On this nineteenth day of June, 1885, at East Township, County of Carroll State of Ohio, before me, F.A. Piper, a Special Examiner of the Pension Office, personally appeared John Jarvis, (Clm't), who says: his age is 55, occupation farmer, P.O. address Summittville, Columbiana Co., Ohio, and that he is the applicant for pension in claim No. 280161.
Q: Please state what organizations you were a member of during the late war?
A: I was in the 78th Ohio Reg't Co. H. I never belonged to any other Co. or Reg't.
Q: When did you enlist, and when were you discharged?
A: I was drafted in Sept. or Oct. 1864, and was discharged the 18th day of June 1865.
Q: For what disease or disability do you claim a pension?
A: Chronic diarrhoea and lung trouble.
Q: When, and where did you contract chronic diarrhoea?
A: Well, I suppose it first commenced on the raid through the Carolina's, but I did not give up until after the battle of Bentonville, N.C. The next day or two after the battle, we marched into Goldsboro, N.C. The day after we got there we went to Kingston, N.C. as train guard and returned the following day. There I called on the Reg't Dr. - Dr. George F. Pickharn - who gave me some medicine, and in a few days I was sent to the hospital and never returned to the Co.
Q: When and where did you contract lung trouble?
A: About the same time. It all appeared to come on me at once. It was all caused by cold and exposure and hardships on the raid.
Q: Where had you lived for 5 years before you were drafter in 1864?
A: I had lived near Summittville, Ohio about 5 years when I moved to Ohio Tp. Gallia Co. Ohio in the spring of 1860, and lived there until the spring of 1874, when I moved back to this place where I have lived ever since.
Q: What was your physical condition prior to, and at the time you were mustered in to the service?
A: Well, I think I was as stout as the common [run] of men. I had never been sick since I was 20 years old, then I had a bilious attack.
Q: Did you try to get exempted from the draft?
A: Well, I did not try very hard. I let on that I was not very stout, but the Dr. - I don't know his name, - looked at my hands and said they looked as though I was stout enough, said I would do. I did not claim any disability because I did not know of any. I only claimed I was not very stout.
Q: You say you suppose chronic diarrhoea was first contracted while on the raid through the Carolina's. Why do you think so?
A: Well from the [usage] I had and because it troubled me some. We started on the raid from Atlanta, Ga. and I stood it all night through to Savannah, Ga. where we staid some two or three weeks, and then we started on another raid through the Carolina's, and it was while on the last raid that I was first taken with diarrhoea, and lung trouble. We would go sometimes 36 hours without a bite to eat, and then we would get provisions and eating too much at those times, and the exposure and marching, at that time of year, Feb. & March 1865, in storms, and no shelter but what we carried with us, brought on my troubles.
Q: Did you received any medical treatment before you arrived at Goldsboro, N.C.?
A: Not that I recollect of.
Q: For what were you first treated by the Reg't surgeon?
A: Chronic diarrhoea and lung trouble he claimed it to be.
Q: How were you first affected with lung trouble?
A: By shortness of breath, weakness and cough. While we were at Pocotaligo Station I had a bad cold - that was in Jan, 1865 I think, - and I have been troubled with lung trouble ever since.
Q: You say you were with your Co. as train guard from Goldsboro, to Kingston N.C. and return and never did any duty in the Co. afterward. Had you been sick or excused before that time?
A: Not as I recollect of. I did not feel hardly able to go with the Co. to Kingston that time, but I never had give up, and went with them, but I had to give up when we got back.
Q: What was the matter with you at that time?
A: Well, pains and running at the bowels, and cough and weakness of the breast. Sometimes my bowels would swell.
Q: Please state what hospitals you were in while in the service?
A: Well, when I got back to Goldsboro from Kingston I staid in my tent two or three days. Then I was sent to New Bern Station, N.C. and was put into a tent hospital. The next day I was sent to Camp Distribution, about three miles back of New Bern Station, and staid there until about the last of April 1860. Then I was sent to Grant Gen. Hospital at Willett's Point, N.Y. and when that hospital was broke up, I was shipped to McDougal General Hospital in N.Y. Harbor, and was discharged while in that hospital.
Q: For what were you treated while in the above mentioned hospitals, and Camp Distribution?
A: Well, I will tell you how it was in Camp Distribution. It was about the time Lincoln was killed, and all was excitement, and the Dr.'s did not make regular visits, only came around once in two or three days, and I would go and tell him how I felt, that I had diarrhoea, my bowels were swelled, and I had a cough, and he would give me some medicine but I don't know as I got any medicine while I was in either of the other hospitals.
