Pension Application

R11,742
State of New York
County of Livingston SS.
            On this 27th day of January—1840 personally appeared in open court before the Court of Common Pleas of Livingston County now sitting Adam Wisnar a resident of the town of Geneseo in the County of Livingston and State of New York, aged Eighty Four years on the 27th day of April last past, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832—That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated: That during the Revolutionary War (until the month of July 1778 as herein after stated) he resided in the town of Northumberland, in the County of Northumberland in the State of Pennsylvania. That from the commencement of hostilities, as long as he resided in the State of Pennsylvania, he always stood as a minute man and as such, whenever drafted, went into service in the Militia of that State as a minute man he was called every Monday (with the exception of five Mondays—and with the exception of the tours of service herein after specified) to appear on parade, and actually did so together with the company to which he was attached—At the commencement of the War he remembers, well taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, before one Thomas Hewitt, who was then a Justice of the Peace in the County of Northumberland; at which time he received from said Thomas Hewitt a certificate of having taken said oath and also a copy of the oath. These papers are now destroyed, having been burned at the destruction of my house by fire as hereinafter stated—but he remembers that the oath read substantially as follows—“I Adam Wisner renounce all allegiance to George the Third his heirs and Successors, and Solemnly swear that I will make known all conspiracies which I now know or hereafter—may know against the United States”—Besides being called on the parade as before stated, he can now specify the following tours of service which he performed in the State of Pennsylvania—viz—That he was drafted and went into the service as a militia man in the month of December 1775 as a private in a company then commanded by one Captain Wrong (whose given name he cannot now remember) and continued without intermission in the service until the month of March then next ensuing—and was then discharged—During the time he was with the company for the three months aforesaid, they worked with the Regiment to which they were attached, lay at Reading and Northumberland and small detachments were often sent out from the Regiment as frontier scouts in the purpose intercepting the Tories and Indians. The Colonel of the Regiment was one James Murray, the Regiment was attached to a brigade or Division commanded by General Potter (1)—He remembers the following named persons who were during said three months, privates in the same company with him—viz—his brother Annanias Wisner—Henry Vorythen—Samuel King Joseph Coven and William Clark. Afterwards in November 1776 he again went into the service as a drafted militia man and served three months, cannot remember the name of the Captain under whom he did this service but remember well that one Charles Clark was the Lieutenant of the Company and that the same Colonel Murray & general Potter were the commanding officers,--remember well that Charles Clark was Lieutenant from the fact that said Clark commanded a small scouting detachment, which went out to a place called White Marsh (2) where they had a skirmish with the enemy and Clark was taken prisoner & was gone three years before he returned. During this three months they lay at Reading except when detached on Scouting parties. The following persons he remembers were privates in the company at the time—viz Timothy Livingston—John Gray—Israel Barrett—and Annanias Wisner—remember being discharged at the end of three months in February next—excluding the time of his going into the service. The next service which he can now definitely recollect was in the month of May 1778, at which time he went in Company with a person by the name of John Coats, to conduct and guard a spy, who had been captured to the City of Philadelphia. The spy gave his name as Nicholas Pickard, and was a Tory. They delivered him at Philadelphia and afterwards heard that he was hung. This is the only service for which he ever received any pay—The Governor of Pennsylvania paid him for this—and also gave him a pass, signed with his own hand, to enable him to get home. This pass he kept until 1825, when it was burned at the destruction of his house by fire as herein after stated. Soon after the destruction of Wyoming (3), by the Indians and British a general alarm prevailed through the Section of Pennsylvania where he resided and most of the inhabitants abandoned their homes and sought various places of refuge—And he the said Adam Wisner, left there and went to the County of Ulster in the State of New York in which county he resided until after the proclamation of Peace. Remembers that he left Northumberland on the 3d day of July 1778 and arrived in Ulster county in the latter part of the same month. From the best estimate he can make he thinks he served in all as a drafted militia man in the New York Militia, six months, The two following are all the tours of service which he can now specify—viz—In the fall of 1778—recollects of forming one of a party of six and going under Ensign David Wisner (4) to waylay a pass in Orange County for the purpose of intercepting a body of Tories—and was gone at this time three days—In May 1779 went on a scouting party to a place on the Delaware River, then called Pin Pack, beyond Neversink, in a company commanded by Captain John Newkirk (5), the company was attached to a regiment commanded by Colonel Jacob Newkirk. Remembers the Ensign of the company whose name was Daniel McHenry and remembers the following privates—viz—John Sears a man by the name of Griss—Benjamin Sears—Samuel Sears—James Sears—and James Rodgers—The company went on a scouting party but had no skirmish—was in the service at this time two weeks—
            And the said Adam Wisnar says that by reason of old age and the consequent loss of memory & of his papers by fire (which occurred at the town of WhiteWater in the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio in the Spring of the year 1825—at which time his house, and nearly all his effects were burned) He can give no more definite statement than is above set forth of his services, but he always has and still does believe that during the war he served two years—as to the service he has specified his recollection is distinct. The Mondays which he spent for three years (with the exceptions aforesaid) in appearing on parade in the State of Pennsylvania—he claims would amount to four months. Which added to the other three tours of service done in Pennsylvania, would make the whole time which he served in Pennsylvania and which he can now remember and Specify ten months and ten days—which with the two weeks at one time and three days at another time, which he can now remember and specify as having served in the State of New York makes in all ten months and twenty seven days actual service by him performed., which he can now recollect, during all of which time he served as a private—and the said Adam Wisnar further says that he has no documentary evidence—and he knows of no person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to his service. That since the fall of 1836 he has spent much of his time in fruitless and unavailing search to find some person who knew of his service during which time he has travelled more than thirteen hundred miles in various parts of the State of Pennsylvania and New York but has been unable to find anyone who knew him or knew of his service, in the Revolutionary War. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to an annuity or pension except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of any agency of any state.
            In answer to the interrogatories propounded by the Court the declarant answers as follows—

