Lincoln-Burke County NcArchives Military Records.....Pension Application Of Nicholas Frye, Natl Archives Microseries M804, Roll 1031, Application # S6859 May 21, 1838
Revwar - Pension 
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Pension Application Of Nicholas Frye, Natl Archives Microseries M804, Roll 1031, Application # S6859


Burke County, NC, May 21st, 1838, Nicholas Frye, aged 92 years:

	“That he entered the service of the United States about some of the 
last days of April or the first day of May 1781. Was called out by draft in the 
county of Lincoln and was put under Captain Smith at Davidson’s Fort or the 
Upper Station to defend the place from the murders and ravages of the Cherokee 
Indians for the term of four months. Captain Smith soon got married and went to 
Iredell County with his wife and then Captain McFarland took the command of us, 
and sometime in the forepart of the month of September, Colonel McDowell came 
there and wanted all the men that could be spared and that was willing to go 
with him a three months tour he said, against the Tory Scotch.”

	“Captain McFarland said that he would discharge all that had been there 
for three months and upwards and that he would go with McDowell and those that 
were discharged might go if they pleased; and the captain and several of us 
went right forthwith on to Salisbury, and there we were mustered into the ranks 
of General Rutherford, and we then proceeded to march through the Scotch 
settlements through the counties of Montgomery, Richmond, Cumberland, and 
Johnson, and others that I can’t recollect. We expected from report that as the 
British was in Wilmington that the Scots would embody and go to them, but they 
did not attempt to do so. We met Colonel Armstrong as we went down and he was 
on his way home. He had scoured among them and had got them entirely passive. 
We went within five or six miles of Wilmington and some of the scouts went to 
Cape Fear River opposite the town and shot across the river at the British, but 
they were out of reach.”

	“Somewhere about the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of October, the 
gladdening news of the capture of Cornwallis at Little York in Virginia, which 
gladness was witnessed by much firing of platoons and many huzzahs which was 
one of the great memories of our tour. We continued to ?pass and reconnoiter 
through the lower part of the state until towards the 20th of December, then we 
were moved up into Mecklenburg County near ?Catie’s Ford on the ?Lauber River 
and there most of us from Lincoln and Burke County were discharged with the 
exception of a few that had the charge of some public wagons. Myself and others 
went home from ?Batie’s [Beattie’s?] Ford. This was called the Wilmington or 
Scotch campaign. Thus ends my services in the old Revolution. Four months at 
the fort and three at Wilmington.”

Interrogation: Where and in what year were you born?
I was born in Pennsylvania state and the county of ?Carter, and born in the 
February, the 2nd day 1746.

	Have you any record of your age, and if so, where is it?
I was born and educated by German parents and I have a German Bible and my name 
and age is in it as you see stated in the above answer.

Where were you living when called into service, where have you lived since the 
Revolutionary War, and where do you now live?
	My father moved from the state of Pennsylvania when I was fifteen years 
old and settled in North Carolina in Lincoln County, and when I grew up, I 
settled in the said county and where I lived when called into service, and I 
have lived there ever since until about nine or ten months ago, then I moved up 
into Burke County to live with my son-in-law for I am now so old and infirm 
that I must have some person to take care of me…”

State the names of the regular officers who were with the troops where you 
served, such as continental and militia regiments as you can recollect, and the 
general circumstances of your service.
	As to officers while I was at the fort, there was none to be seen but 
those that commanded at the fort. Colonel Davidson did come once to see us, and 
Colonel McDowell come to get volunteers, and as for our three months tour, 
there were but very few troops or officers for they were mostly gone to the 
siege at Little York in Virginia. We met Colonel Armstrong and his division of 
militia on their way home. I saw some other officers, but I cannot recollect 
their names nor grades. General Pickens came to see General Rutherford, but I 
don’t know whether he then had any command or not, and as for general 
circumstances, I believe there is none more than is stated in the foregoing 
declaration.”

	“There was one circumstance happened at the fort. One of our men, and 
Margaret Davidson’s negro man went to the mill pond to shoot ducks and the 
Indians shot the white man and he died that night…”

Why have you not made application for a pension before now?
	I did about four years ago. I went to Abel Shuford, esq, one of the 
justices of the County of Lincoln and took an old soldier with me to prove my 
services at Wilmington. And I thought perhaps my oath to the declaration might 
do, but the Esq. told me that I must prove both my tours by a living witness or 
I could get nothing and that there was nothing allowed for any term or terms of 
service for less than six months. So I declined any further trial, for I did 
not at that time know of any man living that was at the fort, but since I have 
come into Burke County to live, I have heard of an old man by the name of Jacob 
Grider up towards the mountains, and there was a man of that name with me in 
the fort, and I have sent to inquire of him, and he is the same Grider that was 
with me in the fort, and went with Captain McFarland and others of us to 
Wilmington. Now inasmuch as my discharges are lost, I do expect to procure the 
depositions of Jacob Grider to prove my tour of four months at the fort and my 
three months under General Rutherford; and there is an old blind man by the 
name of Sherwood Bowman that was with us under General Rutherford. The old man 
that went with me to Esq. Shuford was named George ?Ikard. He is since dead…”

	“On this 23rd day of May, 1838…personally appeared, Jacob Grider…and he 
deposeth that he served a tour of duty in the militia service at the fort 
called the Upper Station in Burke County, a term of upwards of five months in 
the spring and summer of 1781, part of the time under Captain Smith, and part 
under Captain McFarland, and that Nicholas Fry served there with him in the 
militia service the same spring and summer and under the same officers the term 
of four months, and that McFarland discharged them both  in the first part of 
the month of September, and that they, Grider and Fry did forthwith go on to 
Salisbury with Colonel McDowell and their captain McFarland, and they served a 
three month tour together under General Rutherford in what was called the 
Wilmington Expedition…Jacob Grider.

	“Sherwood Bowman: That he was called into the militia service in the 
month of September 1781 and rendezvoused at Salisbury and served three months 
tour under Captain McFarland, and that Nicholas Fry was a soldier and served 
full term of three months under the same Captain McFarland. This deponent 
further sayeth not. Sherwood Bowman.


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