Q: What was your condition when you came home?
A: Well sir I was hardly able to get home. I got medicine from Dr. W.K. Patton and he advised me to keep quiet and not expose myself to cold weather, as I followed his advice I might have recruited a little, but not much.
Q: What physicians have attended you since your discharge?
A: Dr. W.K. Patton, Dr. Dabney, Dr. Fletcher, but he is dead, Dr. Welch, and Dr. Laughlin. A Dr. Wall of Gallipolis, O. prescribed for me twice but he has no recollection of it. I have never employed any other Dr's except a Dr. Conkle who came to see me with Dr. Laughlin. I don't know where Dr. Conkle is.
Q: How were you affected with your disabilities the first 5 years after your discharge?
A: Well, my bowels are scarcely ever right from the time I came home to the present time.
Q: How are they affected?
A: I have griping pains, and deep heavy pains, and my bowels are very irregular, and the diarrhoea would be constant if it was not for the medicine I take to check it. I keep laudanum, Castor Oil, and turpentine by me all the time and take it to ease the pains, and check the diarrhoea, but it is seldom checked more than two or three days at a time. when it is checked I am considerably constipated.
Q: How long since you have had such a constant diarrhoea?
A: Oh, it has been about the same ever since I came home. It is just this way. My stomach is in such shape that I have to be very careful of what I eat and as I can't get just what I want to eat, what I do eat often hurts me. I can't say that on an average that I am much different any year since I came home, than what I am now.
Q: How many passages do you have daily when not under the influence of laudanum & C. used to check the diarrhoea?
A: It will average 3 or 4 times a day. Of course it varies some. Sometimes it is more and sometimes not so much.
Q: When are you troubled with diarrhoea most?
A: I don't know as there is any particular time. It depends very much upon what I eat.
Q: What is the general appearance of the diarrhoeal discharges?
A: It is thin, often watery, no blood, but some bile & more mucus than anything else.
Q: How have your lungs affected you since your discharge, during each year?
A: Well, take it one year with another I don't know as there has been much change, but they are a good deal worse some times that as others. Some years if I get a bad cold my lungs are a good deal worse and I get down pretty weak. From fall until spring they trouble me a good deal and I get pretty weak, then I recruit and gain strength a little in warm weather. I dare not be out or expose myself any in bad weather.
Q: Are you troubled any with a cough?
A: Yes sir, very much and have been ever since discharged. My cough is dry and hacking, usually but sometimes I spit up a foaming stuff.
Q: Are your lungs ever sore?
A: Oh, yes. There is a soreness all through both of them. Sometimes it is in one and sometimes in the other, and ever since I came home at times I have a "stitch" in my side, and I put on a plaster and it often [drives] the pain to the other side. Some years ago I coughed up a good deal of blood and corruption but I have not lately of any account.
Q: Have you used any medicines for lung trouble or diarrhoea besides those prescribed by physicians?
A: Yes sir. I have used Dr. [Green's] "Piso" ( a consumption cure) & August Flower. Walker's Vinegar Bitters, [Jaynis'] Expectorant, and other patent medicines, and domestic remedies such as have been recommended to me, as good for the blood and for diarrhoea and lung trouble.
Q: To what extent have you been disabled each year since discharge, for performing manual labor?
A: Well I have been totally disabled. There have been times that I could go around and oversee my work but I have not been able to go out and do a days work since I came home.
Q: You have the privilege of being present in person or by attorney, during this special examination [time] of your claim, and of cross-examining the witnesses on your own behalf if you so desire. Do you wish to avail yourself of this privilege?
A: Well, I will be present if it is convenient for me to do so.
Q: Please give me the name of the witnesses you wish examined, as to your condition in the service, and during your residence in this vicinity?
A: Dr. R. Laughlin, John Battin, and any of my neighbors. The most of my witnesses live in Gallia County, O. where I lived when I came home from the army until I moved here in 1874.
Q: Have you had any other disease or disability since discharge, then chronic diarrhoea and lung trouble?
A: No sir.
Q: Did you contract any other disease or receive any injury while in the service?
A: Nothing else
Q: Please give me the names and P.O. address of the officers of your Co?
A: The Capt. was John Orr. Lieut Ross was in command of the Co. through the Carolina's . A man named Callingham was the Orderly Sergeant. They all came from Guernsey Co. O. and I have never seen one of them since I left the Co. at Goldsboro N.C. and don't know where they are now.