"Widow's Weeds" Brings an 84-Year-Old's Fight for a Revolutionary War Pension to the Stissing Center

Sunday, September 20, 3pm | Pine Plains, NY

The Little Nine Partners Historical Society presents "Widow's Weeds" at the Stissing Center on September 20. Written by Dyan Wapnick and directed by Robert Lyons, the play tells the true story of Mary Ingalls, who in 1842, at age 84, applied for a widow's pension under the Pension Act of 1836—the first federal law extending pension benefits to Revolutionary War widows. Her husband, Elihu Ingalls, had served in the New York militia and died in 1823 without ever receiving a pension himself. With nearly all of his service papers and proof of their marriage lost, Mary had to rebuild her case from memory and the oral testimony of others who could vouch for her.

The play premiered last fall as one of Dutchess County's REV250 grant projects and returned this year with a second grant after drawing a strong audience response. The REV250 program was open to all twenty of Dutchess County's historical societies and 23 of 27 proposed projects were funded, all built around a shared mission of exploring how the ideas and impact of the American Revolution shaped ordinary life and the long road to freedome for local residents. Dutchess County Historian Will Tatum has described the play as bringing a vital type of primary source record to life, spotlighting the experience of Revolutionary War veterans' widows and the war's lingering impact on the region's rural landscape.

Banning Hall, The Stissing Center, 2950 Church Street, Pine Plains, NY. More at thestissingcenter.org.