the purpose of teaching such women a useful trade or profession and improving their mental and moral condition. Such board of managers may credit such women with a reasonable compensation for the labor performed by them, and may charge them with the necessary expenses of their maintenance and discipline, not exceeding the sum of two dollars per week. If any balance shall be found to be due such women at the expiration of their terms of commitment, such balance may be paid to them at the time of their discharge. To secure the safe keeping, obedience and good order of the women committed to any such institution, the superintendent thereof has the same power as to such women as keepers of jails and penitentiaries possess as to persons committed to their custody. $233. Clothing and money to be furnished discharged inmates. The board of managers of any such institution may, in their discretion, furnish to each inmate of such institution who shall be discharged therefrom, necessary clothing not exceeding twelve dollars in value, or if discharged between the first day of November and the first day of April to the value of not exceeding eighteen dollars, and ten dollars in money, and a ticket for the transportation of one person from such institution to the place of the conviction of such inmate, or to such other place as such inmate may designate, at no greater distance from such institution than the place of conviction. ARTICLE 13 New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home Section 250. Establishment of home. 251. Board of managers. 252. Official oath. 253. Organization of board. 254. Report to legislature. 255. Admission to home. 256. Powers of board of managers. 257. Record. § 250. Establishment of home. The home for the aged dependent veteran and his wife, veterans' mothers and widows and VOL. 3-7 army nurses, known as "New York state woman's relief corps home" is hereby continued. § 251. Board of managers. The home shall be under the control of a board of seven managers appointed in accordance with the provisions of section fifty-one of this chapter, a majority of whom shall be appointed from the members of the grand army of the republic of the department of New York and the woman's relief corps, auxiliary to the grand army of the republic, department of New York. Appointments shall be so made that there will be at all times four women and three men members of said board. (As amended by chapter 449 of the Laws of 1910.) § 252. Official oath. Before entering on their duties the said managers shall respectively take and subscribe to the usual oath of office, which oath may be taken and subscribed before the judge of any court of record of this state, or any notary public having a seal, and shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state. § 253. Organization of board. It shall be the duty of said board of managers to elect a president, secretary and an executive committee from their number. (As renumbered by chapter 449 of the Laws of 1910.) Said board of mana § 254. Report to legislature. gers shall annually on or before January fifteenth make to the legislature a detailed report of its proceedings for the preceding fiscal year, together with a complete statement of its receipts and expenditures, the condition of the institution, and full estimates of the appropriation required for its maintenance, including therein ordinary repairs. It shall also include in its report a statement of any special appropriations required and the reasons therefor. (As renumbered by chapter 449 of the Laws of 1910.) § 255. Admission to home. Every honorably discharged soldier or sailor or marine who served in the army or navy of the United States, for a period not less than ninety days, during the war of the rebellion, and who shall have been a resident of this state for one year next preceding the application for admission. and the wife, widow and mother of any such honorably discharged soldier or sailor or marine, and army nurses who served in said. army or navy and whose residence was at the time of the commencement of such service, or whose residence shall have been for one year next preceding his or her application for admission to said home within the state of New York, and who shall need the aid or benefit of said home in consequence of physical disability or other cause within the scope of the regulations of the board, shall be entitled to admission to said home after the approval of the application by the board of managers and subject to the conditions, limitations and penalties prescribed by the rules and regulations adopted by said board. Provided, however, said soldier or sailor or marine shall be a married man and shall be accompanied or attended by his wife during the time he may be an inmate of said home, and in case of the death of the wife while an inmate of said home, the veteran may remain an inmate of said home with the consent of the superintendent, approved by the board of managers, but no wife or widow of a soldier or sailor or marine shall be admitted as an inmate of said home unless due and sufficient proof is presented of her marriage to such soldier or sailor or marine at least fifteen years prior to the date of such application. The board of managers shall require an applicant for admission to such home to file with the application for admission his own affidavit of residence and in addition thereto the affidavit of at least two householders in and residents of the county of which he claims at the time of such application to be a resident; and such affidavits shall on presentation be accepted and received as sufficient proof, unless contradicted, of the residence of such applicant in any actions or proceedings against such county in which such residence of such applicant is material. If, after having been an inmate of such home, an honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine, or the wife or widow of an honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine, or an army nurse, shall reassume his or her former residence in any county, or shall acquire a new residence in any other county, and shall become entitled to relief as provided by article six of the poor law, the poor authorities within whose jurisdiction such honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine, or the wife or widow of an honorably discharged soldier, sailor or marine, or an army nurse, resides, may, instead of providing re lief as required by the poor law, return him or her to such home, to be maintained therein. (As amended by chapter 240 of the Laws of 1909, chapters 133 and 449 of the Laws of 1910, chapter 601 of the Laws of 1911 and chapter 310 of the Laws of 1912.) Application for admission of deserted wife of honorably discharged soldier. STATE OF NEW YORK, ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, ALBANY, October 1, 1909. P. J. O'CONNOR, Esq., Superintendent of New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home, Oxford, Chenango county, N. Y.: DEAR SIR. Your letter of the 20th instant received, with inclosed letter of General Horatio C. King regarding the admission of one Sarah Gillespie to the New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home. I herewith hand you my opinion in relation to her admission. General Horatio C. King in his letter states in regard to the said Sarah Gillespie, that her husband was honorably discharged from Company C, 37th New Jersey, October 1, 1864, and that the said Sarah Gillespie is his lawful wife and widow; further, that Francis Gillespie, the husband, disappeared and for thirty years his family have had no tidings of him; further, that his widow and son have made diligent efforts to find him and that the son has written to every soldiers' home in the United States without success; and finally that the said Francis Gillespie has never applied for a pension. The law governing the admission of inmates to the New York State Woman's Relief Corps Home is contained in section 326 of the State Charities Law, chapter 55 of the Consolidated Laws of this State, and that section is as follows: "Admission to home. Every honorably discharged soldier or sailor who served in the army or navy of the United States, for a period of not less than ninety days, during the war of the rebellion, and who shall have been a resident of this state for one year next preceding the appli cation for admission, and the wife, widow and mother of any such honorably discharged soldier or sailor, and army nurses who served in said army or navy and whose residence was at the time of the commencement of such service or whose residence shall have been for one year next preceding his or her application for admission to said home, within the state of New York, or who shall need the aid or benefit of said home in consequence of physical disability or other cause within the scope of the regulations of the board, shall be entitled to admission to said home, after the approval of the application by the board of managers and subject to the conditions, limitations and penalties prescribed by the rules and regulations adopted by said board. Provided, however, said soldier or sailor shall be a married man and shall be accompanied or attended by his wife during the time he may be an inmate of said home. but no wife or widow of a soldier or sailor shall be admitted as an inmate of said home unless due and sufficient proof is presented of her marriage to such soldier or sailor at least fifteen years prior to the date of such application." Under these circumstances detailed in General King's letter, Mrs. Gillespie under the law of this State would be entitled to letters of administration as widow of her husband who had disappeared, because a presumption of death arises after an absence of seven years where diligent inquiry has been made to find such person. (Abbott's N. Y. Cyclopedic Digest, pp. 1, 2, 3.) For the purposes of admission to your institution, therefore, it is my judg ment that she must be considered a widow. Being a widow the requirements of her admission, in my judgment, are as follows That her husband be an honorably discharged soldier who served in the army of the United States during the War of the Rebellion for a period not less than ninety days; that she be a resident of the State for one year next preceding the application for her admission; and that she paesent proof of her marriage to her husband at least fifteen years prior to the date of her application. It is not stated whether the husband, Francis Gillespie, served "for a period not less than ninety days;" or whether Mrs. Sarah Gillespie, his widow, has been a resident of the State for one year next preceding her application you find the foregoing facts to exist, then, in my opinion. she is admissible to your home provided the board of managers approve her application as required in section 326. Very truly yours, EDWARD R. O'MALLEY, 256. Powers of board of managers. The board of managers shall have charge of all of the affairs of the institu tion, with power to make all necessary by-laws, rules and regulations for its government and proper management, and for the admission and discharge of inmates. It shall have power to select a treasurer, to appoint and remove a superintendent of the institution, who shall be its chief executive officer. It shall also have power to appoint such other subordinate officers as may be necessary, and for just cause remove any or all of them from office. Under proper rules and regulations and in accordance with the provisions of the civil service law they may delegate the power to hire and discharge subordinate employees to the superintendent. (As renumbered by chapter 449 of the Laws of 1910.) Board of managers may remove superintendent. STATE OF NEW YORK, ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, To the Honorable the Governor, Executive Chamber, Albany, N. Y.: |