Memorial Day: Remembering Family Members Who Gave Their All

As our country remembers those who have founght and died for our freedom, I wanted to share stories of two of my family members who died while in service to our country.

Revolutionary War - Isaac Vincent

In 1772, the Vincent families and others had moved from Essex County, New Jersey, to current day Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. For several years, they lived peacefully near the local Indians. But, trouble started brewing in 1777. By 1779, about 13 families were living in a large, two-story house around which they had built a 12-foot high wall around. It enclosed a half acre and they called it Fort Freeland.

Fort Freeland (from Wikipedia)

Life was fairly normal at the fort. Isaac Vincent's wife gave birth to a son, George, in February of 1779. Two other babies were also born at the fort. The men even planted corn in a field at the back of the fort that spring.

On July 21st, some men were working in the corn field when they were attacked by a party of Indians. Isaac Vincent, only 22 years old, was killed along with two other men. Isaac's 10-year-old brother, Benjamin, was taken captive along with another male. Their brother, Daniel Vincent, about 19-years-old, outran the captors.

About 6 hours after the attack, the captured young Benjamin was shown the scalp of his brother, Isaac, and he knew Isaac had been killed.

Eight days later, the fort was attacked by about 300 Indians and British. With only 21 men left at the fort, they quickly surrendered. Most of the remaining men were taken as prisoners and "marched" to Canada while the women, children, and "old men" were set free and walked eighteen miles to Northumberland.

Nineteen year old Daniel Vincent was my 5th great grandfather. His older brother, Isaac, lost his life at the fort. Daniel was a prisoner in Canada for three years, after which he returned home to his wife. I wrote about his story in "Prisoner of War Love Story."

My 6th great grandparents, Cornelius & Phoebe Vincent, were in their mid-forties and also at the fort. Phoebe and another woman helped to turn their plates and spoons into bullets and, as such, is a DAR eligible ancestor. Cornelius also was a prisoner in Canada for three years. After his return, "he carried ankle and wrist scars from English shackles" the rest of his life.

My 7th great grandparents, John & Elizabeth Vincent, were each about 70 years old when they were attacked at Fort Freeland. As Elizabeth was crippled, John spoke with the British and was given a horse for his wife to ride and he wasn't taken captive with the younger men.

My Vincent family suffered a great deal as they lost their son, Isaac, and the younger men were taken prisoner and not seen for three years.

Sources:

• "Warrior Run - Fort Freeland Heritage Society" webpage http://freelandfarm.org/battle-of-fort-freeland/
• "Access Genealogy: Fort Freeland, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania" webpage http://www.accessgenealogy.com/pennsylvania/fort-freeland-northumberland-county-pennsylvania.htm
• "Rootsweb: III An Account of the First White Settlement on Warrior Run" webpage http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~banister/boyd_vincent/appendix2.htm

War of 1812 - Elkanah Anderson

Elkanah Anderson and his brother-in-law, Thomas B Whitwell, were two of my 5 times great grandfathers. In December 1814, Elkanah and Thomas joined the West Tennessee Milita and were "part of a flotila that went down to New Orleans via the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers." Once there, they fought in the famous Battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson. During the bloody, one-sided battle which lasted only about 30 minutes on January 8th, the British suffered 2,000 casualties while the Americans only had about one hundred.

Painting of Battle of New Orleans by Edward Percy Moran (from Wikipedia)

According to the Tennessee Archives site, there weren't any battle casualties in Elkanah's and Thomas' regiement, but there were "many deaths due to sickness" in February and March. Elkanah Anderson died on January 14th, just 6 days after the big battle. Was he one of the first to die of disease? Or did he die of battle wounds? And was he buried in an unmarked grave in New Orleans as family stories tell us?

Thomas returned home to tell his wife that her brother, Elkanah, had died in New Orleans. Elkanah's wife was presumably pregnant with their seventh child at the time of his death. Although I'm not sure exactly how he died, he died defending our young nation.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Who Was Sarah "Sally" McCage's Father?

Sarah E. McCage (~1812-1860), who married William Kennedy Dickson (1811-probably 1860's), was born in Tennessee and lived in Perry County, Tennessee by 1840 (if not before). I'd seen her maiden name, McCage, on other researcher's trees, but last year is the first time I found it on a document. One of her children, Jacob Tipton Dickson, had written his mother's name as Sarah McCage on a Civil War Questionnaire in 1920.

