***Gabriel Ancestors Who ServWILLIAM MEHLS DEWEESE, DESENDANTS, SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Gabriel's Warriors
Gabriel Family Ancestors Who Fought in the American Revolution
This Blog
Linked From Here
This Blog
Top of Form 1
Bottom of Form 1
Linked From Here
Friday, September 11, 2009ed in the American Revolution .
Battle of Yorktown. Source: amerrev/battles/yorktown.
MARTIN ARMSTRONG (1740-1808)
Served as: Colonel, Surry County North Carolina Militia
Descent: Martin Armstrong > Thomas Temple Armstrong > Jane B. Armstrong > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battles:
Cherokee War of 1776-1777
Col. Martin Armstrong commanded a regiment of Surry County militia that accompanied General Griffith Rutherford on what is known as the Rutherford Expedition or the "Rutherford Trace" -- a 300-mile slash-and-burn campaign that has been compared to Sherman's March to Atlanta. See the testament of William Lenoir in the pension files at this link:
For historical background:
cherokeewar
-revolution
Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781
Before the war, Martin Armstrong was one of the founders of Surry County, NC. After the war, the 1790 Census shows him living with is wife, Mary Ann Tate, in nearby Stokes County.
Gen. Martin Armstrong became Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and as such became immediately embroiled in the political battles and scandals that surrounded the distribution of land grants to veterans of the war. Land grant reform became one of he hot issues during the election of President Andrew Jackson.
Armstrong moved to Tennessee, where he became one of the original surveyors and founders of the city of Clarksville, Tennessee. He died at Nashville, TN in 1808.
Willem Dewees > Christina Elizabetha Dewees (1702-1782) who married her father's business partner, a brilliant architect, named John Henry Antes (1701-1755) > 11 children, including Col. Frederick Antes and his sister, Anna Margareta Antes who moved to England and married the Rev. Benjamin Latrobe > Benjamin H. Latrobe.
For a Wikipedia article on Benjamin H. Latrobe's life: Benjamin_Henry_Latrobe>
For an article by William Hughes on "Latrobe's Pennsylvania-German Family":
Dewees Soldiers in the Revolution
The Dewees family are "Old Dutch" who settled in Germantown, PA, ca 1690. Many of the members of this family were Quakers, and therefore they do not appear on the military rolls.
For a listing of Dewees men who did serve as "Soldiers of the American Revolution, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania" see (at the bottom of this web page):The Lt. Col. William Dewees who owned and operated "Mount Joy Forge" better known as Valley Forge, was a Quaker. Because the iron works were essential to the war effort, he was commissioned with the honorary title of Colonel, but it appears that he did not fight in any battles.
Further Reading
For the History of Valley Forge Ownership, see:
For the Descendants of William Dewees, see:
listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/DEWEES/2007-
familytreemaker.genealogy.
Another good source: Richards, Henry M. The Pennsylvania-German in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1991, orig. published 1908) pp. 453-455
For more background on early members of the Dewees family (Garret, Cornelius and William Dewees) who settled in Germantown, PA, see the free Google Book: "On the Frontier with Colonel Antes" (pp. 22-24). All one has to do to get the book is Google the title.
The same book provides an interesting history of the Dewees Family and Valley Forge on pages 481-482.
J. PETER DINGESS (1738-1809)
Served as: Artillery man, Col. Trigg's Battalion, Lafayette's Corps
Descent: Johan Peter Dingess > Mary "Polly" Dingess > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
(also known as "Lord Dunmore's War") under General Lewis.
Battle_of_Point_Pleasant>
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
)
Photo of grave stone:
MATTHEW FRENCH (1732-1814)
Served as: Private in Montgomery Co., VA, Militia, under Capt. Thomas Shannon, Maj. Joseph Cloyd's Company, Col. William Preston's Battalion
Descent: Matthew French > David French > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battles:
Battle of Wetzell's Mill, March 6, 1781
From "A History of the New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory" by David E. Johnston, Chapter 4:
"Cornwallis' march into upper Carolina had greatly alarmed the Virginians and General Greene wrote letters to Governor Jefferson and to the various commanders of detached bodies of troops in Virginia asking help, and among those to whom he addressed his urgent appeals were Preston, Sevier, Shelby and Campbell. Colonel William Preston on February 10, 1781, ordered the militia of Montgomery County to assemble at the Lead Mines, and on the day appointed three hundred and fifty men assembled pursuant to the order of their commander.
"Major Joseph Cloyd, assembled and led the Middle New River men. It is to be regretted that the names of the men who went with Preston and Cloyd have not been preserved. One company went from the Middle New River valley, which was commanded by Captain Thomas Shannon, of Walker's Creek, and one of his lieutenants was Alexander Marrs. A few names only of the privates who went along have been secured. They were Matthew French, John French, Edward Hale, Joseph Hare, Isaac Cole and Thomas Farley.
"Preston began his march on the 18th day of February and reported to General Greene on the 28th day of that month, who assigned him to the command of General Andrew Pickens. On his way to report to Pickens he seems to have gotten between the American and British outposts, and camped for the night in close proximity to the British without knowing that they were near him.
"On the second day of March, 1781, Lee's Legion and Preston's men had a spirited encounter with Tarleton, which General Greene in a dispatch to General Washington thus notices: 'On the Second, Lieutenant Colonel Lee with a detachment of riflemen attacked the advance of the British army under Tarleton and killed and wounded thirty of them.'
"On the sixth of March at Whitsell's (Wetzell's mill), North Carolina, Williams' men, Pickens and his command, including Lee's Legion and Preston's Backwoodsmen, met the British and a severe engagement took place. The Americans were compelled to retreat, and Preston's horse took fright and ran through a mill pond near the British, threw Preston off and escaped into the British lines. Colonel Preston, being quite a fleshy man, found it difficult to keep up with the retreating army, and Major Cloyd seeing his condition dismounted and gave Preston his horse.
"On the eve of going into this battle John French, son of Matthew, and a member of Captain Shannon's company, was detailed as one of the guards to the wagon train. So soon as the firing began at the creek French left the train. Without orders -- in fact against orders --and went to the fight, joined therein and shot one of the enemy. The officer in charge of the wagon train reported him for disobedience of orders, and demanded that he be court martialed. Major Cloyd remarked that as French ran not from the fight, but towards it, if they court martialed him for such a cause, he would never again draw his sword in behalf of the country."
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781
"The Americans continued their retreat to Guilford Court House, where the main body of Greene's army had assembled to fight Cornwallis. In the meantime, Colonel William Campbell with about sixty men had joined General Greene, and Preston's Montgomery men were placed under his, Campbell's, command on the extreme left of Greene's army. Colonel Tarleton says, in his Southern Campaigns pp 241, "That in the battle of Guilford Court House he held the right of the British army and that his troops were badly hurt by the Backwoodsmen from Virginia, that they stood behind a fence until the British Infantry with their bayonets climbed over the same."
"The Americans were defeated in this battle, and there were some criticisms as to the behavior of these Backwoodsmen or militia, and Colonel Preston in a letter to Governor Jefferson, written on the 10th of April, 1781, complaining of this criticism, and the injustice to his men, says, "that part of the men were in one action and all of the men were in two actions." Judge Schenek, in his "North Carolina 1780-81," credits Colonel Martin Armstrong with leading a body of Surry County men in the battle of Guilford Court House.
After the close of this battle the militia returned to their homes, which were then threatened by Indian incursions, their services being badly needed along the frontier to suppress the Indian forays and outrages."
JESSE HALL (1760-1848)Enlisted February 1776 at age of 15.
erved as: Private in Dutchess Co. NY militia under Capt. Nathan Pierce, attached to Colonel Richmore's 1st NY Line, Gen. Alexander McDougal's Brigade.
Descent: Jesse Hall > Freeborn Hall > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776
Battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776
Re-enlisted, April 1777
Jesse Hall and Asa Hall served as privates in Col. Morris Graham's NY Regiment of Levies, Capt. Isaac Vail's Company of Dutchess and Ulster Co. Militia
Battle of Bemis Heights (2nd Saratoga) October 7, 1777
Col. Morris Graham's Dutchess and Ulster County militia served under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln's Division in Brig. Gen. John Glover's Brigade (the right wing of the battleline)
Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777
See the order of battle at:
Glover's Brigade fought at the Battle of Saratoga, which means Jesse Hall and Asa Hall were probably present at the surrender of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne.
The amazing victory at Saratoga changed the fate of American history. See:
Picture of Jesse Hall's Gravestone:
JEREMIAH PATE (1754-1819)
Served as: Captain in a force of VA militia marched by Capt. Adam Clements from Bedford County to the assistance of Gen. Greene in South Carolina May 1, 1781
Source: Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution 1775-1783
(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987) p. 607
Descent: Jeremiah Pate > Catherine Pate > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
ISAAC SMITH (1745-1801)
Served as: Private, Culpeper County, VA, militia, Lafayette's Corps.
Descent: Isaac Smith Sr. > Isaac Smith Jr. > Benjamine Smith > Theodore Smith > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
Isaac Smith Senior appears in the Daughters' of the American Revolution Patriot Index, Volume I, page 626.
