Post your Revolutionary Ancestor stories here!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

In honor of Independence Day, I thought it might be fun to relate stories of our ancestors who fought in the American Revolution. Many of these humble folk had interesting stories to tell, to whit:

Ephraim Cleveland:

Capt. Ephraim Cleveland first lived at Canterbury, Windham Co CT. He was taken prisoner in the French and Indian War by the Indians, and was held captive three years before he escaped.

He was in the Revolutionary Army. During the Revolution, Ephraim and Mark Watkins were captured by Indians, who pulled their hair out, tied them to stakes, and prepared to burn them. An old squaw who had befriended them interfered and by her entreaty the Indians let her have Ephraim in place of her son, who had been slain in the war. Ephraim and Watkins afterward often went hunting with the Indians and later were trusted to go alone a few times. It was on one of these hunting trips that the men escaped. From that time on, Ephraim was bald, and wore an eelskin cap.

[iverglas]

1. well, I don't actually have any ...

... but maybe we could swap War of 1812 tales. ;) 'Course, I don't have any of them either, since my ancestors only arrived in Canada after 1900.

But I've got two other people's Revolutionary War tales, that they only know because I told 'em.

One is a young friend of mine in a Carolina, whom I asked for some info about her family so I could spend an idle moment looking them up for her. She believed that her gr-grfather had sneaked into the US by posing as the son of a couple travelling on the same boat, and that was how he'd come by his surname: Marcum.

Well. I wasted a bit of time on that, playing in the UK censuses, and then just asked google. And it turned out, I discovered in very short order by following the breadcrumbs backward, that her gr-grandfather's grx3-grfather (I think I've got the count right; it's been a while) of Josiah Marcum (the name having originally been Markham in England), a well documented soldier in that war, and in fact that an historical society was unveiling a plaque to him within a very few weeks after I made the discovery. Apparently he is well documented for the battle he waged, and won, to get his military pension, many years later. Plus ça change.

Then I ran into someone's post at genforum looking for info on a Littler in the US. I'd never put much time into them, my own Littlers having remained in England until 1907, but I knew a bit of where to look and what I was looking for, and started, again, with her gr-grfather. And I was able to find the census info in the early 1800s that connected him to the Littler who settled in the colonies in the 1600s -- whose connection to the "main line" of Cheshire Littlers is established, while my own is not -- one of whose descendants in her line was in that Revolutionary War.

Neither person seemed quite as thrilled by these discoveries as I have just been, for example, by the recent one of my own (my post in the I'm-related-to-Bush thread).

I really think that all you womenfolk with these documented ancestors have a duty. Go join the old DAR. And be revolutionary!


just a little note: "an old squaw", which I'm sure comes from how the tale was told in yesteryears, could be reformed to be a bit nicer by today's standards. A Native American elder?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Oh yes, to be pc

it would be better. That's what happens when I quote an older source though--not always pc.

I joined the DAR over 25 years ago, and dropped out because of their politics. You do know that they think Reagan was God, don't you, and that Democrats are evil? And that was in 1980! I'd hate to think what they are saying now!

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Did not know that....

At this point, I'm glad I haven't found any Revolutionary War fighting guys. now that I know!

[iverglas]

4. I know ;)

You do know that they think Reagan was God, don't you, and that Democrats are evil? And that was in 1980!

I just think there should be a coup. ;) If all you nasty Democrat-type folks who qualify signed up, just imagine what might happen!

My local counterpart is the United Empire Loyalists -- the good guys in that little 18th century squabble, who came north to Canada. I can't try to subvert that one from within, though (and I'm not sure that it even has meetings any more), because my ancestors were a few generations too late coming, and came straight from the motherland with no intermediate stopovers.

My mum recently joined the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire. It probably had some sort of exclusionary membership requirement at one time -- like actual Empire ancestry -- but doesn't now. She lives in a small town these days, and it's an opportunity for socializing while raising money for good causes (children's charities, domestic and international, mainly, I think); she doesn't knit or crochet, so she gets to staff the craft sales.

If I may be perhaps non-pc for a moment, imagine for a moment what the DAR might do if they received a membership application from a transgendered person seeking to be enrolled as a Daughter ...

[Cybergata]

5. If you have the records to prove your heritage, . . .

they can't deny you. I thought about joining in the seventies just for the fun of seeing just how they could deny a Hispanic/Socialist/Hippie who just happens to have a grandmother with plenty ancestors who fought in the revolution. Now they even consider any ancestor in the Spanish army as good as any ancestor who fought. I could enter with my Mestizo, New Mexican ancestors who served in the Spanish army between the years of the War for Independence. I think they have changed many of their policies, but their tradition still turns me off. Of course we could all join and be the radical wing of the organization.

[iverglas]

6. my little joke

It's the *daughters* of the revolution -- I'm pretty sure membership is open to women only -- or has it changed?

So if someone born male but now considered to be female ... who could document descendancy from a revolutionary war fighter ... applied for membership ... heh heh. Reagan lovers' brains might explode. ;)

That's the ticket -- all join and have the radical caucus! And plot the ultimate takeover.

Glad to see someone besides moi the foreigner has a Rev War story!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Now that might be interesting!

Anyway, the male version of the DAR is SAR-Sons of the Revolution, which for some reason isn't as well known as the DAR. I have cousins in both.

[Cybergata]

9. I didn't recognize your gender from your post. . .

but as transgendered, I figured you'd fit into DAR somehow. I've long thought about having a revolutionary take over of ultra right organizations that I have the requirements for membership. I can't think of a cooler person to join with than a transgendered sister. Right on Sister! :hippie:

One thing I have to thank SAR for is some of the groups have published photos of the grave sites of Revolution Soldiers who are buried in their state on the Web.

[iverglas]

10. eek

Oops, I've inadvertently misled.

Me, I'm just a plain old woman, born one, always will be one. I was just, I admit, using someone else's point of vulnerability to advance my own agenda. ;) (And frankly, not even sure I'm using the lingo right.) But subverting the DAR is a *good* agenda!

I'll keep my eye out for a transgendered person, now a woman, who lives on your side of the border and has a revolutionary war soldier ancestor ...

[jwirr]

12. Eleanor Roosevelt really had their number!

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Three brothers, all served.

This is only one of my lines with Revolutionary War vets. I think I had at least 6 ancestors who served -- a side effect of having many old Yankee roots.

Here is one line. Elias and Rosanna (McDaniel)Dickey of Raby NH had three sons. James is my ancestor.

JAMES was an ensign in Captain Reuben Davis's company that marched from Hollis NH on April 19, 1775. Continued in service until at least 1776 and probably throughout the war.
The DAR records have James Dickey in 1776 in Capt. Daniel Emerson's company, Col. Joshua Wingate's regiment, Continental service. Wife was Mary Davidson

ELIAS was a soldier in the Revolution in a MA regiment on expedition to Quebec in Oct 1775.

WILLIAM served along with his brother-in-law David Davidson in Capt. John Nesmith's company which served in Canada. His name disappears from records and he is not mentioned in his mother's 1795 will. The presumption is that he died early in the war.

[Greylyn58]

11. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather

Lazarus Dameron was a member of the Revolutionary Spy Service.

Lazarus probably first saw the Big Sandy Valley in Kentucky as a frontier scout in the employ of the Revolutionary Spy Service. During the Revolutionary War, spies were routinely sent west of the Appalachian Mountains to keep track of British and hostile Indian activity. In 1779, Lazarus and James Fraley helped pursue marauding Wyandott Indians in the Big Sandy Valley. That area is located in what is today the border area of Kentucky and West Virginia just below the Ohio River.