Board of Relief, Civil War, Social Welfare, Poverty, Child Welfare, Account Books
The Chester County Board of Relief was set up by the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s Act of May 15, 1861, entitled "An Act to Create a Loan and to Provide for Arming the State" to aid local families of Civil War soldiers. Funded by state appropriations, its members included the County Commissioners and Court of Common Pleas Associate Judges. Township boards of relief were set up individually without legal precedent when townships felt the County Board did not meet the need for aid. Townships could petition the County Board to assist their local families, but the county did not always agree to help which motivated the township boards to aid families without county assistance. The account books were maintained to keep track of individual payments to families receiving assistance. The books include one page per family with additional pages in other volumes as necessary. Information includes: first and last name of the soldier; his rank; day, month, and year the money was given to a family and discontinued; pay order numbers and amounts of money given; voucher number; names and ages of soldier's children, wife, and other dependents; name and number of troop and regiment; name of soldier's captain; and place of residence, township or town. Each soldier's case had one voucher number and pay orders were given to the same voucher number. The end of the second volume and almost all of volume 3 are cases of United States Colored Troops. A separate, every name index exists for all volumes. For an index to this collection please see the following link: https://www.chesco.org/1702/Board-of-Relief-1861-1865