Posted by Mark Shernick at 9:35 American Revolution Battle of Guilford Courthouse , Battle of Yorktown Cherokee War <, Lord Dunmore's War Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bernice (Libel) Gabriel descends from the Grosh (Grusch) family of Lancaster County, PA, through her paternal grandmother Mary Augusta Halling, who was the daughter of Mary Beatrice Grosh (1825 - 1908).
Of the Grosh family, it has been said that they "saved the Union." This may sound like one of Mark Twain's tall tales, but there may be some truth to the story. With a few stretches, here and there.
Four years before the Civil War began, in 1857, two Grosh brothers, Hosea and Ethan Allen Grosh from Marietta, PA, discovered the famous "Comstock Lode" near Virginia City, NV. Without the money generated by this legendary ledge of silver and gold, the federal government might never have been able to pay for the war.
See the Wikipedia article on the Comstock Lode at this link:
The story of the Grosh brothers may be found in "Back-Trailing on the Old Frontier" by Charles M. Russell ( Cheely-Raban Syndicate: Great Falls, MT, 1922) at this link:
A more detailed and colorful telling of the story was reprinted by the Nevada Observer on 19 December 2005. This account was taken from Volume I of the History of Nevada (1912), edited by Sam P. Davis, Chapter XIII "Early Mining Discoveries" p. 361 ff:
Davis concludes (page 383): "The men who made the assay are both dead. The grave of one is in California, and of the other in Nevada, and neither themselves nor their descendants ever realized a dollar from their discovery, which added to the world's wealth over seven hundred millions of dollars and saved the American union in the Civil War."
More recent historians say the "real treasure trove" left by the Grosh brothers may be 80 plus letters they sent home to Pennsylvania, which vividly describe life in the gold camps of California and Nevada.
The letters were recently acquired by the Nevada Historical Society from a great-great-great grandson of their brother, Warren Grosh. "In quality and content, those letters rank among the very best for telling what life was like back then," said Fred Holaman, an expert antique dealer. "It wasn't for the weak-hearted or the weak-bodied.".1711 William Mehls Dewees
Previous
Next Sheriff William Mehls Dewees 1711-1777
Rachel Farmar 1716-1783
Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia, it was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
William Mehls Dewees was born on July 8, 1711 in Germantown township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son and fourth child of his parents, Willem Dewees and Anna Christina Mehls Dewees.
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era.
Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane.
Location within the Philadelphia city limits
Germantown was founded by German settlers, thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld (Germany), in 1681. Today the founding day of Germantown on October 6, 1683, is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania."
In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).
Germantown farm, Pennsylvania
William grew up as one of ten children on the family farm in Germantown. His father owned paper mills nearby their home.
NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER
According to the land records dated March of 1730 for the purchase by William's father of the 93 acres for his family's new home and paper mill on the Wissahickon, the land was located in the northwestern corner of German township and was bordered on the west by the land of Edward Farmar, who not surprisingly was the father of Rachel Farmar. William Mehls and Rachel must have grown up together on their adjoining farms.
MARRIAGE
William Mehls Dewees married Rachel Farmar around the year 1735, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Rachel was born in 1716 in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She was 19 at the time of her marriage; Willliam was 24.
Rachel was the daughter of Edward and Rachel Astley Farmar of Germantown. Their family was of Irish descent.
FAMILY
William and Rachel had a family of eight children; the first six born were all boys, followed by two daughters. There are death dates reported for all the children…. they all reached maturity, with the exception of Sarah. There is no information given on her, raising the possibility that she did not survive infancy. If that is the case, baby Rachel grew up with six older brothers.
The children were:
Farmar Dewees 1736-1782
*William Farmar Dewees 1739-1809
Thomas Dewees 1740-1781
Joseph Dewees 1747-1816
Benjamin Dewees 1748-1822
Samuel Dewees 1754-1808
Sarah Dewees 1757-
Rachel Farmar Dewees 1760-1815
CHURCH RECORDS
St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
There is not a great deal of information about the lives of William and Rachel. William joined his wife's family church, St. Thomas Church, in Whitemarsh since he is listed as a vestryman in the church records in 1742. The records before 1742 have been lost although it is probable that they were married at St. Thomas. This is somewhat surprising considering that William's parents had both been devout members of the Dutch Reform church (services had been held at his father's home) and St. Thomas church, founded by Rachel's father, was an Anglican church.
A NEW HOME
"The Home of William Dewees", illustrated by Frank H Taylor of Philadelphia
In 1764, William and Rachel built a home on land that she had inherited from her father following his death in 1745. They remained in this home until his death in 1777, although some of the Dewees' family historical biographies suggest that William and Rachel lived for a period and died in Norriton Township located near their son's home at Valley Forge. Valley Forge is located on the south shore of the Schuylkill River by Chester County, Pennsylvania. Norriton Township is in Montgomery County on the north side of the Schuylkill River adjacent to Valley Forge.
HIGH SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY 1773-1776
William Dewees was commissioned Sheriff of Philadellphia, October 4, 1773. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and dealt largely in real estate. William served as "High Sheriff" of Philadelphia County from October 1773 through Oct 1776 and Justice of the Peace from 1757 through 1770, it does not seem likely that he purchased a home so remote from Philadelphia while he was serving in the position of sheriff.
"I PROCLAIM A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," 1776
Our direct descendant, Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia and at the age of 64, It was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
"On 4 July, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress meeting in the State House approved a Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and revised by the Committee of Five.
It was announced that the document would be publicly proclaimed at midday on the following Monday from the observatory platform.
Monday, 8 July, was a warm sunny day and as noon approached residents from all parts of the city began to collect in the State House Yard. They were joined by others who had traveled into the city from the surrounding countryside. Troops were drawn up in formation for the occasion, and the Committee of Inspection joined with the Committee of Safety made their way as a body to the yard. Forty-nine members of the Congress emerged from the back door of the State House, and Mayor Samuel Powel and other city officials assembled just below the platform.
The sizable crowd waited patiently, and the first signs of restlessness were just becoming evident when shortly after twelve o'clock Philadelphia's sheriff, William Dewees, arrived and quickly climbed the observatory stairs followed by Colonel John Nixon, who was acting as his deputy.
Dewees approached the railing and as he began to speak, a silence fell over the gathering. "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety," he began, and went on, "I proclaim a declaration of independence!"
Col. Nixon then stepped forward and read the document. Everyone listened attentively, and when he finished, the troops saluted and the people demonstrated approbation with three great huzzahs.
With the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd dispersed and bells began tolling throughout the city. For most the declaration was not new; it had been published in the Philadelphia newspapers two days earlier and again that same morning.
The delgates to the Congress filed back into the State House to resume their work. Some of the crowd followed the speakers to the Court House, where the declaration was again read, and then observed the King's arms being removed first from the Court House and then from the State House. Others made their way to Armitage's Tavern to while away the afternoon hours. Not until that evening did the city properly celebrate the event."
from "Science and Society in Early America; essays in honor of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., by Randolph Shipley Klein…..
DEATH
William died the following year and did not see independence gained from England during the Revolutionary Period. He passed away in 1777 at the age of 65. Rachel did live to see the War's end. She died in 1783. She was 67 years old.
William and Rachel are both buried somewhere in a now unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Thomas Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
St Thomas Episcopal Church cemtery, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania
______________________________
The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
So begins the Declaration of Independence. But what was the Declaration? Why do Americans continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United States, July 4, 1776? While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today, what did the Declaration mean when it was written in 1776?
George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence; just one of the many resources at Library of Congress.
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal legal document that announced to the world the reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of the Declaration sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge levied against the King sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However, these legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not why the Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even today, this inspirational language expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
According to legend, John Hancock, wanted his signature on the Declaration of Independence to be big enough so the king "couldn't miss it." Hancock's signature was the only one present on the earliest printings of the Declaration, and the most prominent on future printings.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's rights activists at Seneca Falls in 1848 modeled their "Declaration of Sentiments" in precisely the same terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men and women are created equal." Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist David Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all men were created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda. The possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance, Abigail Adams suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws" that he helped draft at the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them." It didn't work out that way.
The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was by John Nixon -- who Richard Nixon later claimed as a relative -- and occurred at high noon on July 8, 1776, in the Old State House yard in Philadelphia.
Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era. Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless, Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for allowing the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery — a central institution in early American society — was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
King George III showed signs of madness. He likely suffered from porphyria, a disease of the blood leading to gout and mental derangement.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of government is to secure the people's rights and that government gets its power from "the consent of the governed." If that consent is betrayed, then "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish" their government. When the Declaration was written, this was a radical statement. The idea that the people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority of a king) and replace it with a republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today, they articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the Declaration did not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working toward equality.
****************************************************************.
Gabriel's Warriors
Gabriel Family Ancestors Who Fought in the American Revolution
This Blog
Linked From Here
This Blog
Top of Form 1
Bottom of Form 1
Linked From Here
Friday, September 11, 2009ed in the American Revolution .
Battle of Yorktown. Source: amerrev/battles/yorktown.
