Owen Thomas Edgar

Owen Thomas Edgar (June 17, 1831 – September 3, 1929) was an American soldier who was the last surviving American veteran of the Mexican–American War.

Biography Edgar was born on June 17, 1831, in Philadelphia. Prior to the Mexican–American War, he worked as a printer. He enlisted in the United States Navy as a second-class apprentice on February 10, 1846, and was discharged on August 8, 1849, as a first-class apprentice. He saw service on the frigates Potomac, Allegheny, Pennsylvania and Experience,

In 1861, Edgar moved to Washington, D.C.. He worked at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for twenty-one years, then worked at the Columbia National Bank for another thirty-one years. He retired in 1919. He was married to Fances Ann Edgar. Religiously, he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He became the last surviving American veteran of the Mexican-American War on June 17, 1929, when fellow war veteran William Fitzhugh Thornton Buckner died at age 101, in Paris, Missouri. On his 98th birthday, he received a letter from Charles Francis Adams III, congraduating him for the accomplishment. He died on September 3, 1929, aged 98, in Washington, after falling from a chair and sustaining a broken leg. He was buried on September 5, at Congressional Cemetery, in Washington.