Jacob Tipton's Civil War Questionnaire (Question #8 lists "Maiden name in full of your mother: Salley McCage.
She was the daughter of "dont know" and his wife "dont know."

I've been looking through Fold3.com's War of 1812 Pension Files lately. (The are currently posted through the letter M, and I'm "patiently" waiting for the W's for Whitwell.) Today, I came across a Samuel McCage from Tennessee who looked like a possible father or uncle for Sarah. Samuel was from Humphreys County, Tennessee which is adjacent to Perry County, Tennessee.

I found Samuel's Find-A-Grave memorial and a researcher lists Samuel's children, which did not include my Samuel. It did, however, say that Samuel McCage lived in Perry County, Tennessee until the late 1840's! But, her birth of May 1811 to April 1812 does not fit nicely with Samuel's marriage date of March 29th, 1812.

Could Samuel McCage possibly be Sarah's uncle? And, there's still a chance Samuel is her father.

I had never found Sarah and her husband, William Kennedy Dickson, on the 1840 census... until recently. I looked for Samuel McCage in the 1840 census in Perry County, Tennessee. I found him, and just 3 names down was Kennedy Dickson with his wife and three young children.

Since Sarah was born in 1811 or 1812, we are looking for a possible father who was born between 1780 to 1790. Perry County is a burned county, so I'm still looking for Sarah's elusive parents. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment with a way to contact you or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.

Ancestor Fought in Creek Indian Wars: Pension File Discovered in War of 1812 Records

As you probably know, the War of 1812 Pension Files are free on Fold3 and they continue to add more names each month. I'm "patiently" waiting for the Ws for my direct ancestor, Thomas B. Whitwell. But, in the meantime, I was scrolling through the names in Tennessee where my grandmother's maternal family lived.

Under the letter D, I came across the fairly common surname, Dickson, which was my grandmother's maiden name. As I clicked on each of these men, one name stood out to me: Joseph Dickson. I have four Joseph Dickson's on my tree. Two were born after the War of 1812, but one was born in 1772 and another was born in 1795 (though I figured he was probably too young). The Joseph in the Pension File was from Linden, Perry County, Tennessee which is where "all" of my grandmother's family lived.

The pension file includes 37 pages and never mentions his wife or family members. But, three different papers indicate his birth year. The first is image #29 which is dated 7 May 1855 where Joseph says he is "aged fifty nine years." The second letter is on image #32 and is dated 09 Dec 1852 and Joseph says he is "57" years old. Third dated 29 May 1871 saying "75 years" old. All of these ages match my Joseph Dickson, born on December 1st, 1795, exactly.

Joseph Dickson (1795-1898) was my fourth great-grandfather, and this pension file was the first piece of evidence I'd ever seen that he fought in any war.

So, what did I discover in Joseph Dickson's pension file?

Joseph Dickson's Pension File (image from Fold3)

• Joseph received two pieces of Bounty Land: 40 acres in 1850 (claim #93350) & 120 acres in 1855 (claim #57224) - this is something I need to look into further! (Image #1 on Fold3)
• He enlisted on Jan 28th, 1814 & discharged on May 23, 1814 in Tennessee Militia under Captains Michael Moulton & Joseph Williams (Image #1)
• Mentions the "Creek War" (Image #4)
• Lists length of service as 116 days (Image #7)
• Discusses that, besides actual fighting days, he was also paid for 200 miles "travel allowance" (Images #9 & #10)
• States "Joseph Dickson aged 59 years a resident of Perry County in the state of Tennessee who being duly sworn according to law declares that he is the identical Joseph Dickson who was a private in the company commanded by Captain Joseph Williams in the regiment of mounted riflemen commanded by Colonel Michael Molton in the War with Great Britain declared by the United States on the 18th day of June 1812 (with the Creek Indians) for the term of three months and continued in actual service in said war for fourteen days, that he has heretofore made application for bounty land under the Act of September 28th 1850 and received a land warrant No------- not reccolected (?) for forty acres which he has since legally disposed of and cannot now return.   [paragraph] He makes this declaration for the purpose of obtaining the additional bounty land to which he may be entitled under the act approved 3rd day of March 1855. [paragraph] He also declares that he has never applied nor received under this nor any other act of Congress any Bounty Land warrant except the one above mentioned. [signed] Joseph Dickson (Image #29)
• States "... that he volunteered at Dickson [County] on the [blank] day of January 1814 for term of 3 months and continued in actual service for the term of 3 1/2 months and was honorably discharged at Camp Blount on the 10th day of May 1814 as will appear by reference to certificate of discharge herewith filed - and by the muster rolls of said company (Image #32)