MARTIN ARMSTRONG (1740-1808)
Served as: Colonel, Surry County North Carolina Militia
Descent: Martin Armstrong > Thomas Temple Armstrong > Jane B. Armstrong > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battles:
Cherokee War of 1776-1777
Col. Martin Armstrong commanded a regiment of Surry County militia that accompanied General Griffith Rutherford on what is known as the Rutherford Expedition or the "Rutherford Trace" -- a 300-mile slash-and-burn campaign that has been compared to Sherman's March to Atlanta. See the testament of William Lenoir in the pension files at this link:
For historical background:
cherokeewar
-revolution
Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781
Before the war, Martin Armstrong was one of the founders of Surry County, NC. After the war, the 1790 Census shows him living with is wife, Mary Ann Tate, in nearby Stokes County.
Gen. Martin Armstrong became Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and as such became immediately embroiled in the political battles and scandals that surrounded the distribution of land grants to veterans of the war. Land grant reform became one of he hot issues during the election of President Andrew Jackson.
Armstrong moved to Tennessee, where he became one of the original surveyors and founders of the city of Clarksville, Tennessee. He died at Nashville, TN in 1808.
Willem Dewees > Christina Elizabetha Dewees (1702-1782) who married her father's business partner, a brilliant architect, named John Henry Antes (1701-1755) > 11 children, including Col. Frederick Antes and his sister, Anna Margareta Antes who moved to England and married the Rev. Benjamin Latrobe > Benjamin H. Latrobe.
For a Wikipedia article on Benjamin H. Latrobe's life: Benjamin_Henry_Latrobe>
For an article by William Hughes on "Latrobe's Pennsylvania-German Family":
Dewees Soldiers in the Revolution
The Dewees family are "Old Dutch" who settled in Germantown, PA, ca 1690. Many of the members of this family were Quakers, and therefore they do not appear on the military rolls.
For a listing of Dewees men who did serve as "Soldiers of the American Revolution, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania" see (at the bottom of this web page):The Lt. Col. William Dewees who owned and operated "Mount Joy Forge" better known as Valley Forge, was a Quaker. Because the iron works were essential to the war effort, he was commissioned with the honorary title of Colonel, but it appears that he did not fight in any battles.
Further Reading
For the History of Valley Forge Ownership, see:
For the Descendants of William Dewees, see:
listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/DEWEES/2007-
familytreemaker.genealogy.
Another good source: Richards, Henry M. The Pennsylvania-German in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1991, orig. published 1908) pp. 453-455
For more background on early members of the Dewees family (Garret, Cornelius and William Dewees) who settled in Germantown, PA, see the free Google Book: "On the Frontier with Colonel Antes" (pp. 22-24). All one has to do to get the book is Google the title.
The same book provides an interesting history of the Dewees Family and Valley Forge on pages 481-482.
J. PETER DINGESS (1738-1809)
Served as: Artillery man, Col. Trigg's Battalion, Lafayette's Corps
Descent: Johan Peter Dingess > Mary "Polly" Dingess > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
(also known as "Lord Dunmore's War") under General Lewis.
Battle_of_Point_Pleasant>
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
)
Photo of grave stone:
MATTHEW FRENCH (1732-1814)
Served as: Private in Montgomery Co., VA, Militia, under Capt. Thomas Shannon, Maj. Joseph Cloyd's Company, Col. William Preston's Battalion
Descent: Matthew French > David French > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battles:
Battle of Wetzell's Mill, March 6, 1781
From "A History of the New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory" by David E. Johnston, Chapter 4:
"Cornwallis' march into upper Carolina had greatly alarmed the Virginians and General Greene wrote letters to Governor Jefferson and to the various commanders of detached bodies of troops in Virginia asking help, and among those to whom he addressed his urgent appeals were Preston, Sevier, Shelby and Campbell. Colonel William Preston on February 10, 1781, ordered the militia of Montgomery County to assemble at the Lead Mines, and on the day appointed three hundred and fifty men assembled pursuant to the order of their commander.
"Major Joseph Cloyd, assembled and led the Middle New River men. It is to be regretted that the names of the men who went with Preston and Cloyd have not been preserved. One company went from the Middle New River valley, which was commanded by Captain Thomas Shannon, of Walker's Creek, and one of his lieutenants was Alexander Marrs. A few names only of the privates who went along have been secured. They were Matthew French, John French, Edward Hale, Joseph Hare, Isaac Cole and Thomas Farley.
"Preston began his march on the 18th day of February and reported to General Greene on the 28th day of that month, who assigned him to the command of General Andrew Pickens. On his way to report to Pickens he seems to have gotten between the American and British outposts, and camped for the night in close proximity to the British without knowing that they were near him.
"On the second day of March, 1781, Lee's Legion and Preston's men had a spirited encounter with Tarleton, which General Greene in a dispatch to General Washington thus notices: 'On the Second, Lieutenant Colonel Lee with a detachment of riflemen attacked the advance of the British army under Tarleton and killed and wounded thirty of them.'
"On the sixth of March at Whitsell's (Wetzell's mill), North Carolina, Williams' men, Pickens and his command, including Lee's Legion and Preston's Backwoodsmen, met the British and a severe engagement took place. The Americans were compelled to retreat, and Preston's horse took fright and ran through a mill pond near the British, threw Preston off and escaped into the British lines. Colonel Preston, being quite a fleshy man, found it difficult to keep up with the retreating army, and Major Cloyd seeing his condition dismounted and gave Preston his horse.
"On the eve of going into this battle John French, son of Matthew, and a member of Captain Shannon's company, was detailed as one of the guards to the wagon train. So soon as the firing began at the creek French left the train. Without orders -- in fact against orders --and went to the fight, joined therein and shot one of the enemy. The officer in charge of the wagon train reported him for disobedience of orders, and demanded that he be court martialed. Major Cloyd remarked that as French ran not from the fight, but towards it, if they court martialed him for such a cause, he would never again draw his sword in behalf of the country."
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781
"The Americans continued their retreat to Guilford Court House, where the main body of Greene's army had assembled to fight Cornwallis. In the meantime, Colonel William Campbell with about sixty men had joined General Greene, and Preston's Montgomery men were placed under his, Campbell's, command on the extreme left of Greene's army. Colonel Tarleton says, in his Southern Campaigns pp 241, "That in the battle of Guilford Court House he held the right of the British army and that his troops were badly hurt by the Backwoodsmen from Virginia, that they stood behind a fence until the British Infantry with their bayonets climbed over the same."
"The Americans were defeated in this battle, and there were some criticisms as to the behavior of these Backwoodsmen or militia, and Colonel Preston in a letter to Governor Jefferson, written on the 10th of April, 1781, complaining of this criticism, and the injustice to his men, says, "that part of the men were in one action and all of the men were in two actions." Judge Schenek, in his "North Carolina 1780-81," credits Colonel Martin Armstrong with leading a body of Surry County men in the battle of Guilford Court House.
After the close of this battle the militia returned to their homes, which were then threatened by Indian incursions, their services being badly needed along the frontier to suppress the Indian forays and outrages."
JESSE HALL (1760-1848)Enlisted February 1776 at age of 15.
erved as: Private in Dutchess Co. NY militia under Capt. Nathan Pierce, attached to Colonel Richmore's 1st NY Line, Gen. Alexander McDougal's Brigade.
Descent: Jesse Hall > Freeborn Hall > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776
Battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776
Re-enlisted, April 1777
Jesse Hall and Asa Hall served as privates in Col. Morris Graham's NY Regiment of Levies, Capt. Isaac Vail's Company of Dutchess and Ulster Co. Militia
Battle of Bemis Heights (2nd Saratoga) October 7, 1777
Col. Morris Graham's Dutchess and Ulster County militia served under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln's Division in Brig. Gen. John Glover's Brigade (the right wing of the battleline)
Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777
See the order of battle at:
Glover's Brigade fought at the Battle of Saratoga, which means Jesse Hall and Asa Hall were probably present at the surrender of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne.
The amazing victory at Saratoga changed the fate of American history. See:
Picture of Jesse Hall's Gravestone:
JEREMIAH PATE (1754-1819)
Served as: Captain in a force of VA militia marched by Capt. Adam Clements from Bedford County to the assistance of Gen. Greene in South Carolina May 1, 1781
Source: Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution 1775-1783
(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987) p. 607
Descent: Jeremiah Pate > Catherine Pate > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
ISAAC SMITH (1745-1801)
Served as: Private, Culpeper County, VA, militia, Lafayette's Corps.
Descent: Isaac Smith Sr. > Isaac Smith Jr. > Benjamine Smith > Theodore Smith > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
Isaac Smith Senior appears in the Daughters' of the American Revolution Patriot Index, Volume I, page 626.
Posted by Mark Shernick at 9:35 American Revolution Battle of Guilford Courthouse , Battle of Yorktown Cherokee War <, Lord Dunmore's War Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bernice (Libel) Gabriel descends from the Grosh (Grusch) family of Lancaster County, PA, through her paternal grandmother Mary Augusta Halling, who was the daughter of Mary Beatrice Grosh (1825 - 1908).
Of the Grosh family, it has been said that they "saved the Union." This may sound like one of Mark Twain's tall tales, but there may be some truth to the story. With a few stretches, here and there.
Four years before the Civil War began, in 1857, two Grosh brothers, Hosea and Ethan Allen Grosh from Marietta, PA, discovered the famous "Comstock Lode" near Virginia City, NV. Without the money generated by this legendary ledge of silver and gold, the federal government might never have been able to pay for the war.
