Actual Letter by: Larken Mayse(Larkin Benjamin Mays) Source: Charles Lee Mays - Descendant of Larkin Mays

June the 4th 1864
                 Mr. Joseph H. Barret
                            Commissioner

Dear Sir i recieved your letter the 19th of May informing

me that in order to procure pension i must prove my first

servis and honable discharge and i do not claim to be in
 
service any longer than that on account of not being able to

stand the March to canady and the taken me up Ohio near to

a settlement and thure capt Butler gave me a bill of directions

to get out now must i miss getting pension or part of pension

on account of my disability to stand the march when i was just 

as willing a man as there was
  
   i could not stay at fort massac by myself

   no i could not go along

I should not tried to procure any pension if it had not

bin for my neighburs since i have bin blind and not able 

to make my living & my children has all gone but too & 

they are not able to keep me, i have been blind nearly ten 

year and i was raised by a revolutioner, bin raised true to my 

contry & i raised my family so to.

     Ansure this if you pleas

                            Sandoval
                            Illinois
                            Larken Mayse

Story told in Phillips family as recollected by Earl C. Phillips at age 91.

Larkin Mays was lost in the woods during the Blackhawk War. For six days he wandered around in circles and had only berries to eat. Larkin finally wandered into an Indian camp. The men were all gone but the women in the camp fed Larkin. One Indian woman took a piece of deer meat, put her bare foot on one end of it and tore off a piece which she threw in the pot. Larkin said that was the best meat he had ever eaten. (19 June 1982)

In the Phillips family the story is told that James Mays, son of Larkin, married in North Carolina and came to Southern Illinois. No mention was made about Larkin and most family members were unaware of his existence.