Peter V. Foland, Part V
Pension Index Card. Courtesy Library of Virginia.
Need to catch up? Click here: Peter V. Foland: Part I
For many Confederate veterans, physical, psychological, and emotional wounds persisted long beyond the war. On March 19, 1883, Peter V. Foland applied for a pension as an invalid.
Despite any suffering from long-term wounds, Foland led a long and productive life in Scottsville, Virginia. There he owned and operated the ferry, which ran across the James River to Buckingham County on the south side; enjoyed a pleasant home at Mount Walla, which had once been his grandfather’s domicile; and served the community as postmaster, on the City Council, and, eventually, as Mayor.
He died on July 27, 1915 of uremic poisoning, a complication of chronic nephritis. He was seventy years old. Interestingly, his great-grandfather, Randolph Jefferson, had suffered from kidney stones, though the cause of his death is unknown. Two of his cousins, brothers Elbridge G. Jefferson, Jr. and Linnaeus Bolling Jefferson, both died of nephritis.
On August 12, 1915, Peter Foland’s widow Bettie, born Elizabeth Clarke Straton, applied for a widow’s pension. She lived with her daughters at Mount Walla until her death in 1921.
For more information, visit the Library of Virginia: About the Confederate Pension Rolls, Veterans and Widows Database
Read more about the Foland family at Mount Walla in my newest book: Peter Field Jefferson: Dark Prince of Scottsville & Lost Jeffersons.
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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