See the Wikipedia article on the Comstock Lode at this link:
The story of the Grosh brothers may be found in "Back-Trailing on the Old Frontier" by Charles M. Russell ( Cheely-Raban Syndicate: Great Falls, MT, 1922) at this link:
A more detailed and colorful telling of the story was reprinted by the Nevada Observer on 19 December 2005. This account was taken from Volume I of the History of Nevada (1912), edited by Sam P. Davis, Chapter XIII "Early Mining Discoveries" p. 361 ff:
Davis concludes (page 383): "The men who made the assay are both dead. The grave of one is in California, and of the other in Nevada, and neither themselves nor their descendants ever realized a dollar from their discovery, which added to the world's wealth over seven hundred millions of dollars and saved the American union in the Civil War."
More recent historians say the "real treasure trove" left by the Grosh brothers may be 80 plus letters they sent home to Pennsylvania, which vividly describe life in the gold camps of California and Nevada.
The letters were recently acquired by the Nevada Historical Society from a great-great-great grandson of their brother, Warren Grosh. "In quality and content, those letters rank among the very best for telling what life was like back then," said Fred Holaman, an expert antique dealer. "It wasn't for the weak-hearted or the weak-bodied.".1711 William Mehls Dewees
Previous
Next Sheriff William Mehls Dewees 1711-1777
Rachel Farmar 1716-1783
Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia, it was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
William Mehls Dewees was born on July 8, 1711 in Germantown township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son and fourth child of his parents, Willem Dewees and Anna Christina Mehls Dewees.
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era.
Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane.
Location within the Philadelphia city limits
Germantown was founded by German settlers, thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld (Germany), in 1681. Today the founding day of Germantown on October 6, 1683, is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania."
In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).
Germantown farm, Pennsylvania
William grew up as one of ten children on the family farm in Germantown. His father owned paper mills nearby their home.
NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER
According to the land records dated March of 1730 for the purchase by William's father of the 93 acres for his family's new home and paper mill on the Wissahickon, the land was located in the northwestern corner of German township and was bordered on the west by the land of Edward Farmar, who not surprisingly was the father of Rachel Farmar. William Mehls and Rachel must have grown up together on their adjoining farms.
MARRIAGE
William Mehls Dewees married Rachel Farmar around the year 1735, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Rachel was born in 1716 in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She was 19 at the time of her marriage; Willliam was 24.
Rachel was the daughter of Edward and Rachel Astley Farmar of Germantown. Their family was of Irish descent.
FAMILY
William and Rachel had a family of eight children; the first six born were all boys, followed by two daughters. There are death dates reported for all the children…. they all reached maturity, with the exception of Sarah. There is no information given on her, raising the possibility that she did not survive infancy. If that is the case, baby Rachel grew up with six older brothers.
The children were:
Farmar Dewees 1736-1782
*William Farmar Dewees 1739-1809
Thomas Dewees 1740-1781
Joseph Dewees 1747-1816
Benjamin Dewees 1748-1822
Samuel Dewees 1754-1808
Sarah Dewees 1757-
Rachel Farmar Dewees 1760-1815
CHURCH RECORDS
St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
There is not a great deal of information about the lives of William and Rachel. William joined his wife's family church, St. Thomas Church, in Whitemarsh since he is listed as a vestryman in the church records in 1742. The records before 1742 have been lost although it is probable that they were married at St. Thomas. This is somewhat surprising considering that William's parents had both been devout members of the Dutch Reform church (services had been held at his father's home) and St. Thomas church, founded by Rachel's father, was an Anglican church.
A NEW HOME
"The Home of William Dewees", illustrated by Frank H Taylor of Philadelphia
In 1764, William and Rachel built a home on land that she had inherited from her father following his death in 1745. They remained in this home until his death in 1777, although some of the Dewees' family historical biographies suggest that William and Rachel lived for a period and died in Norriton Township located near their son's home at Valley Forge. Valley Forge is located on the south shore of the Schuylkill River by Chester County, Pennsylvania. Norriton Township is in Montgomery County on the north side of the Schuylkill River adjacent to Valley Forge.
HIGH SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY 1773-1776
William Dewees was commissioned Sheriff of Philadellphia, October 4, 1773. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and dealt largely in real estate. William served as "High Sheriff" of Philadelphia County from October 1773 through Oct 1776 and Justice of the Peace from 1757 through 1770, it does not seem likely that he purchased a home so remote from Philadelphia while he was serving in the position of sheriff.
"I PROCLAIM A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," 1776
Our direct descendant, Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia and at the age of 64, It was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
"On 4 July, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress meeting in the State House approved a Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and revised by the Committee of Five.
It was announced that the document would be publicly proclaimed at midday on the following Monday from the observatory platform.
Monday, 8 July, was a warm sunny day and as noon approached residents from all parts of the city began to collect in the State House Yard. They were joined by others who had traveled into the city from the surrounding countryside. Troops were drawn up in formation for the occasion, and the Committee of Inspection joined with the Committee of Safety made their way as a body to the yard. Forty-nine members of the Congress emerged from the back door of the State House, and Mayor Samuel Powel and other city officials assembled just below the platform.
The sizable crowd waited patiently, and the first signs of restlessness were just becoming evident when shortly after twelve o'clock Philadelphia's sheriff, William Dewees, arrived and quickly climbed the observatory stairs followed by Colonel John Nixon, who was acting as his deputy.
Dewees approached the railing and as he began to speak, a silence fell over the gathering. "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety," he began, and went on, "I proclaim a declaration of independence!"
Col. Nixon then stepped forward and read the document. Everyone listened attentively, and when he finished, the troops saluted and the people demonstrated approbation with three great huzzahs.
With the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd dispersed and bells began tolling throughout the city. For most the declaration was not new; it had been published in the Philadelphia newspapers two days earlier and again that same morning.
The delgates to the Congress filed back into the State House to resume their work. Some of the crowd followed the speakers to the Court House, where the declaration was again read, and then observed the King's arms being removed first from the Court House and then from the State House. Others made their way to Armitage's Tavern to while away the afternoon hours. Not until that evening did the city properly celebrate the event."
from "Science and Society in Early America; essays in honor of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., by Randolph Shipley Klein…..
DEATH
William died the following year and did not see independence gained from England during the Revolutionary Period. He passed away in 1777 at the age of 65. Rachel did live to see the War's end. She died in 1783. She was 67 years old.
William and Rachel are both buried somewhere in a now unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Thomas Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
St Thomas Episcopal Church cemtery, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania
______________________________
The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
So begins the Declaration of Independence. But what was the Declaration? Why do Americans continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United States, July 4, 1776? While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today, what did the Declaration mean when it was written in 1776?
George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence; just one of the many resources at Library of Congress.
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal legal document that announced to the world the reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of the Declaration sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge levied against the King sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However, these legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not why the Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even today, this inspirational language expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
According to legend, John Hancock, wanted his signature on the Declaration of Independence to be big enough so the king "couldn't miss it." Hancock's signature was the only one present on the earliest printings of the Declaration, and the most prominent on future printings.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's rights activists at Seneca Falls in 1848 modeled their "Declaration of Sentiments" in precisely the same terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men and women are created equal." Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist David Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all men were created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda. The possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance, Abigail Adams suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws" that he helped draft at the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them." It didn't work out that way.
The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was by John Nixon -- who Richard Nixon later claimed as a relative -- and occurred at high noon on July 8, 1776, in the Old State House yard in Philadelphia.
Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era. Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless, Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for allowing the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery — a central institution in early American society — was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
King George III showed signs of madness. He likely suffered from porphyria, a disease of the blood leading to gout and mental derangement.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of government is to secure the people's rights and that government gets its power from "the consent of the governed." If that consent is betrayed, then "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish" their government. When the Declaration was written, this was a radical statement. The idea that the people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority of a king) and replace it with a republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today, they articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the Declaration did not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working toward equality.
****************************************************************.
***Gabriel Ancestors Who ServWILLIAM MEHLS DEWEESE, DESENDANTS, SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Gabriel's Warriors
Gabriel Family Ancestors Who Fought in the American Revolution
This Blog
Linked From Here
This Blog
Top of Form 1
Bottom of Form 1
Linked From Here
Friday, September 11, 2009ed in the American Revolution .
Battle of Yorktown. Source: amerrev/battles/yorktown.
MARTIN ARMSTRONG (1740-1808)
Served as: Colonel, Surry County North Carolina Militia
Descent: Martin Armstrong > Thomas Temple Armstrong > Jane B. Armstrong > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battles:
Cherokee War of 1776-1777
Col. Martin Armstrong commanded a regiment of Surry County militia that accompanied General Griffith Rutherford on what is known as the Rutherford Expedition or the "Rutherford Trace" -- a 300-mile slash-and-burn campaign that has been compared to Sherman's March to Atlanta. See the testament of William Lenoir in the pension files at this link:
For historical background:
cherokeewar
-revolution
Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781
Before the war, Martin Armstrong was one of the founders of Surry County, NC. After the war, the 1790 Census shows him living with is wife, Mary Ann Tate, in nearby Stokes County.
Gen. Martin Armstrong became Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and as such became immediately embroiled in the political battles and scandals that surrounded the distribution of land grants to veterans of the war. Land grant reform became one of he hot issues during the election of President Andrew Jackson.