I was born at Goshen, in the County of Orange and State of New York on the 27th day of April 1755.
I have a record of my age in my Bible now in my possession.
When first called into the service I lived in the town of Northumberland in the County of Northumberland in the State of Pennsylvania, at which place I continued to reside and did service as before stated until the 3d day of July 1778, when I left there and removed to the County of Ulster in the State of New York where I performed the service above specified. In 1784 after the proclamation of peace I returned to Northumberland in the State of Pennsylvania, where I continued to reside until December 1800 when I removed to the town of Liecester which was then in the County of Genesee (now Livingston) and State of New York where I resided until 1813. In the month of March 1813 I removed to the town of Andrus (now DeWitt) in the county of Onondaga and State of New York at which place I resided until 1817. On the 15th day of September 1817 I left the County of Onondaga and removed to the town of Coshocton in the County of Coshocton in the State of Ohio and resided there until 1819. In February 1819 I removed to White Water township in the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio and resided there until the spring of 1825 when my house together with the papers aforesaid, and most of my Effects were destroyed by fire—In the Spring of 1825 I removed to the County of Bartholomew in the State of Indiana and resided there until near the close of the month of August 1836, when I returned to the State of New York (on my way back passing through the State of Pennsylvania for the purpose of ascertaining if I could find any witness to prove my service by) and have since resided with such my relatives & friends who were willing to keep me in the County of Onondaga, Seneca and Livingston, until the month of June last when, having exhausted the Charity of my connections & friends & having no property, and from old age and infirmity, being unable to labour, I entered as a pauper the Poor House of Livingston County in the state of new York, where I have since to the date hereof continued to reside.
I was always drafted when called into the service.
The names of the officers whom I can now recollect were in Pennsylvania General Potter, Colonel James Murray, Captain ____ Wrong, Lieutenant Charles Clark—And in the State of new York Captain John Newkirk, Colonel Jacob Newkirk and Ensign Daniel McHenry. I can give no other account of the circumstances of my service than is above stated.

Sworn to and Subscribed the day and year aforesaid.

[Pension was refused for the reason that the claimant failed to furnish proof of his alleged service. No family data is in the file.]

1. The Battle of White Marsh, Pennsylvania was from December 5 to the 8th 1777.
2. The Destruction of Wyoming, Pennsylvania was from July 1 to July 4, 1778. Major John Butler (later Lieutenant-Colonel) with his corps of Rangers and Indians attacked the Wyoming Valley settlements which also resulted in an ambush of American Militia and later called “The Wyoming Massacre”.
3. Ensign David Wisner was in Colonel John Hathorn’s Regiment of Orange County Militia (Fourth Regiment).
4. Captain John Newkirk and Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Newkirk were in Colonel James McClaughrey’s Regiment of Ulster County Militia (Second Regiment).