Hugh Alexander Blair and the "Safety Net"

This week's blog theme, "Overlooked," gives me an excuse to work on something I tend to forget to research: my husband's family. I want to be able to share information about his family with our kids and grandkids, but I'm more interested in MY family history. 

I'm sure I'm not alone in that struggle.

I chose Hugh Alexander Blair and Marjorie Isabella Owen, my husband's 2nd great grandparents, because I haven't researched them at all yet. They have truly been overlooked by me. I wasn't finding much on Ancestry.com, so I renewed my Newspapers.com 

subscription and waded in.

Sometimes I find it easier to research if I sort my "hits" with the most recent first. That is how I tacked this, and the first article I found was about a picnic for old people. It was given to gather them together to fill out their "old age" pension applications. Hugh and his wife attended the picnic. I did a little side reading on how the old age pension developed during the depression in the early 1930s. Best as I understand it after my brief research, because the oldest citizens of the country had never paid into the new Social Security program, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal," the individual states had to come up with plans of their own to provide them with their own special safety net.

This was a nice, celebratory picnic.  More people showed up than were expected, and the community was surprised at the number of old people in Dunklin County, Missouri. I thought it was great how everyone pitched in to help the elderly fill out their applications correctly. These were people undergoing the economic hardship of the Great Depression. There was no such thing as government assistance. People were struggling. They know the importance of being a good neighbor, of helping . . . something many of us have forgotten today.

So, further back in time I went. The next article I found was about the movement to get the pension passed through the Missouri Congress, and Hugh A. Blair was one of the organizers. How exciting! I read on . . . 

From April 3, 1941:

"Starts Move to Pension the Old

More than 1000 Names Signed to Petition - Many Were Here Wednesday

A large crowd of elderly people, over 60 years of age, from all over the county attended a meeting here Wednesday to launch a drive to get old age pension legislation passed, and plans were worked out, to be known as "The H. A. Blair Aged Pension Bill," and a resolution, addressed to Langdon R. Jones, representative to the state Legislature was passed. Petitions were also signed and pictures taken. There were over 1,000 signers to the petition.

Some of the old people were under the impression that the law had been passed and all they had to do was to come and here sign up to get the money, which is not the case. The movement is getting under way and it will be some time before it becomes a reality, if it carries.

The plan is to pay persons over 60 years of age $16 per month and the plan is taken from other states now having such a law. Mr. Blair states that an effort will be made to interest the old people in three other counties in the plan. 

We want to make it clear that the plan is just getting under way and must either be passed by the Legislature outright, or a resolution passed calling for a vote of the people, and this will take time. There are some states with such a law in effect now, and it is claimed that it is proving satisfactory and less expensive than maintaining old folk homes and poor farms. 

The proposal, adopted here Wednesday, is as follows:

The H. A. Blair Aged Pension Bill.

"To the Honorable Langdon R. Jones, Representative of the Missouri State Legislature: We, the undersigned, citizens and voters of Dunklin County, Missouri, being concerned with the conditions which confront a large body of our most respected, aged citizens over the age of sixty years, who in consequence of unemployment, caused by the modern idea of such aged persons being useless to the present employers, many of such aged persons being without means of support and having no income or resources, friends or relatives upon whom they can rely for aid, and many of them being not only pressed upon by the weight of years, but are disabled, infirm, sick or physically unable to work, are confronted by the specter of want and the horror of becoming a public charge upon the tax payers of this state. We are informed and know that many other classes of our people who are able to work, who have employment, homes, incomes and friends, have been granted pensions, bonuses and other forms of relief from generous government, and we feel that we have been useful citizens of the state and entitled to relief as well as other classes.

We believe that pensions granted to all persons over sixty years of age should be paid, provided, however that some method should be adopted after applications for such pension are made by an appropriate Commission or body to be created to ascertain and distinguish between those in need and without incomes or employment, or friends or relatives who are willing to support them and able to do so, and when such fact is ascertained that one-half of the pension should be paid to the pensioners who are employed or who have an income or who are supported as aforesaid, and the balance of the pension allowed such aged person should be applied by the payment by the State Treasurer, or other officer, into the treasury of the County to be paid to those in need of financial help who are not receiving pensions, have no income or employment. We are informed that other states in the Union have given the people of their states pensions, and our state is just as able to do so as any. We ask that the pension be paid to all applicants whether needy or not in order to remove the sting and humiliation of seeking charity because we feel that we are not asking charity but we are asking this as a right. We are also informed that the aged pension system where adopted has proved cheaper for the tax payers of such states than to support the aged in poor houses, or by outside relief by the Counties and cities. 

We respectfully ask that you assist in securing legislation on this subject."

Wait, What?? The bill was actually named for my husband's 2nd great grandfather?

I really need to stop overlooking people when I research!