Armstrong moved to Tennessee, where he became one of the original surveyors and founders of the city of Clarksville, Tennessee. He died at Nashville, TN in 1808.
Willem Dewees > Christina Elizabetha Dewees (1702-1782) who married her father's business partner, a brilliant architect, named John Henry Antes (1701-1755) > 11 children, including Col. Frederick Antes and his sister, Anna Margareta Antes who moved to England and married the Rev. Benjamin Latrobe > Benjamin H. Latrobe.
For a Wikipedia article on Benjamin H. Latrobe's life: Benjamin_Henry_Latrobe>
For an article by William Hughes on "Latrobe's Pennsylvania-German Family":
Dewees Soldiers in the Revolution
The Dewees family are "Old Dutch" who settled in Germantown, PA, ca 1690. Many of the members of this family were Quakers, and therefore they do not appear on the military rolls.
For a listing of Dewees men who did serve as "Soldiers of the American Revolution, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania" see (at the bottom of this web page):The Lt. Col. William Dewees who owned and operated "Mount Joy Forge" better known as Valley Forge, was a Quaker. Because the iron works were essential to the war effort, he was commissioned with the honorary title of Colonel, but it appears that he did not fight in any battles.
Further Reading
For the History of Valley Forge Ownership, see:
For the Descendants of William Dewees, see:
listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/DEWEES/2007-
familytreemaker.genealogy.
Another good source: Richards, Henry M. The Pennsylvania-German in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1991, orig. published 1908) pp. 453-455
For more background on early members of the Dewees family (Garret, Cornelius and William Dewees) who settled in Germantown, PA, see the free Google Book: "On the Frontier with Colonel Antes" (pp. 22-24). All one has to do to get the book is Google the title.
The same book provides an interesting history of the Dewees Family and Valley Forge on pages 481-482.
J. PETER DINGESS (1738-1809)
Served as: Artillery man, Col. Trigg's Battalion, Lafayette's Corps
Descent: Johan Peter Dingess > Mary "Polly" Dingess > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
(also known as "Lord Dunmore's War") under General Lewis.
Battle_of_Point_Pleasant>
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
)
Photo of grave stone:
MATTHEW FRENCH (1732-1814)
Served as: Private in Montgomery Co., VA, Militia, under Capt. Thomas Shannon, Maj. Joseph Cloyd's Company, Col. William Preston's Battalion
Descent: Matthew French > David French > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battles:
Battle of Wetzell's Mill, March 6, 1781
From "A History of the New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory" by David E. Johnston, Chapter 4:
"Cornwallis' march into upper Carolina had greatly alarmed the Virginians and General Greene wrote letters to Governor Jefferson and to the various commanders of detached bodies of troops in Virginia asking help, and among those to whom he addressed his urgent appeals were Preston, Sevier, Shelby and Campbell. Colonel William Preston on February 10, 1781, ordered the militia of Montgomery County to assemble at the Lead Mines, and on the day appointed three hundred and fifty men assembled pursuant to the order of their commander.
"Major Joseph Cloyd, assembled and led the Middle New River men. It is to be regretted that the names of the men who went with Preston and Cloyd have not been preserved. One company went from the Middle New River valley, which was commanded by Captain Thomas Shannon, of Walker's Creek, and one of his lieutenants was Alexander Marrs. A few names only of the privates who went along have been secured. They were Matthew French, John French, Edward Hale, Joseph Hare, Isaac Cole and Thomas Farley.
"Preston began his march on the 18th day of February and reported to General Greene on the 28th day of that month, who assigned him to the command of General Andrew Pickens. On his way to report to Pickens he seems to have gotten between the American and British outposts, and camped for the night in close proximity to the British without knowing that they were near him.
"On the second day of March, 1781, Lee's Legion and Preston's men had a spirited encounter with Tarleton, which General Greene in a dispatch to General Washington thus notices: 'On the Second, Lieutenant Colonel Lee with a detachment of riflemen attacked the advance of the British army under Tarleton and killed and wounded thirty of them.'
"On the sixth of March at Whitsell's (Wetzell's mill), North Carolina, Williams' men, Pickens and his command, including Lee's Legion and Preston's Backwoodsmen, met the British and a severe engagement took place. The Americans were compelled to retreat, and Preston's horse took fright and ran through a mill pond near the British, threw Preston off and escaped into the British lines. Colonel Preston, being quite a fleshy man, found it difficult to keep up with the retreating army, and Major Cloyd seeing his condition dismounted and gave Preston his horse.
"On the eve of going into this battle John French, son of Matthew, and a member of Captain Shannon's company, was detailed as one of the guards to the wagon train. So soon as the firing began at the creek French left the train. Without orders -- in fact against orders --and went to the fight, joined therein and shot one of the enemy. The officer in charge of the wagon train reported him for disobedience of orders, and demanded that he be court martialed. Major Cloyd remarked that as French ran not from the fight, but towards it, if they court martialed him for such a cause, he would never again draw his sword in behalf of the country."
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781
"The Americans continued their retreat to Guilford Court House, where the main body of Greene's army had assembled to fight Cornwallis. In the meantime, Colonel William Campbell with about sixty men had joined General Greene, and Preston's Montgomery men were placed under his, Campbell's, command on the extreme left of Greene's army. Colonel Tarleton says, in his Southern Campaigns pp 241, "That in the battle of Guilford Court House he held the right of the British army and that his troops were badly hurt by the Backwoodsmen from Virginia, that they stood behind a fence until the British Infantry with their bayonets climbed over the same."
"The Americans were defeated in this battle, and there were some criticisms as to the behavior of these Backwoodsmen or militia, and Colonel Preston in a letter to Governor Jefferson, written on the 10th of April, 1781, complaining of this criticism, and the injustice to his men, says, "that part of the men were in one action and all of the men were in two actions." Judge Schenek, in his "North Carolina 1780-81," credits Colonel Martin Armstrong with leading a body of Surry County men in the battle of Guilford Court House.
After the close of this battle the militia returned to their homes, which were then threatened by Indian incursions, their services being badly needed along the frontier to suppress the Indian forays and outrages."
JESSE HALL (1760-1848)Enlisted February 1776 at age of 15.
erved as: Private in Dutchess Co. NY militia under Capt. Nathan Pierce, attached to Colonel Richmore's 1st NY Line, Gen. Alexander McDougal's Brigade.
Descent: Jesse Hall > Freeborn Hall > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776
Battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776
Re-enlisted, April 1777
Jesse Hall and Asa Hall served as privates in Col. Morris Graham's NY Regiment of Levies, Capt. Isaac Vail's Company of Dutchess and Ulster Co. Militia
Battle of Bemis Heights (2nd Saratoga) October 7, 1777
Col. Morris Graham's Dutchess and Ulster County militia served under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln's Division in Brig. Gen. John Glover's Brigade (the right wing of the battleline)
Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777
See the order of battle at:
Glover's Brigade fought at the Battle of Saratoga, which means Jesse Hall and Asa Hall were probably present at the surrender of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne.
The amazing victory at Saratoga changed the fate of American history. See:
Picture of Jesse Hall's Gravestone:
JEREMIAH PATE (1754-1819)
Served as: Captain in a force of VA militia marched by Capt. Adam Clements from Bedford County to the assistance of Gen. Greene in South Carolina May 1, 1781
Source: Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution 1775-1783
(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987) p. 607
Descent: Jeremiah Pate > Catherine Pate > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
ISAAC SMITH (1745-1801)
Served as: Private, Culpeper County, VA, militia, Lafayette's Corps.
Descent: Isaac Smith Sr. > Isaac Smith Jr. > Benjamine Smith > Theodore Smith > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
Isaac Smith Senior appears in the Daughters' of the American Revolution Patriot Index, Volume I, page 626.
Posted by Mark Shernick at 9:35 American Revolution Battle of Guilford Courthouse , Battle of Yorktown Cherokee War <, Lord Dunmore's War Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bernice (Libel) Gabriel descends from the Grosh (Grusch) family of Lancaster County, PA, through her paternal grandmother Mary Augusta Halling, who was the daughter of Mary Beatrice Grosh (1825 - 1908).
Of the Grosh family, it has been said that they "saved the Union." This may sound like one of Mark Twain's tall tales, but there may be some truth to the story. With a few stretches, here and there.
Four years before the Civil War began, in 1857, two Grosh brothers, Hosea and Ethan Allen Grosh from Marietta, PA, discovered the famous "Comstock Lode" near Virginia City, NV. Without the money generated by this legendary ledge of silver and gold, the federal government might never have been able to pay for the war.
See the Wikipedia article on the Comstock Lode at this link:
The story of the Grosh brothers may be found in "Back-Trailing on the Old Frontier" by Charles M. Russell ( Cheely-Raban Syndicate: Great Falls, MT, 1922) at this link:
A more detailed and colorful telling of the story was reprinted by the Nevada Observer on 19 December 2005. This account was taken from Volume I of the History of Nevada (1912), edited by Sam P. Davis, Chapter XIII "Early Mining Discoveries" p. 361 ff:
Davis concludes (page 383): "The men who made the assay are both dead. The grave of one is in California, and of the other in Nevada, and neither themselves nor their descendants ever realized a dollar from their discovery, which added to the world's wealth over seven hundred millions of dollars and saved the American union in the Civil War."
