The folder contains a letter from E.D. Judd & Co. in Alameda dated Feb. 23, 1899, regarding papers belonging to Henry Bense. The documents include; a request for safe passage of Henry Bense to California, documents of Henry Bense’s membership to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and discharge papers from the U.S. Army and the Veterans Home of California.

Henry Bense was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Nov. 24, 1815. Before leaving Boston, he was trained as a firefighter and a hatter. Bense came to California on the Canonicus in 1849 in pursuit of gold mining success. He volunteered to fight for three years for the Union in the Civil War. Afterwards, he returned to Crescent City and worked as a farmer and lived by himself in a log house on a timber claim. Bense then moved to San Francisco. He died on October 9th 1898 in Alameda after having left the Soldiers’ Home in Yountville. He was a member of the Society of California Pioneers.

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