Owen Thomas Edgar

Owen Thomas Edgar was, according to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the longest surviving U.S. veteran of the Mexican–American War.

Biography

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the United States Navy as a 2nd-class apprentice on February 10, 1846, and was discharged as an Apprentice First Class on August 8, 1849. Edgar saw service on the frigates Potomac, Allegheny, Pennsylvania and Experience.
After the war, he worked at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for twenty-one years, then worked at a bank for another thirty-one years. He spent his final ten years living at the John Dickson Home in Washington, D.C.
He became the last surviving American veteran of the Mexican-American War on June 17, 1929 when fellow war veteran William Buckner died at the age of 101 in Paris, Missouri.

Death and interment

Edgar died September 3, 1929, at the age of 98 after suffering a fall from a chair that fractured his leg, and was buried in Washington's Congressional Cemetery.