Morrison's Pensions
Loren
Harter (Herter, Herder)
Declaration
to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed July 4, 1836.
R.4701
State of New York
County of Onondaga
On this 4th day of April A. D. one thousand eight hundred
and fifty three personally appeared before me the undersigned a Judge in and
for the county aforesaid, Lawrence Herder, a credible person aged seventy
years a resident of Kirkville in said county who is the child and one of the
legitimate heirs at law of Lorens Herder and Barbara Herder, both deceased
and who being duly sworn according to law makes oath to the following
declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the 3rd section of
the act of Congress passed the 4th day of July 1836.
That Lorens Herter (his said father) was a resident of the Town of
Manheim in the County of Montgomery and state aforesaid.
When in the year 1779 he was drafted as a private in a company of New
York Militia in the Revolutionary War for the term of nine months commanded
by Captain Crisler (1) and Henry Herter. That
afterwards he was drafted twice for nine months and in the 4th
Regiment commanded by Colonel Peter Bellinger and served each draft thus
making a full time of 29 months that at the expiration of the last draft he
returned home at Little Falls in the Town of Menham (Manheim?) aforesaid
when he was taken prisoner (2) and kept by the British until the close of
said war. After he was released,
and he therefore became entitled to a pension under the act of Congress
passed 18th March 1818. That
in the year 1818 or after the passage of that law his said father made a
declaration before Judge Waddle and proved his service by three credible
witnesses who names were George Edick, John Helmer and General Campbell who
were that said Lorens was a soldier in the said war.
That Judge Waddle kept the said papers in his possession and in a
week or two thereafter he died and what became of the papers this declarant
is unable to set forth.
That his said father died at Manlius in the County of Onondaga and
state first above written on the nineteenth (19) day of October in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-three (1843) in the 98 year
of his age, that said Barbara died anterior to that time, to wit, on the 13th
day of March 1828, at the place, town and county aforesaid, that said Louren
Herder and Barbara were married he believes by the Rev. Abraham Rosencrantz
a Presbyterian clergyman on the day of ____177__, and always co-habited
together as husband and wife until the death of said Barbara and as such
raised a large family of children to wit: Charity, Philip, Peggy, Lawrence,
Betsey, Barbara, Conrad, Lany, Caty and Henry all of whom are now dead
except Charity (Miller), Lawrence (this declarant) Barbara Shoemaker and
Henry Herter.
That his said father did not receive a pension in his lifetime, to which
he was entitled under said act of 18th March 1818 and this
declarant therefore makes the application for the arrears which were due him
and unapplied for by as aforesaid from 18 March 1818 up to the time of his
death for himself and the other remaining children of the said Loren and
Barbara Herder with deceased.
(Signed)
Lawrence Harter
County of Onondaga
Be it remembered that on this third day of July A.D. 1854 personally
appeared before the said county court of said county, Lawrence Harter a
resident of Sullivan in the County of Madison and State of New York who
being duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following
declaration viz:
That he is the son and one of the heirs at law in for Lawrence P.
Harter, deceased, late of the Town of Manlius in the County of Onondaga and
state aforesaid.
That he has heard his father the said Lawrence P. Harter often say
that he was married to his deceased mother Barbary Harter before the War
of the Revolution and that his mother’s name before her said marriage was
Barbary Delany.
That his said father has often told him that he had been a soldier in the
War of the Revolution, that he served three towers [tours] of nine months
each that he served eighteen months under Captain Hendrick or Henry Harter
and nine months under Captain Christler in Rome (then Fort Stanwix) and that
he was afterwards taken prisoner at Little Falls at the time the British
burnt the mills at that place and was a prisoner about seven months and
until the end of the war.
That his mother Barbary died in Manlius on the 13th day of
March 1823 and that his said father Lawrence P. Harter died on the 19th
day of October 1833 in the Tow of Manlius aforesaid and that he left no
widow, him survived.
That his said father has often told him that while he was a prisoner with
the British the enemy killed his horses and drove away all of his cattle and
that he was sold to a Frenchman and taken to Montreal and kept there until
the peace was declared when he was sent to Halifax and then to Boston from
whence he returned home.