• Includes Joseph's actual discharge papers! (Image #35)
• A fill-in-the-blank form dated May 29th, 1871 says he is "not" married & all information about a wife is crossed out. Joseph's wife died in 1867, but this is still puzzling as it is asking about who his wife's name "was"... (Image #36)

From this information, I looked at the Tennessee Secretary of State site at "Regimental Histories of Tennessee Units During the War of 1812" and was able to determine that Joseph Dickson served under Colonel Robert Dyer in the Tennessee Volunteer Mounted Cavalry. One of the Captains of the regiment was Michael Molton who Joseph stated he served under (though he listed him as a colonel). Molton also signed Joseph Dickson's discharge papers.

The brief history of this regiment (at the above site) states that it was "part of General John Coffee's cavalry brigade throughout most of the Creek War. The unit participated in most of the battles of the war, including... Horseshoe Bend (27 March 1814). There were several companies of "spies" in the regiment: companies of cavalry that were sent on reconnaissance patrols and usually took the lead in the line of march for Jackson's army."

Battle of Horseshoe Bend (public domain image from Wikipedia)

A great synopsis of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend is at Access Genealogy: "The Creek Indians, who had been allies of the British during the War of 1812, were angered by white encroachment on their hunting grounds in Georgia and Alabama. In 1813, some Creeks under Chief Red Eagle (William Weatherford) (1780-1824) attacked and burned Fort Mims on the lower Alabama River, killing about 500 whites [the Fort Mims Massacre]. Afterward, US militiamen, led by General Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), invaded Creek territory in central Alabama and destroyed two Indian villages, Talledega and Tallasahatchee, in the fall of 1813. Jackson pursued the Creek, and on March 27, 1814, his 3,000 man army attacked and defeated them at that Battle of Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River in eastern Alabama. More than 800 Creek warriors were killed, and the power of the Creek nation was completely broken. At the Treaty of Fort Jackson on August 9, 1814, the Creek were compelled to cede 23 million acres (half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia) to the whites. It is sometimes considered to be part of the War of 1812."

Elkanah Anderson: Died at the Battle of New Orleans (#11 of 52 Ancestors)

Elkanah Anderson and his brother-in-law, Thomas B Whitwel, were two of my 5 times great grandfathers. In December 1814, Elkanah and Thomas joined the West Tennessee Milita and were "part of a flotila that went down to New Orleans via the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers." Once there, they fought in the famous Battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson. During the bloody, one-sided battle which lasted only about 30 minutes on January 8th, the British suffered 2,000 casualties while the Americans only had about one hundred.

Painting of Battle of New Orleans by Edward Percy Moran (from Wikipedia)

According to the Tennessee Archives site, there weren't any battle casualties in Elkanah's and Thomas' regiement, but there were "many deaths due to sickness" in February and March. Elkanah Anderson died on January 14th, just 6 days after the big battle. Was he one of the first to die of disease? Or did he die of battle wounds? And was he buried in an unmarked grave in New Orleans as family stories tell us?

Thomas returned home to tell his wife that her brother, Elkanah, had died in New Orleans. Elkanah's wife was presumably pregnant with their seventh child at the time of his death. Although I'm not sure exactly how he died, he died defending our young nation.

My Line of Descent

• Elkanah Anderson (1774-1815) m Sarah "Sally" Murray (1777-1845) 
• Margaret Anderson (abt 1801-1877) m Pleasant Whitwell (1803-1875) 
• Martha Ann Whitwell (1830-1904) m Carroll Houston Ward (1826-1863) 
• Reuben Houston Ward (1859-1906) m Sallie Harriet Dickson (1860-1960) 
• Martha Lenora "Nora" Ward (1885-1916) m James Bedford Dickson (1880-1968) 
• Ethel Evelyn Dickson (1915-2004) m Sherman Joseph Kaechle (1907-1987) (my maternal grandparents) 

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net