More recent historians say the "real treasure trove" left by the Grosh brothers may be 80 plus letters they sent home to Pennsylvania, which vividly describe life in the gold camps of California and Nevada.
The letters were recently acquired by the Nevada Historical Society from a great-great-great grandson of their brother, Warren Grosh. "In quality and content, those letters rank among the very best for telling what life was like back then," said Fred Holaman, an expert antique dealer. "It wasn't for the weak-hearted or the weak-bodied.".1711 William Mehls Dewees
Previous
Next Sheriff William Mehls Dewees 1711-1777
Rachel Farmar 1716-1783
Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia, it was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
William Mehls Dewees was born on July 8, 1711 in Germantown township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son and fourth child of his parents, Willem Dewees and Anna Christina Mehls Dewees.
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era.
Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane.
Location within the Philadelphia city limits
Germantown was founded by German settlers, thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld (Germany), in 1681. Today the founding day of Germantown on October 6, 1683, is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania."
In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).
Germantown farm, Pennsylvania
William grew up as one of ten children on the family farm in Germantown. His father owned paper mills nearby their home.
NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER
According to the land records dated March of 1730 for the purchase by William's father of the 93 acres for his family's new home and paper mill on the Wissahickon, the land was located in the northwestern corner of German township and was bordered on the west by the land of Edward Farmar, who not surprisingly was the father of Rachel Farmar. William Mehls and Rachel must have grown up together on their adjoining farms.
MARRIAGE
William Mehls Dewees married Rachel Farmar around the year 1735, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Rachel was born in 1716 in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She was 19 at the time of her marriage; Willliam was 24.
Rachel was the daughter of Edward and Rachel Astley Farmar of Germantown. Their family was of Irish descent.
FAMILY
William and Rachel had a family of eight children; the first six born were all boys, followed by two daughters. There are death dates reported for all the children…. they all reached maturity, with the exception of Sarah. There is no information given on her, raising the possibility that she did not survive infancy. If that is the case, baby Rachel grew up with six older brothers.
The children were:
Farmar Dewees 1736-1782
*William Farmar Dewees 1739-1809
Thomas Dewees 1740-1781
Joseph Dewees 1747-1816
Benjamin Dewees 1748-1822
Samuel Dewees 1754-1808
Sarah Dewees 1757-
Rachel Farmar Dewees 1760-1815
CHURCH RECORDS
St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
There is not a great deal of information about the lives of William and Rachel. William joined his wife's family church, St. Thomas Church, in Whitemarsh since he is listed as a vestryman in the church records in 1742. The records before 1742 have been lost although it is probable that they were married at St. Thomas. This is somewhat surprising considering that William's parents had both been devout members of the Dutch Reform church (services had been held at his father's home) and St. Thomas church, founded by Rachel's father, was an Anglican church.
A NEW HOME
"The Home of William Dewees", illustrated by Frank H Taylor of Philadelphia
In 1764, William and Rachel built a home on land that she had inherited from her father following his death in 1745. They remained in this home until his death in 1777, although some of the Dewees' family historical biographies suggest that William and Rachel lived for a period and died in Norriton Township located near their son's home at Valley Forge. Valley Forge is located on the south shore of the Schuylkill River by Chester County, Pennsylvania. Norriton Township is in Montgomery County on the north side of the Schuylkill River adjacent to Valley Forge.
HIGH SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY 1773-1776
William Dewees was commissioned Sheriff of Philadellphia, October 4, 1773. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and dealt largely in real estate. William served as "High Sheriff" of Philadelphia County from October 1773 through Oct 1776 and Justice of the Peace from 1757 through 1770, it does not seem likely that he purchased a home so remote from Philadelphia while he was serving in the position of sheriff.
"I PROCLAIM A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," 1776
Our direct descendant, Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia and at the age of 64, It was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
"On 4 July, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress meeting in the State House approved a Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and revised by the Committee of Five.
It was announced that the document would be publicly proclaimed at midday on the following Monday from the observatory platform.
Monday, 8 July, was a warm sunny day and as noon approached residents from all parts of the city began to collect in the State House Yard. They were joined by others who had traveled into the city from the surrounding countryside. Troops were drawn up in formation for the occasion, and the Committee of Inspection joined with the Committee of Safety made their way as a body to the yard. Forty-nine members of the Congress emerged from the back door of the State House, and Mayor Samuel Powel and other city officials assembled just below the platform.
The sizable crowd waited patiently, and the first signs of restlessness were just becoming evident when shortly after twelve o'clock Philadelphia's sheriff, William Dewees, arrived and quickly climbed the observatory stairs followed by Colonel John Nixon, who was acting as his deputy.
Dewees approached the railing and as he began to speak, a silence fell over the gathering. "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety," he began, and went on, "I proclaim a declaration of independence!"
Col. Nixon then stepped forward and read the document. Everyone listened attentively, and when he finished, the troops saluted and the people demonstrated approbation with three great huzzahs.
With the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd dispersed and bells began tolling throughout the city. For most the declaration was not new; it had been published in the Philadelphia newspapers two days earlier and again that same morning.
The delgates to the Congress filed back into the State House to resume their work. Some of the crowd followed the speakers to the Court House, where the declaration was again read, and then observed the King's arms being removed first from the Court House and then from the State House. Others made their way to Armitage's Tavern to while away the afternoon hours. Not until that evening did the city properly celebrate the event."
from "Science and Society in Early America; essays in honor of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., by Randolph Shipley Klein…..
DEATH
William died the following year and did not see independence gained from England during the Revolutionary Period. He passed away in 1777 at the age of 65. Rachel did live to see the War's end. She died in 1783. She was 67 years old.
William and Rachel are both buried somewhere in a now unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Thomas Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
St Thomas Episcopal Church cemtery, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania
______________________________
The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
So begins the Declaration of Independence. But what was the Declaration? Why do Americans continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United States, July 4, 1776? While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today, what did the Declaration mean when it was written in 1776?
George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence; just one of the many resources at Library of Congress.
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal legal document that announced to the world the reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of the Declaration sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge levied against the King sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However, these legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not why the Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even today, this inspirational language expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
According to legend, John Hancock, wanted his signature on the Declaration of Independence to be big enough so the king "couldn't miss it." Hancock's signature was the only one present on the earliest printings of the Declaration, and the most prominent on future printings.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's rights activists at Seneca Falls in 1848 modeled their "Declaration of Sentiments" in precisely the same terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men and women are created equal." Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist David Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all men were created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda. The possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance, Abigail Adams suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws" that he helped draft at the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them." It didn't work out that way.
The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was by John Nixon -- who Richard Nixon later claimed as a relative -- and occurred at high noon on July 8, 1776, in the Old State House yard in Philadelphia.
Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era. Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless, Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for allowing the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery — a central institution in early American society — was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
King George III showed signs of madness. He likely suffered from porphyria, a disease of the blood leading to gout and mental derangement.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of government is to secure the people's rights and that government gets its power from "the consent of the governed." If that consent is betrayed, then "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish" their government. When the Declaration was written, this was a radical statement. The idea that the people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority of a king) and replace it with a republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today, they articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the Declaration did not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working toward equality.
****************************************************************.
Gabriel's Warriors
Gabriel Family Ancestors Who Fought in the American Revolution
This Blog
Linked From Here
This Blog
Top of Form 1
Bottom of Form 1
Linked From Here
Friday, September 11, 2009ed in the American Revolution .
Battle of Yorktown. Source: amerrev/battles/yorktown.
MARTIN ARMSTRONG (1740-1808)
Served as: Colonel, Surry County North Carolina Militia
Descent: Martin Armstrong > Thomas Temple Armstrong > Jane B. Armstrong > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battles:
Cherokee War of 1776-1777
Col. Martin Armstrong commanded a regiment of Surry County militia that accompanied General Griffith Rutherford on what is known as the Rutherford Expedition or the "Rutherford Trace" -- a 300-mile slash-and-burn campaign that has been compared to Sherman's March to Atlanta. See the testament of William Lenoir in the pension files at this link:
For historical background:
cherokeewar
-revolution
Battle of Camden, August 16, 1780
Battle of Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781
Before the war, Martin Armstrong was one of the founders of Surry County, NC. After the war, the 1790 Census shows him living with is wife, Mary Ann Tate, in nearby Stokes County.
Gen. Martin Armstrong became Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, and as such became immediately embroiled in the political battles and scandals that surrounded the distribution of land grants to veterans of the war. Land grant reform became one of he hot issues during the election of President Andrew Jackson.
Armstrong moved to Tennessee, where he became one of the original surveyors and founders of the city of Clarksville, Tennessee. He died at Nashville, TN in 1808.
Willem Dewees > Christina Elizabetha Dewees (1702-1782) who married her father's business partner, a brilliant architect, named John Henry Antes (1701-1755) > 11 children, including Col. Frederick Antes and his sister, Anna Margareta Antes who moved to England and married the Rev. Benjamin Latrobe > Benjamin H. Latrobe.
For a Wikipedia article on Benjamin H. Latrobe's life: Benjamin_Henry_Latrobe>
For an article by William Hughes on "Latrobe's Pennsylvania-German Family":
Dewees Soldiers in the Revolution
The Dewees family are "Old Dutch" who settled in Germantown, PA, ca 1690. Many of the members of this family were Quakers, and therefore they do not appear on the military rolls.
