The Veteran and the Young Girl

I found this in the Cincinnati Enquirer from 1913 and found it to be interesting. I like old newspaper stories, even postwar ones like this, so they may be not uncommon among the posts I make, which I hope will be at least weekly. One or two entries every week seems reasonable to me, with more as I find stories that interest me.

This entry is one that may benefit from additional research as I find time.  I posted this on my personal Facebook account and a couple of friends gave me some  help, but I still think it would be nice to know where he is buried and maybe more about his military career. Perhaps that's a project I can add work on over time. One friend found that his full name may be Benjamin Franklin Anderson.

Please note that this story was published in 1913 and listed the woman as then being 45 years old, meaning she was born in 1868. Something is wrong in the story - hopefully they just got her age wrong and the main piece of the story is correct. Also note that this Cincinnati Enquirer story did misspell the city as Pittsburg, not Pittsburgh.

Grateful because a little girl had befriended him at the end of the Civil War when he was in want, B.F. Anderson, old Civil War veteran, whose death occurred at the Soldier's Home in Dayton and who was well known in Newport, where he left an estate valued at $6,000 has made the little girl, now Mrs. William Strutt, 45, of Pittsburg, Pa., his sole heir.

When the war ended, Anderson, with nothing but an honorable discharge, wandered into Pittsburg. He was homeless, penniless and thought himself friendless. Out of employment and without funds he applied to the little girl for aid. She honored him as a hero who had fought for his country and she forthwith took him to her home and with her hands prepared him a beautiful meal. Anderson left her with gratitude in his heart. The years passed. The lintel (sic) girl was married, and settled down in Pittsburg, while the soldier, now an old veteran, accumulated real estate in Newport by hard work. Age left it's mark and the ravages of time caused him to seek the protection of the Soldier's home, but he never forgot the one who needed him when he needed aid. His dying request w that his executor, Lawrence Riedinger of Newport give him a suitable burial, providing carriages for as many if his comrades in arms as desired to accompany his remains to their last resting place and then see that Mrs. Strutt gets the remainder of his estate according to a will that said (sic) that he had deposited in a safety deposit box, which will be opened today by Mr. Riedinger.