REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION - ELIAS MOYERS, Union County, Illinois Contributed by: Andy Anderson (oxdrover@mindspring.com) ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION DECLARATION OF ELIAS MOYERS (PENSION R7478) State of Illinois} Union County & Circuit} ss. Pleas at the Circuit Court held at the Court House in Jonesborough, within and for the County of Union in the Third Judicial Circuit of the State aforesaid, of the term of April, Anno Domini One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Eight, and of the Independence of the United States the fifty-second, before the Honorable Thomas C. Browne, Judge of the Circuit Court of said Circuit, Be it remembered that at the term aforesaid of said Circuit Court on Wednesday, the third day of the term and twenty-third day of the month, the petitioner and his attorney, Richard M. Young, presented and proved the following facts, to wit: Be it remembered that on this twenty-third day of April, 1828, personally appeared in open court, the same being a court of record for the County of Union and State of Illinois with power to fine and imprison, ELIAS MOYERS, aged sixty- six years, a resident of the County of Union aforesaid, who, being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provision made by the Act of Congress of the 18th March 1818 and the 1st May 1820. That he, the said ELIAS MOYERS, enlisted for the term of ten months on the --- day of April in the year 1781 in the State of South Carolina in the company commanded by Captain William Hutcheson in the regiment commanded by Colonel William Polk in the line of the State of South Carolina on the Continental establishment, that he continued to serve in the said corps until the expiration of the said term of ten months, when he was discharged from the service on the high hills of the Santee in the State of South Carolina; that he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension except the present; that his name is not on the roll of any state whatever as a pensioner under any of the acts of Congress, and that the following are the reasons for not making earlier application for a pension, viz.: that the circumstances of the said applicant until recently, although not affluent, were easy, but that, by misfortune and inability to labour from advanced age, he has been reduced to the necessity of asking a support from his country. And in pursuance of the Act of the first of May 1820 I do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 18th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift, sale or in any manner disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An Act to Provide for Certain Persons Engaged in the Land and Naval Service of the United States in the Revolutionary War, Passed on the 18th Day or March 1818" and that I have not, nor has any person in trust for me, my property or securities, contracts or debts due me, nor have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule hereto annexed, and by me subscribed, my necessary bedding and wearing apparel excepted. My occupation is that of a farmer, but from old age and infirmities I have become unable to pursue it any longer to advantage, and my circumstances are so reduced as to render it difficult for me to support myself without some assistance from my country. My family consists of myself and my wife, Molly, who is aged near sixty-six years. Schedule of my property: One horse of the value of $60.00. One saddle, bridle and saddle bags $15.00. (Total) $75.00 /s/ELIAS (his mark) MOYERS {seal} Sworn to and subscribed in open court this 23rd day of April, 1828. /s/WINSTEAD DAVIE, Clerk This day also came at the same time PETER MEISSENHEIMER, also a resident of the said County of Union and State of Illinois, and late a citizen of the State of North Carolina, who, being first duly sworn and deposed, and says that he is well acquainted with the said ELIAS MOIERS, and has known him since the year 1770, that to his knowledge the said MOIERS enlisted as a regular soldier in the company commanded by Captain William Hutchinson in the regiment commanded by Colonel William Polk in the line of the State of South Carolina in Continental establishment, that to the best of his recollection the said MOIERS entered the service about the year 1781 for the term of ten months and that he continued to serve out his time faithfully and was honorably discharged, that he has no hesitation in believing that the statements contained in the said MOYERS' declaration, which have been read to him, are true, and that the said MOIERS now is and always has been esteemed a man of the strictest veracity, and further this deponent saieth not. /s/PETER (his mark) MEISSENHEIMER {seal} Sworn to and subscribed in open court this 23rd day of April, 1828. /s/WINSTEAD DAVIE, Clerk In an accompanying affidavit signed 23 Apr 1828 WILLIAM MOIERS, a citizen of Union County, Illinois, swore that he had known Elias for 15 years. In a letter dated Jonesboro 10 Nov 1828 Elias stated "My name is sometimes spelt MOIERS and sometimes MYERS, but the proper way of spelling it is MOYERS." ----------------------------------- Elias Moyers was possibly connected somehow to Peter Cruse and John Adam Cruse of Union County. LDS records indicate that on 12 Nov 1775 in Rowan Co NC one Elias Miars or Meyers married their sister Magdalena Cruse.