Pension Application

W.25392 (Widow: Margaret)
State of New York
Orange County SS
            On this fourteenth day of December Eighteen Hundred and thirty nine personally appeared before the undersigned a Judge of the court of Common please [sic] in and for Orange county Margaret Carpenter a resident of the town of Deerpark in the county of Orange aged Seventy One years who being first duly sworn according to law doth on her oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act of Congress passed July 7th 1838 entitled An act granting half pay and pensions to certain widows. That she is the widow of Benjamin Carpenter who was a private in the Militia of the state of New York and belonged to a company under Captain Thompson and in the Regiment commanded by William Allison as Col. Benjamin Tusten Lieut. Col. and John Decker Major in the town of Goshen county of Orange and State aforesaid, and as she has been informed and believes her said husband Benjamin Carpenter sometime in July or the beginning of August 1776 volunteered into a company of five months men under the command of Capt. John Wood and in the Regiment Commanded by Col. Nichols the said company on or about the first of August rendezvoused at Goshen and went from thence to New Windsor from New Windsor they went on the River to Fort Montgomery where they remained a short time from that place they went by water to a place called Tarrytown where they landed from the boat and went by land to Kingsbridge where the company was stationed until after the battle on Long Island when they were ordered to retreat towards the White Plains and was in sight when Gen. McDougall was attacked from the White Plains they retreated to Fishkill where they remained until the first of January 1777 when her said husband Benjamin Carpenter was discharged after having faithfully discharged his duty for the term of five months.
            That as she has been informed and believes her said husband Benjamin Carpenter in July 1777 was drafted to go to the forts along the Hudson River for the term of three months and that sometime in July of the said year he said husband Rendezvoused at Goshen with the rest of the drafted men under Capt. John Wood and went by land to New Windsor from thence by water to Fort Montgomery where they were placed under the officer then in command of the Forts Montgomery & Clinton and served until Fort Clinton was taken and that her said husband remained in the Fort as long as resistance was in their power when he made his escape out of the back side of the fort and made for Fort Montgomery but coming to the creek that run between the two forts and being unable to ford the creek he made up the creek through a deep ravine and made his escape and returned home and reported himself to Capt. Swezy in whose company he belonged and went immediately with the said company to [Munders?]n creek and followed the British shipping up the river towards Kingston and back to New Windsor under she thinks Col. Tusten and major Decker in this service he was out one month and in the service previous at Forts Montgomery and Clinton he was out two months, that her said Husband Benjamin Carpenter was as she has been informed and believes was out to Fort Dewitt on the west side of the Shawangunk Mountain on the frontier of the County of Ulster in 1778 under Captain Swezy and served in the said company seven months in the Regiment commanded by Col. Newkirk.
            That in the spring of 1779 in the beginning of May Capt. John Wood raised a company of Levies for nine months to serve on the western frontiers against the Indians in the regiment commanded by col. Pawling that the said company rendezvoused at Goshen in the beginning of May of the said year and marched across the Shawangunk Mountains to her this deponents father’s fort called Major Decker’s fort who was then Major in Col. Allison’s Regiment and the said company remained at her father’s fort until the twentieth day of July when the Indians made a descent on the frontiers and burnt Minisink and alarm was made and the Goshen Regiment was called out and Capt. Wood went with the said Regiment under Col. Tustin in pursuit of the Indians and followed them to a place called Beaver-Brook where they were overtaken and a most dreadful battle ensued and the whole were defeated Col. Tusten was killed and Capt. Wood was taken prisoner. That at this time her father’ fort and house was burnt and all the property therein contained was destroyed. She further declares that her said husband Benjamin Carpenter from her own personal knowledge belonged to Capt. Wood’s company at her father’s fort from the first of May 1779 until the 20th of July of the said year and started with Captain Wood’s company in pursuit of the Indians after the company had gone about four miles her said husband with two others were sent in pursuit of powder they obtained the Powder and started in pursuit of the Regiment under Col. Tusten after they had gone some distance they lost the track in the woods and was obliged to return after Captain Wood was taken prisoner the men who belonged to his company that was not killed returned and encamped at VanEtten’s Fort and done duty there until her father Major Decker had another Fort Built when the company went to the said Fort and remained in the said Fort and in the neighbourhood of the said Fort and along the Neversink River doing duty under officers whose names she does not recollect for the term of their enrolment and was discharged at her father’s fort about the last of January 1780. She further declares that she thinks that the said company after the battle was commanded by a Lieutenant and by her father Major John Decker who had command of the fort. That her said husband was at least eleven weeks under Capt. Wood before he was taken prisoner that her same husband served from time to time along the frontier during the years 1780, 1781, 1782, and the beginning of 1783 as a classman and on alarms but from old age and loss of memory she is unable to state the exact periods of the officer that he served under but she has no hesitation in saying that it is her full belief that her said husband Benjamin Carpenter served more than two years during the said war. She further declares that she was married to the said Benjamin Carpenter on the ninth day of April Seventeen Hundred and Eighty seven by the Rev. Mr. VanBenschoten then Pastor of the Dutch reformed Church in Minisink that her name before marriage was Margaret Decker and that he said husband Benjamin Carpenter died on the 26th day of February 1820. That she was not married to him prior to his leaving the service but he marriage took place previous to the first day of January Seventeen Hundred and ninety four, vizt at the time above stated. That from old age and infirmities attendant therein and the great distance she lives from the court house she thinks she ought to be excused from attending the sitting of the court of record in said County. (Signed) Margaret Carpenter
            Sworn and Subscribed before me the day and year above written. Hulet Clark a Judge of Orange County Com. Pleas.

Letter dated February 10, 1937 in response to an inquiry.
            The data which follow were obtained from papers on file in the pension claim, W.25392, based upon the military service of Benjamin Carpenter.
            He enlisted in July or August 1776, and served at various times until sometime in 1783, amounting in all to at least two years as private with the New York troops under Captains Thompson, John Wood and Sweazy, Major John Decker and Colonels William Allison, Isaac Nicholas, Tusten, Newkirk, Pawling, and Hathorn. The troops he served with rendezvoused at Goshen. He was at Fort Clinton when it was captured, was in the severe battle with the Indians at Beaver Brook on the Delaware River and was at Major John Decker’s Fort on the west side of Shawangunk Mountain along the valley of Neversink River when it and the house of Major Decker were burned by the Indians.
            He married February 26, `820.
            His widow, Margaret Carpenter was allowed pension on her application executed December 14, 1839, at which time she was living at Deer Park, Orange County, New York, and she then gave her age as seventy-one years. In 1849 she was living there and gave her age as seventy-nine years.
            In 1839 their son, Benjamin Carpenter, was living at Deer Park, Orange County, New York, aged thirty-six years. There are no further data relative to the family of the soldier.

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