LAKE COUNTY OHIO - REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION - ISAAC & BATHSHEBA FLOWERS Contributed by: Pam Shelton-Anderson (pshelton1@compuserve.com) July 12, 2002 ************************************************************************ 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 and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files (FHL Film 0970992) XXX, Isaac Flowers BL Reg 37252-55 Conn Act March 3, 1835 Bathsheba Flower wife of Isaac Flower Revolutionary War Painsville Lake co, Ohio March 31, 1855 Hon L P Waldo Dear Sir, Accompanying this I send an application for a pension in behalf of Bathsheba Flower and also an application in her behalf for Bounty land. You will see that she is nearly a century old. She was not married nor acquainted with her husband Isaac Flower, till some ten or 12 years after the close of the war. It is presumed that no person now be found who served with him and if there were any it is extremely doubtful whether they would be able to account of their advanced age, to remember well enough to give any light on this subject. All she knows about Mr Flower's service is what he said in his lifetime and this can be supported by the testimony of his neighbors to whom he made the same statement- that is, that he was in Washington's army when they made good their retreat from Long Island to New York in the night-but she can not tell to what club of troops he belonged-whtere he was in the regular army or the Connecticut State troops or milita. That he was in the Revolutionary service at that time there is not a doubt. I find on inquiry of her neighbors and friends that she has always for a half a century told the same story. Her mind is considerably shatterd and she soon forgets passing events and frequently blends things together which have no connectin-but things that she knew 50 years ago, she seems to have a clear idea of now. She has been a very strong minded intelligent woman-was a pioneer in New Connecticut, being the first white woman who ever set foot in the Township of Vienna in Trumbull county Ohio-and is the mother of the first child born in that town. Soon after she came there, being annoyed by the wolves, and her husband sick, she set a steel trap and caught a very large wolf, which she killed herself, with a hand spike-she would not knowingly state a falsehood, for forty pensions. She never knew that she was entitled to a pension till since the passage of the Act of 3rd March 1855. Had she known it at the time the act granting pensions to widows, was passed, she might perhaps have proved the service of her husband. I have employed Mr James E Stewart of Washington, to search the records and endeavor to find the names of the officers under who her husband served & c. She is now dependent on he children for support and I hope that her extreme age will induce the Department to relax their rules and grant to her indulgence on account of her great age. Yours respectfully, Horace Steele. State of Ohio, Lake County On this day of March A D 1855, personally appeared before me a Notary Public within and for the county of Lake and state of Ohio, Bathsheba Flower, aged ninety nine years, a resident of Painsville in the county and state aforesaid, who being duly sworn according to law, declares that she is the widow of Isaac Flowr, deceased who servied she thinks one year as a private in the Revolutionary War, but can not now tell to what company or regiment he belonged, nor the officers names under whom he served. She doesn not know whether he was drafted or enlisted into the regular army. He went from Hartland or Harford Connecticut. She thinks it was in the years 1776 and 1777, that he was in actual service and with the army when they crossed over from Long Island to New York, in the night and when but a short distance from the British Army. He continued in actual service for over fourteen days and was honorably discharged, but she can not tell when or where, but thinks the rolls will show to which she now refers for further testimony. She further states that she was married to the said Isaac Flower in Granby in the state of Connecticut by one Joseph Strong, a Clergyman, on the 24th day of December AD 1792, but she has no knowledge of any public or private record of her said marriage, and that her name before her said marriage was Bathsheba Floot, that her said husband died at Vienna in Trumbull county in the state of Ohio, on the 14th day of May AD 1813 and that she is now a widow. She makes this declaration for the purpose of obtaining the bounty land to which she may be entitled under the act approved the 3rd of March 1855. She also declared that she never received nor applied for any bounty land under this or any other act of Congress. Bathsheba Flower We Horace Steele and Lavina F Steele both of Painsville in Lake County and State of Ohio who our oaths declare that the foregoing declaration was signed and acknowledged by Bathsheba Flower in our presence and that we believe from the appearance and statements of the applicant that she is the identical person she represents herself to be. State of Ohio Lake County 29th March 1855, Lavinia F Steele of Painsville in Lake County appeared before the Notary Public as did Roswell Lowry of Madison, Lake county Ohio. They deposed to say that they were acquainted with Isaac Flower for about 10 years before his death and also with his wife Bathsheba Flower during the same time and know that they lived together as husband and wife. They also stated that the said Isaac Flower died at the time and place stated in the declaration of Bathsheba Flower and that they attended his funeral.