For a listing of Dewees men who did serve as "Soldiers of the American Revolution, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania" see (at the bottom of this web page):The Lt. Col. William Dewees who owned and operated "Mount Joy Forge" better known as Valley Forge, was a Quaker. Because the iron works were essential to the war effort, he was commissioned with the honorary title of Colonel, but it appears that he did not fight in any battles.
Further Reading
For the History of Valley Forge Ownership, see:
For the Descendants of William Dewees, see:
listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/DEWEES/2007-
familytreemaker.genealogy.
Another good source: Richards, Henry M. The Pennsylvania-German in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1991, orig. published 1908) pp. 453-455
For more background on early members of the Dewees family (Garret, Cornelius and William Dewees) who settled in Germantown, PA, see the free Google Book: "On the Frontier with Colonel Antes" (pp. 22-24). All one has to do to get the book is Google the title.
The same book provides an interesting history of the Dewees Family and Valley Forge on pages 481-482.
J. PETER DINGESS (1738-1809)
Served as: Artillery man, Col. Trigg's Battalion, Lafayette's Corps
Descent: Johan Peter Dingess > Mary "Polly" Dingess > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary Libel Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
(also known as "Lord Dunmore's War") under General Lewis.
Battle_of_Point_Pleasant>
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
)
Photo of grave stone:
MATTHEW FRENCH (1732-1814)
Served as: Private in Montgomery Co., VA, Militia, under Capt. Thomas Shannon, Maj. Joseph Cloyd's Company, Col. William Preston's Battalion
Descent: Matthew French > David French > Napoleon Bonaparte French > Eliza Jane French > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battles:
Battle of Wetzell's Mill, March 6, 1781
From "A History of the New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory" by David E. Johnston, Chapter 4:
"Cornwallis' march into upper Carolina had greatly alarmed the Virginians and General Greene wrote letters to Governor Jefferson and to the various commanders of detached bodies of troops in Virginia asking help, and among those to whom he addressed his urgent appeals were Preston, Sevier, Shelby and Campbell. Colonel William Preston on February 10, 1781, ordered the militia of Montgomery County to assemble at the Lead Mines, and on the day appointed three hundred and fifty men assembled pursuant to the order of their commander.
"Major Joseph Cloyd, assembled and led the Middle New River men. It is to be regretted that the names of the men who went with Preston and Cloyd have not been preserved. One company went from the Middle New River valley, which was commanded by Captain Thomas Shannon, of Walker's Creek, and one of his lieutenants was Alexander Marrs. A few names only of the privates who went along have been secured. They were Matthew French, John French, Edward Hale, Joseph Hare, Isaac Cole and Thomas Farley.
"Preston began his march on the 18th day of February and reported to General Greene on the 28th day of that month, who assigned him to the command of General Andrew Pickens. On his way to report to Pickens he seems to have gotten between the American and British outposts, and camped for the night in close proximity to the British without knowing that they were near him.
"On the second day of March, 1781, Lee's Legion and Preston's men had a spirited encounter with Tarleton, which General Greene in a dispatch to General Washington thus notices: 'On the Second, Lieutenant Colonel Lee with a detachment of riflemen attacked the advance of the British army under Tarleton and killed and wounded thirty of them.'
"On the sixth of March at Whitsell's (Wetzell's mill), North Carolina, Williams' men, Pickens and his command, including Lee's Legion and Preston's Backwoodsmen, met the British and a severe engagement took place. The Americans were compelled to retreat, and Preston's horse took fright and ran through a mill pond near the British, threw Preston off and escaped into the British lines. Colonel Preston, being quite a fleshy man, found it difficult to keep up with the retreating army, and Major Cloyd seeing his condition dismounted and gave Preston his horse.
"On the eve of going into this battle John French, son of Matthew, and a member of Captain Shannon's company, was detailed as one of the guards to the wagon train. So soon as the firing began at the creek French left the train. Without orders -- in fact against orders --and went to the fight, joined therein and shot one of the enemy. The officer in charge of the wagon train reported him for disobedience of orders, and demanded that he be court martialed. Major Cloyd remarked that as French ran not from the fight, but towards it, if they court martialed him for such a cause, he would never again draw his sword in behalf of the country."
Battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15, 1781
"The Americans continued their retreat to Guilford Court House, where the main body of Greene's army had assembled to fight Cornwallis. In the meantime, Colonel William Campbell with about sixty men had joined General Greene, and Preston's Montgomery men were placed under his, Campbell's, command on the extreme left of Greene's army. Colonel Tarleton says, in his Southern Campaigns pp 241, "That in the battle of Guilford Court House he held the right of the British army and that his troops were badly hurt by the Backwoodsmen from Virginia, that they stood behind a fence until the British Infantry with their bayonets climbed over the same."
"The Americans were defeated in this battle, and there were some criticisms as to the behavior of these Backwoodsmen or militia, and Colonel Preston in a letter to Governor Jefferson, written on the 10th of April, 1781, complaining of this criticism, and the injustice to his men, says, "that part of the men were in one action and all of the men were in two actions." Judge Schenek, in his "North Carolina 1780-81," credits Colonel Martin Armstrong with leading a body of Surry County men in the battle of Guilford Court House.
After the close of this battle the militia returned to their homes, which were then threatened by Indian incursions, their services being badly needed along the frontier to suppress the Indian forays and outrages."
JESSE HALL (1760-1848)Enlisted February 1776 at age of 15.
erved as: Private in Dutchess Co. NY militia under Capt. Nathan Pierce, attached to Colonel Richmore's 1st NY Line, Gen. Alexander McDougal's Brigade.
Descent: Jesse Hall > Freeborn Hall > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice Mary (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776
Battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776
Re-enlisted, April 1777
Jesse Hall and Asa Hall served as privates in Col. Morris Graham's NY Regiment of Levies, Capt. Isaac Vail's Company of Dutchess and Ulster Co. Militia
Battle of Bemis Heights (2nd Saratoga) October 7, 1777
Col. Morris Graham's Dutchess and Ulster County militia served under Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln's Division in Brig. Gen. John Glover's Brigade (the right wing of the battleline)
Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777
See the order of battle at:
Glover's Brigade fought at the Battle of Saratoga, which means Jesse Hall and Asa Hall were probably present at the surrender of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne.
The amazing victory at Saratoga changed the fate of American history. See:
Picture of Jesse Hall's Gravestone:
JEREMIAH PATE (1754-1819)
Served as: Captain in a force of VA militia marched by Capt. Adam Clements from Bedford County to the assistance of Gen. Greene in South Carolina May 1, 1781
Source: Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution 1775-1783
(Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987) p. 607
Descent: Jeremiah Pate > Catherine Pate > Rozena Hall > Leona Elizabeth Deweese > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774
ISAAC SMITH (1745-1801)
Served as: Private, Culpeper County, VA, militia, Lafayette's Corps.
Descent: Isaac Smith Sr. > Isaac Smith Jr. > Benjamine Smith > Theodore Smith > Isaac A.B. Smith > Effie Frances Smith > Bernice (Libel) Gabriel
Battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781
Isaac Smith Senior appears in the Daughters' of the American Revolution Patriot Index, Volume I, page 626.
Posted by Mark Shernick at 9:35 American Revolution Battle of Guilford Courthouse , Battle of Yorktown Cherokee War <, Lord Dunmore's War Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Bernice (Libel) Gabriel descends from the Grosh (Grusch) family of Lancaster County, PA, through her paternal grandmother Mary Augusta Halling, who was the daughter of Mary Beatrice Grosh (1825 - 1908).
Of the Grosh family, it has been said that they "saved the Union." This may sound like one of Mark Twain's tall tales, but there may be some truth to the story. With a few stretches, here and there.
Four years before the Civil War began, in 1857, two Grosh brothers, Hosea and Ethan Allen Grosh from Marietta, PA, discovered the famous "Comstock Lode" near Virginia City, NV. Without the money generated by this legendary ledge of silver and gold, the federal government might never have been able to pay for the war.
See the Wikipedia article on the Comstock Lode at this link:
The story of the Grosh brothers may be found in "Back-Trailing on the Old Frontier" by Charles M. Russell ( Cheely-Raban Syndicate: Great Falls, MT, 1922) at this link:
A more detailed and colorful telling of the story was reprinted by the Nevada Observer on 19 December 2005. This account was taken from Volume I of the History of Nevada (1912), edited by Sam P. Davis, Chapter XIII "Early Mining Discoveries" p. 361 ff:
Davis concludes (page 383): "The men who made the assay are both dead. The grave of one is in California, and of the other in Nevada, and neither themselves nor their descendants ever realized a dollar from their discovery, which added to the world's wealth over seven hundred millions of dollars and saved the American union in the Civil War."
More recent historians say the "real treasure trove" left by the Grosh brothers may be 80 plus letters they sent home to Pennsylvania, which vividly describe life in the gold camps of California and Nevada.
