Martin Van Buren Billings was born around 1836 in Pennsylvania to Samuel and Elizabeth Billings. His father was a farmer who supported the Democratic Party. By 1860, the family owned $300 of personal property. Billings grew up in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer. He enlisted in the Union army on October 17, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company A of the 57^th Pennsylvania Infantry on December 4. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with dark hair and brown eyes.

 

His regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He mustered out on June 29, 1865.

 

Billings returned to Wyoming County after the war and resumed his work as a farm laborer. He applied for a federal pension in November 1871 and eventually secured one. He married Alice Dixon around 1872, and they had at least two children: Lena, born around 1872; and Mary, born around 1875. They lived in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, and Billings worked as a laborer and constable. He remained in Tunkhannock for the rest of his life, and he died of arteriosclerosis there on April 19, 1915.

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