© Kathy Duncan, 2025
My intent was to post James S. Piper's life in chronological order, but I am going to jump from 1863 to 1876. I will get back on track with an 1864 post soonish.
James S. Piper is my cousins' Mexican War veteran ancestor, whom I started tracking in mid-2024. He went from being a mysterious man who left his medal and papers in a trunk and about whom not much else was known to being a man who left an interesting paper trail that includes almost every year of his life. In fact, his file on my computer is full of subfiles dated by year. None of my ancestors or my husband's have produced that much information.
This weekend, I opened two new subfiles for James S. Piper that are dated 1876 and 1888.
My first blog post about James S. Piper was about his Mexican War medal, which was the post that triggered my research into his life. Piper's Mexican War medal was not issued by the U.S. government. Instead, it was issued by the National Association of Mexican War Veterans. The bar pin for it only says "National Association of Veterans." That medal was either given or sold to the veterans in 1876, and now, with the help of J. S. Piper, I have a better understanding of why that was significant.
By 1876, the Mexican War veterans had been lobbying unsuccessfully for decades for pensions. However, they did not form the National Association of Mexican War Veterans until 1874. If they had formed a National Association at the close of the Mexican War, they probably would have received pensions much earlier.
In 1876, our nation was celebrating its Centennial, and the place to be was Philadelphia. Large numbers of veterans, all wearing the same medal, would help garner attention for their cause, which is what they desperately needed. With that in mind, Mexican War Associations began preparing well in advance to send veterans from every state to Philadelphia. It's estimated that veterans from thirty-three states and territories went to Philadelphia.
The first step in that process was to fund transportation to Philadelphia. By 12 April 1876, Col. Thomas A. Scott, President of the Texas and Pacific Railway, had promised to issue certificates of transportation to veterans of the Mexican War and of the Texas Revolution so that they could travel to Philadelphia for the Centennial. Most states seem to have found a way to provide transportation for their veterans.
On 9 June 1876, a letter from General N. G. Shelby, President of the Mexican War veterans residing in Texas, was published in the Dallas Daily Herald to the effect that there were 600 members residing in Texas, but only about 160 had taken the necessary steps to obtain their certificates of transportation. He was using the newspaper as a means of getting word out to the veterans. They were to convene in Marshall, Texas, on 28 June 1876 and then continue as a group to Philadelphia. Apparently, anyone who had not obtained their certificate needed to do so as quickly as possible.
J. S. Piper was among the Texas veterans who arrived in Marshall, Texas, on the 28th of June. The Marshall newspaper published a list of the veterans going to Philadelphia. Piper's name is near the bottom of the list with the notation that he was from Collin County, Texas. This places his arrival in Texas by 1876, and in a county where I did not know that he lived.
A second newspaper report on 1 July 1876, confirmed that J. S. Piper was among those headed to Philadelphia, where he would wear his Association medal with pride and further the campaign for veterans' pensions. After all, he had begun working in 1847 for benefits to be awarded to the survivors of his men who had been wounded or killed in action.
The Mexican War Veterans were in Philadelphia for the 4th of July events. Cannons fired, church bells rang, and a parade marched through the center of Philadelphia to a stage decorated with flags and where a German band played "Hail to Columbia."
The highlight for the Mexican War Veterans happened on 5 July 1876, when the third annual reunion of the National Association of the Mexican War Veterans was held.
Records were kept of attendees at the National Association reunion meetings, and it would be worth examining them. The 1877 meeting was held in Washington, DC. I wonder if James S. Piper went back to his old stomping grounds for that one.
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