And this deponent further says that his said father made a declaration of
the facts in this case under the first act granting pensions to the soldiers
of the Revolution which declaration as put into the hands of J.O Walters
Esq. then of Manlius Onondaga County and is supposed to have been filed by
him in the office of the Commissioner of Pensions in the City of Washington
D.C., which will now fully appear by the papers herewith presented and by
the proof filed by my said father or his agent J.O. Walters Esq. for the
purpose of obtaining a pension under any former acts of Congress and
reference [sic] will be had to all legal and reliable proof or papers hereto
been filed by any person or persons for the purposes above mentioned and
this deponent further says that his father, the said Lawrence P. Harter died
leaving five children, him surviving to wit: Charity Miller, Lawrence
Harter, Barbary Shoemaker, Catharine Reals and Henry Harter which was all of
the children, him surviving and said claimant is now 73 years of age and it
is understood and believed that there is now arrears of pension and other
claims due from the United States for services rendered by the said Lawrence
P. Harter deceased in the War of the Revolution.
Now therefore the true intent of all of this is to qualify and appoint and
in power Albert Cook of Pompey in the County of Onondaga and state aforesaid
my true and lawfull attorney with power of substitution to investigate
substantiate demand and receive the avails of said claim or claims and to
say and do all things therein as amply as I might do hereby ratifying all
things said or done by said attorney or his substitute in vertinture [?]
of also revoking all powers of attorney or other authority heretofore
given for any such purposes. In witness
whereof I have hereto set my hand and seal the day and year first above
written. Lawrence Herter
Attest. Israel Spencer
Chas. S. Wick.
The
following letter is part of the pension application folder for Lorens
Harter.
June
30, 1930
Mr.
M. G. Bronner
Suite 404 Burrell Building
Little Falls, New York
Dear
Sir:
I advise you from the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim,
R.4701, it appears that Lawrence (Lorens) Philip Harter, Herter or Herder,
married before the War of the Revolution, no specific date stated, Barbara
Delaney, daughter of Peter Delaney.
She died March 13, 1823 or 1828, at Manlius, New York and he died
there October 19, 1833 or 1843.
Their children were: Charity, Philip, Peggy, Lawrence, Betsey,
Barbara, Conrad, Taney or Laney, Caty or Catherine, and Henry.
Catherine Reals died prior to 1853.
Charity Miller, Barbara Shoemaker, Lawrence and Henry applied in 1853
for the pension that might have been due their father and it was alleged
that he served three tours of nine months each as a private in the New York
Militia, under Captains Crisler, Henry Herder, Frederick Frank, Starring,
Helmer and Small, in Colonel Peter Bellinger’s Regiment, and was taken
prisoner June 21, 1782 and held until December 14, 1782.
The claim was not allowed as he failed to furnish satisfactory proof
of six months service.
Very
truly yours,
E. W. Morgan
Acting Commissioner.
By James F. Morrison
1.
I
have found no Christler, Chrisler etc. as an officer.
Captain Henry Harter had been promoted to Captain in 1776 as
Frederick Bellinger who had been Captain of the Fourth Co. was appointed
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth Battalion of the Tryon County Militia.
Also men did not serve nine months at a time in the Militia.
Their service was usually very limited to days or perhaps a couple of
weeks at a time. There are
several Lawrence’s listed for Captain Harter’s [Herder, Harder, Herter,
etc.] Company such as Lawrence, Lawrence F., and Lawrence N.
Lawrence P. could have even gone by Philip of which one had served
in Harter’s Company.
2.
Lawrence
was taken prisoner on the 21 of June 1782 at the Ellice & Phyn Grist
Mill near Little Falls. The mill
was owned by Loyalists but it was used by the Continental Army to make flour
and therefore it was ordered to be destroyed.
A guard from the Second New Hampshire Continental Regiment and men
from the Fourth Tryon were either killed or captured at this mill on that
date.
3.
There
is a Lawrence listed for Captains Frederick Franck, Henry Staring and Jacob
Snell’s Companies in the Fourth Tryon but it is a different Lawrence.
There is no Captain Helmer in the Fourth Tryon.