OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Discussion of Pension Benefits of Minor Child
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Dusti
DustiGen@aol.com
December 13, 1998  
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CHINORED@aol.com writes:

<< Now, history buffs out there - I can understand why the widow would have to
 surrender her pension benefit upon remarriage but why would the minor child
 need a guardian to collect? >>

I'm still catching up on mail while I was gone over Thanksgiving.

This isn't really history buff as it is a legal query .  Until recently, the
1920s, in most states women did not inherit property directly nor money.  It
was the considered opinion of many, that women could not manage property or
money.  The widow might have the care of the children, but a guardian was
appointed not only for the physical well being of the children but also a
guardian was appointed to handle the children's (as well as the widow's)
financial affairs.  If there was a will, the husband named the guardian of the
children as well as the financial guardian.  As a rule, this was someone the
husband believed he could trust to look out for the welfare of his widow and
children and "keep them in the style to which they were accustomed".  This
person was usually a family member or very good friend.   Unfortunately, greed
often gained a foothold and the guardian often exiled the widow and orphans to
a life of poverty while he sold the real and personal property of the deceased
and grew fat and wealthy.

Judge John Marshall GUEST of Philadelphia, PA, with the assistance of a young
lawyer named Harry Clayton REYNOLDS [my grandfather], pioneered the changes of
law regarding the inheritance of widows and orphans in this country in the
late teens and early 1920s.   Because of Harry's work with Judge Guest, his
widow and children were left in a much more comfortable financial condition
than many at the time.  Harry's untimely death was caused by tuberculosis
contracted by his many frequent trips to the poverty stricken neighborhoods of
Philadelphia giving aid to the women who found themselves and their children
indigent.

Dusti  


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