JR Pension Transcription

John Reardon’s Revolutionary War Pension Application

http://www.kykinfolk.com/pendleton/Military/Reardon_John.pdf

 

State of Kentucky      }     On this 7th day of September
County of Campbell   }     eighteen hundred and thirty

three personally appear before me Samuel Baker
a Justice of the Peace in and for the county of Campbell
and state aforesaid, John Reardon a resident of
the county of Pendleton and state of Kentucky aged
seventy nine years from the information of his folk
on, who being first duly sworn according to law does
on his oath make the following declaration on and
to obtain the benefit of an act of Congress (passed)
 on the 7th day of June 1802    and he further states the
reason why he makes his declaration in the county
of Campbell is that he resided in that county for the
space of fifteen or sixteen years and was and is now
better acquainted in that county than in Pendleton
and that his residence is within a few yards of
county line and the preacher and Capt Wheeler who
certifies for me live in Campbell County and not
more than one mile from me and the declaration
is made at the house of Capt Wheeler and further
that I belong to the Methodist Church and that
church in the same County of Campbell and
the Justice before whom I make my declaration has
a more intimate acquaintance with me than any
Justice of Pendleton County and it is about 25 miles
from where I now live to the court house of Campbell
County and nearly the same distance to Pendleton
court    That he entered the service of the United States
in the twentieth year of his age and stated by his
Father, as a drafted man for the term of three months
that he resided in the state of Virginia he thinks but
is not certain but knows positively that it was at
Pittsburg under the following named officer that is Capt
Gabe S Williams, Ensign Walter Gurney, the Lieut name

 

    Capt Gabe S Williams
    Ensign Walter Gurney

I do not recollect and I served out my said time and
(took) no pay he entered on the first day of May and
was discharged on the first day of August following
Then he entered as a volunteer under Capt James Smith      

Capt James Smith

(now known by the name of Indian Jay Smith and
he learned us how to exercise after the Indian manner
of exercising but I do not remember the names of any
of the other officers and served this time  from the first day
of August 1775 to the last day of October in the same year
and we were stationed at the Turtle Creek twelve miles above
Pittsburg and we marched from there to a place called
Wellsburg and from there to a place called Nicholas
Station and we were mostly in search of Indians and
Tories and we caught two men that we supposed to be Tories
and put them in Hannah town jail but they made                 

     Hanna’s Town is in Westmorland CO, PA .  It                                                                                                    

     was located along the Forbes Road and the town was
    completely destroyed by the British and their Indian allies
    on 13 Jul 1782

their escape the name of one of them was Curchelon
and the other name was Downey and then I returned
home to my father on the Monongahela River twenty
five miles above Pittsburg    In the spring of the year
1776 Col Cook wrote to Col George Tilandigam to call       

    Col Cook
   Col George Tilandigam

 

out the militia and get all the volunteers that he could
and on the first day of March I entered as a volunteer
under the said Tilandigam Capt Josiah Records was           

    Capt Josiah Records

the name of the Capt the names of the other officers
I have forgotten these were mostly young men and
nearly all killed by the Indians he served this time
from the first day of March to the last day of October
making eight months and we were stationed on the
Ohio River all the time and were employed in
 

in building block houses and guarding the frontier from
the savages of the Indians and the first day of Nov
1776 not leaving the Army I entered under Capt Sam         

    Capt Sam Beeler established  Beeler’s Fort on Raccoon 
    Creek in 1774.  His house, the fort, was about five miles
    east of Burgettstown, PA.
Bealer Lieut James Rankin and Ensign Andrew Poe            

    Lieut James Rankin    

    Ensign Andrew Poe achieved renown as an Indian fighter.

and continued on the Ohio River in the same employ
and at the same place and this time he served one year
that is from the first day of Nov 1776 to the last day of Oct
1777 and did not return home this time but entered for one
year more as a volunteer under Capt William Higlan and     

    Capt William Higlan

 
I believe that the Colonel name was Vanswearingen            

    Col Andrew Van Swearingen was the militia commander at
    Holliday’s Cove Fort (Weirton, WV) in 1777.


he entered on the first day of Nov 1777 and con-
tinued to the last day of October following making in
all three years and two months and then he returned
home again  I was well acquainted with Genl George        

Washington and Col William Crawford and his bro-            

    Gen George Washington
    Col William Crawford was  tortured and killed by the
    Indians in the presence of Simon Girty.

ther Valentine Crawford and the Stinson family and
I served under Jack Stinson in what was called Dun                                                                                                          

    Jack Stinson
    Dunmore’s War was the Indian war named for Lord
    Dunmore, the governor of VA.  The cause of the war
    was the massacre at Baker’s tavern.

 
=mores war for I was out at that time I was also
well acquainted with Simon Girty and James his
     Four Girty brothers , Thomas, Simon, George, and James,
     were captured along with  their mother and step father   
    by Indians.  Their step father was killed.  Of the boys, only
 Thomas returned to the white civilization.
 

brother  he also states that he knows of no person that he
can prove his source by (except the proof of John Records)
and he hereby relinquishes every claim to a pension
or annuity whatever except the present and declares
that his name is not on the pension roll of the
Agency of any state or territory of the United States
sworn to and subscribed the day and year afores

                                                his

                                    John     X     Reardon

                                                mark

 

 

 

Mr George Fisher a clergyman residing in the county of Campbell
and state of Kentucky and in the same neighborhood of
John Reardon and John Wheeler residing in the afore
state and county certify that we are well
well acquainted with John Reardon who has subscribed
and sword to the above declaration that we believe him to be
of the age seventy nine years and have no doubt of his be
ing a soldier of the revolution and it is generally believed in the
neighborhood that he was a soldier of that war and that we
concur in that opinion and the reasons that he assigns for
giving his declaration in Campbell County and also true to the
best of our knowledge and we have heard him often make
the statement in his declaration before the law papers al-
lowing him a pension sworn to and subscribed the day
and year aforesaid

                                                            George Fisher
                                                            John Wheeler

 

Personally came before me Samuel Baker a Justice of the peace
in and for the County of Campbell John Records at the home
of Capt John Wheeler and after being duly sworn declares that
when he was a boy he saw the above named John
Reardon going to or returning from the Army, and
that he was equipped with his gunshot pouch, toma-
hawk and butcher knife and the general opinion
was that he was a soldier of the Revolutionary War
Sworn to and subscribed the day and date above

                                                            John Records

 

And the said Justice whereby declares his opinion after this investing-
ation of the matter and afar the putting the interrogatives prescribed by the
War Department that the above named  applicant was a Revolution-
ary soldier and served as he stated and that he had his declaration
prepared to attend court but from a fall from his house was disabled from
attending and also that the applicant was much debilitated from
age and his memory much impaired consequently unable to
appear in court and that George Fisher is a clergyman of
irreproachable character rand Capt Wheeler is in good standing
and was the (?) of Pendleton two years (?) (?)

both at this time residents of Campbell County and in the
same neighborhood of the above named applicant and that

this statement is (?) to credit.

                                                            Samuel Baker J.P CC,Ky  [1]

 

 

 

 


[1]  Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, National Archives NARA-M804, FOOTNOTE.COM.