An Alphabetical Index of Revolutionary Pensioners Lining in Maine:  INTRODUCTION


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Source:  Sprague's Journal of Maine History
Vol. V
November, December, January 1917-18
No. 4 pages pages 189-191
An Alphabetical Index of Revolutionary Pensioners Lining in Maine.   Complied by 
Charles A. Flagg, Librarian, Bangor, (Maine) Public Library.  Published by 
John Francis Sprague, Dover, ME


For a quarter century past the popularity, growth and activities of our 
patriotic-hereditary societies have been features of American life. It is 
now considered the proper thing to cherish and prize the names and mementos of 
the men of 1776; perhaps even to idealize them and their services. And many who 
have never applied for admission to any of the various societies of Revolutionary 
descendants, take a just pride in knowing that they are eligible, and of the blood 
of the heroes who established our independence. 

Maine, of course, was a part of Massachusetts at the time of the Revolution.

Very little has been done even yet in the publication of regimental histories and 
personal narratives of Revolutionary service lines that have been so enormously 
expanded in the case of the Civil war. The histories of two or three Maine regiments 
which the late Nathan Goold prepared, and Dr. Frank A. Gardner's notable series of 
Massachusetts regimental histories, now running in the "Massachusetts magazine" of 
Salem, being practically all there is available in that field. 

But when it comes to individual service, Massachusetts people are particularly 
fortunate because that state has, at enormous expense, printed all her Revolutionary 
muster, pay and other rolls, as "Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the 
Revolutionary war" in 17 large quarto volumes. No other state has done nearly as 
much in this direction. 

But even these records, full as they are, leave much to be desired. Families were 
usually large and in the old home towns it was more the rule than the exception to 
find several contemporaries of the same name (middle names being very rare). In 
using the above work it is not uncommon to find two or more soldiers bearing the 
name of the ancestor one is in search of, from the town we know he lived in; and 
still others of the same name whose residence is indeterminate. 

Unless it can be conclusively established that no other of the name could have served 
from that town at the time, or our family tradition is more definite than is usually 
the case, we really have found no evidence at all. Here is where the value of the 
pension lists comes in. While we may not know in whose company or regiment, or in 
what capacity the Revolutionary ancestor served, we can usually find out where he 
lived in later life, and if he survived to old age and drew a pension, the necessary 
link to the chain of evidence is often secured so one can identify the actual military 
service of the ancestor in "Massachusetts soldiers and sailors."

The U. S. Pension Office at Washington is a veritable mine of information, and once 
an ancestor is located on the pension roll, it is worth while to secure direct from 
the Office and at some expense, a copy of all papers relating to the claim. 

It may be added that the Pension Office authorities give no very cordial endorsement 
of the printed pension rolls, having found them to contain numerous errors. It must 
also be added, however, that some of the lists preserve records whose originals have 
been lost in the destruction of the Capitol by the British in 1814 or in other ways. 
The important things to realize are that the printed lists are so useful and so largely 
used that a consolidated list like the following will be valuable; and that once the 
name desired is found it will almost certainly be worth while to write to the Pension 
Office for full details of service. 

The difficulty in using the various printed pension lists springs from the fact 
that not one is strictly alphabetical, and they are so rare now that only the large 
libraries have them all. 

Before we take up the various pension lists in print, it may be well to devote a 
little time to consideration of Revolutionary pensions in general, and fortunately 
Columbia University studies in history, economics and public law, volume XII, No. 3 
(History of military pension legislature in the United States by W. H. Glasson) gives 
us an exhaustive sketch.