The letters were recently acquired by the Nevada Historical Society from a great-great-great grandson of their brother, Warren Grosh. "In quality and content, those letters rank among the very best for telling what life was like back then," said Fred Holaman, an expert antique dealer. "It wasn't for the weak-hearted or the weak-bodied.".1711 William Mehls Dewees
Previous
Next Sheriff William Mehls Dewees 1711-1777
Rachel Farmar 1716-1783
Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia, it was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
William Mehls Dewees was born on July 8, 1711 in Germantown township, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son and fourth child of his parents, Willem Dewees and Anna Christina Mehls Dewees.
GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city. The neighborhood is rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era.
Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. The boundaries of Germantown borough at the time it was absorbed into the city of Philadelphia were Wissahickon Avenue, Roberts Avenue, Wister Street, Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane.
Location within the Philadelphia city limits
Germantown was founded by German settlers, thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld (Germany), in 1681. Today the founding day of Germantown on October 6, 1683, is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania."
In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends. The petition was mainly based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends (1776) and Pennsylvania (1780).
Germantown farm, Pennsylvania
William grew up as one of ten children on the family farm in Germantown. His father owned paper mills nearby their home.
NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER
According to the land records dated March of 1730 for the purchase by William's father of the 93 acres for his family's new home and paper mill on the Wissahickon, the land was located in the northwestern corner of German township and was bordered on the west by the land of Edward Farmar, who not surprisingly was the father of Rachel Farmar. William Mehls and Rachel must have grown up together on their adjoining farms.
MARRIAGE
William Mehls Dewees married Rachel Farmar around the year 1735, in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Rachel was born in 1716 in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She was 19 at the time of her marriage; Willliam was 24.
Rachel was the daughter of Edward and Rachel Astley Farmar of Germantown. Their family was of Irish descent.
FAMILY
William and Rachel had a family of eight children; the first six born were all boys, followed by two daughters. There are death dates reported for all the children…. they all reached maturity, with the exception of Sarah. There is no information given on her, raising the possibility that she did not survive infancy. If that is the case, baby Rachel grew up with six older brothers.
The children were:
Farmar Dewees 1736-1782
*William Farmar Dewees 1739-1809
Thomas Dewees 1740-1781
Joseph Dewees 1747-1816
Benjamin Dewees 1748-1822
Samuel Dewees 1754-1808
Sarah Dewees 1757-
Rachel Farmar Dewees 1760-1815
CHURCH RECORDS
St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
There is not a great deal of information about the lives of William and Rachel. William joined his wife's family church, St. Thomas Church, in Whitemarsh since he is listed as a vestryman in the church records in 1742. The records before 1742 have been lost although it is probable that they were married at St. Thomas. This is somewhat surprising considering that William's parents had both been devout members of the Dutch Reform church (services had been held at his father's home) and St. Thomas church, founded by Rachel's father, was an Anglican church.
A NEW HOME
"The Home of William Dewees", illustrated by Frank H Taylor of Philadelphia
In 1764, William and Rachel built a home on land that she had inherited from her father following his death in 1745. They remained in this home until his death in 1777, although some of the Dewees' family historical biographies suggest that William and Rachel lived for a period and died in Norriton Township located near their son's home at Valley Forge. Valley Forge is located on the south shore of the Schuylkill River by Chester County, Pennsylvania. Norriton Township is in Montgomery County on the north side of the Schuylkill River adjacent to Valley Forge.
HIGH SHERIFF OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY 1773-1776
William Dewees was commissioned Sheriff of Philadellphia, October 4, 1773. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and dealt largely in real estate. William served as "High Sheriff" of Philadelphia County from October 1773 through Oct 1776 and Justice of the Peace from 1757 through 1770, it does not seem likely that he purchased a home so remote from Philadelphia while he was serving in the position of sheriff.
"I PROCLAIM A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," 1776
Our direct descendant, Sheriff William Mehls Dewees had a very important place in our young Nation's history. Serving in his official capacity as Sheriff of Philadelphia and at the age of 64, It was he who uttered the words, "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety, I proclaim a Declaration of Independence."
"On 4 July, 1776, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress meeting in the State House approved a Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and revised by the Committee of Five.
It was announced that the document would be publicly proclaimed at midday on the following Monday from the observatory platform.
Monday, 8 July, was a warm sunny day and as noon approached residents from all parts of the city began to collect in the State House Yard. They were joined by others who had traveled into the city from the surrounding countryside. Troops were drawn up in formation for the occasion, and the Committee of Inspection joined with the Committee of Safety made their way as a body to the yard. Forty-nine members of the Congress emerged from the back door of the State House, and Mayor Samuel Powel and other city officials assembled just below the platform.
The sizable crowd waited patiently, and the first signs of restlessness were just becoming evident when shortly after twelve o'clock Philadelphia's sheriff, William Dewees, arrived and quickly climbed the observatory stairs followed by Colonel John Nixon, who was acting as his deputy.
Dewees approached the railing and as he began to speak, a silence fell over the gathering. "Under the authority of the Continental Congress and by order of the Committee of Safety," he began, and went on, "I proclaim a declaration of independence!"
Col. Nixon then stepped forward and read the document. Everyone listened attentively, and when he finished, the troops saluted and the people demonstrated approbation with three great huzzahs.
With the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd dispersed and bells began tolling throughout the city. For most the declaration was not new; it had been published in the Philadelphia newspapers two days earlier and again that same morning.
The delgates to the Congress filed back into the State House to resume their work. Some of the crowd followed the speakers to the Court House, where the declaration was again read, and then observed the King's arms being removed first from the Court House and then from the State House. Others made their way to Armitage's Tavern to while away the afternoon hours. Not until that evening did the city properly celebrate the event."
from "Science and Society in Early America; essays in honor of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., by Randolph Shipley Klein…..
DEATH
William died the following year and did not see independence gained from England during the Revolutionary Period. He passed away in 1777 at the age of 65. Rachel did live to see the War's end. She died in 1783. She was 67 years old.
William and Rachel are both buried somewhere in a now unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Thomas Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
St Thomas Episcopal Church cemtery, Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania
______________________________
The Declaration of Independence and Its Legacy
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
So begins the Declaration of Independence. But what was the Declaration? Why do Americans continue to celebrate its public announcement as the birthday of the United States, July 4, 1776? While that date might just mean a barbecue and fireworks to some today, what did the Declaration mean when it was written in 1776?
George Washington's personal copy of the Declaration of Independence; just one of the many resources at Library of Congress.
On the one hand, the Declaration was a formal legal document that announced to the world the reasons that led the thirteen colonies to separate from the British Empire. Much of the Declaration sets forth a list of abuses that were blamed on King George III. One charge levied against the King sounds like a Biblical plague: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
The Declaration was not only legalistic, but practical too. Americans hoped to get financial or military support from other countries that were traditional enemies of the British. However, these legal and pragmatic purposes, which make up the bulk of the actual document, are not why the Declaration is remembered today as a foremost expression of the ideals of the Revolution.
The Declaration's most famous sentence reads: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even today, this inspirational language expresses a profound commitment to human equality.
According to legend, John Hancock, wanted his signature on the Declaration of Independence to be big enough so the king "couldn't miss it." Hancock's signature was the only one present on the earliest printings of the Declaration, and the most prominent on future printings.
This ideal of equality has certainly influenced the course of American history. Early women's rights activists at Seneca Falls in 1848 modeled their "Declaration of Sentiments" in precisely the same terms as the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they said, "that all men and women are created equal." Similarly, the African-American anti-slavery activist David Walker challenged white Americans in 1829 to "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?" Walker dared America to live up to its self-proclaimed ideals. If all men were created equal, then why was slavery legal?
The ideal of full human equality has been a major legacy (and ongoing challenge) of the Declaration of Independence. But the signers of 1776 did not have quite that radical an agenda. The possibility for sweeping social changes was certainly discussed in 1776. For instance, Abigail Adams suggested to her husband John Adams that in the "new Code of Laws" that he helped draft at the Continental Congress, he should, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them." It didn't work out that way.
The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was by John Nixon -- who Richard Nixon later claimed as a relative -- and occurred at high noon on July 8, 1776, in the Old State House yard in Philadelphia.
Thomas Jefferson provides the classic example of the contradictions of the Revolutionary Era. Although he was the chief author of the Declaration, he also owned slaves, as did many of his fellow signers. They did not see full human equality as a positive social goal. Nevertheless, Jefferson was prepared to criticize slavery much more directly than most of his colleagues. His original draft of the Declaration included a long passage that condemned King George for allowing the slave trade to flourish. This implied criticism of slavery — a central institution in early American society — was deleted by a vote of the Continental Congress before the delegates signed the Declaration.
So what did the signers intend by using such idealistic language? Look at what follows the line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
King George III showed signs of madness. He likely suffered from porphyria, a disease of the blood leading to gout and mental derangement.
These lines suggest that the whole purpose of government is to secure the people's rights and that government gets its power from "the consent of the governed." If that consent is betrayed, then "it is the right of the people to alter or abolish" their government. When the Declaration was written, this was a radical statement. The idea that the people could reject a monarchy (based on the superiority of a king) and replace it with a republican government (based on the consent of the people) was a revolutionary change.
While the signers of the Declaration thought of "the people" more narrowly than we do today, they articulated principles that are still vital markers of American ideals. And while the Declaration did not initially lead to equality for all, it did provide an inspiring start on working toward equality.
****************************************************************.
Family Members
Siblings
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
