emmar and was dead by the time Emmar made out her statement in 1918. Emmar and James Pollard separated sometime after their arrival in Nebraska and Emmar divorced him. She accused Pollard of not providing for her after their arrival in Nebraska. […]

Emmar seemed to be a little prone to exaggeration. David Snavely actually fell down the cellar stairs while getting an apple and broke his neck. Emmar was told of Snavely’s death, but she “could not go as I had nothing to go on.” This seems to suggest that Snavely was buried in Nebraska. Emmar now […]

Emma’s testimony continued with details about her first husband, James Pollard. Emmar indicated that she and James Pollard separated shortly after they arrived in Nebraska to see his daughter. She stayed in Asland, Nebraska, for a short time and then moved to the big city of Lincoln. That’s where she met her “best husband,” Robert […]

The taking of Emmar’s statement by the pension examiner continued the next day-25 October 1918. Emmar left Lincoln, Nebraska, after Joseph Oades divorced her. She landed in Prescott, Adams County, Iowa, remained there a month and moved to Cromwell, Union County, Iowa, where she lived for fifteen years. She went there with  “my boy, Job […]

Emmar continued her 1918 testimony by indicating that she had three sisters, one brother, one half-sister, and one-half brother. Her brother, Ira Sargent, returned to Illinois and died. Her sister Minerva married a tailor named Mike Strobel and lived in Chicago, Illinois. Her sister Lucretia married a Davis County man named Fred Price. Price was […]

Emmar Osenbaugh continued her October 1918 testimony by providing some family background. It’s important to remember in evaluating and using this information that Emmar was nearly eighty years old at the time of making her statement. She gave her maiden name as Emmar Sargent and indicated that she was born in Darlington, Ontario, Canada, the […]

Civil War pension applications can contain a wonderful amount of genealogical and biographical information. That’s particularly the case when an application has issues that require investigation.  Emmar Osenbaugh of Woodburn, Clarke County, Iowa, applied for a widow’s pension based upon the military service of her final husband, John Osenbaugh. Osenbaugh served in Company H, 7th […]