Finding Aid to the C.D. Pennebaker & Sons-Pensions Advertisement

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VA 24501
(434) 846-0501
C.D. PENNEBAKER & SONS – PENSIONS (ADVERTISEMENT)
In response to a change in the pension law, C.D. Pennebaker and Sons, a law firm of
Washington, D.C., offered their services to aid in the filing of pension documents, “with the
assurance of earnest, faithful and competent attention to all cases.”
The military pension laws were changed on Jan. 29, 1887, by the 49th U.S. Congress,
Second session. “Every disabled and needy soldier who served three months in any of our wars
and was honorably discharged” would be entitled to a pension. Pensions now allowed an increase
to $12 per month to survivors of the War of 1812, the Indian Wars, the Mexican War, in addition
to the Civil War.
The firm of C.D. Pennebaker and Sons, attorneys-at-law, was established in Washington,
D.C., in 1864. The 1880 census record for Washington, D.C., lists C.D. Pennebaker as a lawyer,
along with Charles D. Pennebaker, lawyer, and two other sons, John S. and Samuel B. Pennebaker,
law students.
CHARLES DAVID PENNEBAKER (1825-1888)
Charles David Pennebaker was born in 1825 in Nelson County, Kentucky, the son of Peter
Nathaniel Pennebaker and Anna Langley. He married Ann Eliza Elliott, daughter of William
Elliott and Lucinda Beall on 18 November 1851 in Nelson County.
Pennebaker was a member of the House of Representatives of Kentucky from 1857 until
1859. He was a member of the Senate of Kentucky from 1859 until 1861. As an attorney in
Louisville, he was law partners with William P. Boone in 1861. He served as a Lieutenant of the
4th Kentucky Volunteers during the Mexican War and was Colonel of the 27th Kentucky
Volunteer Regiment (U.S.A.) from 1862 until 1864. He then served as Kentucky State military
agent in Washington, D.C. from 1864 until 1865.
Colonel Pennebaker died 21 June 1888 in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky. He is
buried Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville.

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