Greenbrier County, West Virginia Pension Application of John Jones - 1833 USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ At a Circuit Supreme Court of Law of Chancery held for Kanawha County the 15th day of January 1833. Present Lewis Summers, Esqr. one of the Judges of the General Court and Judge of the 19th Circuit in the 10th Judicial District. Virginia Kanawha County to wit~ On this 15th day of January 1833 personally appeared in the open court before Lewis Summers Judge of the circuit superior court of Law and Chancery for the County of Kanawha aforesd John Jones a resident of the said County aged seventy-seven years eleven months and thirteen days who being duly sworn to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7[?] 1832. That in the year 1773 he and two others commenced an improvement or settlement on the Great Kanawha river in the County of Greenbrier and State of Virginia now Kanawha County, about seventy miles west of the frontier inhabitants of the State of Virginia but in the spring of 1774 they were driven from their purpose and compelled by the incursions[?] of the Indians to take refuge among the inhabitants of Greenbrier County on Muddy Creek. That he immediately volunteered as a soldier under Capt. Matthew Arbuckle to and in building a fort on Muddy Creek and to guard the inhabitants against the incursions of Indians. That afterwards in the fall of the year 1774 he volunteered under the same Capt. Arbuckle who raised a company to march against the western Indians in Lord Dunmore's campaign. That Capt. Arbuckle's company joined the division of the army under the command of General Lewis and marched with that division of the army to the mouth of the Great Kanawha River at Point Pleasant where a severe engagement ensued between a part of the army of Genl Andrew Lewis and a large body of Indians and this applicant entered into the battle at its commencement and continued without interuption in the midst of the engagement until its termination fighting from sunrise until late in the evening before the Virginia forces succeded in routing their savage advesaries. This bloody and hard fought battle took place on the 10th of October 1774. This applicant further states that about the middle of September 1776 he enlisted as a regular soldier under Capt. Mathew Arbuckle at the mouth of the Great Kanawha river then Greenbrier County and about one hundred and fifty miles west of the inhabited part of that county. The other officers of Capt. Arbuckle's Company the applicant believes were AndrewWallace first lieutenant and John Gallagher ensign. That the soldier of said company that company erected a fort at the mouth of said Kanawha river and continued there during the balance of the year 1776 and until the close of the year 1777 when this applicant received a written discharge from Capt. Arbuckle and returned to the inhabited part of the County of Greenbrier that he hath lost or mislaid said discharge so as to be unable to produce the same. That after he enlisted as aforesd the company of Capt. Arbuckle was reinforced at their station at Point Pleasant aforesd by the company of Capt. McKee which marched as the applicant believes from the County of Bottetourt Virginia, the other officers of that company were he believes William Moore 1st & 2nd Lieutenant and James Gilmore ensign. The company of Capt. McKee continued at Point Pleasant until the discharge of the applicant. During this period of his service at Point Pleasant an attack was made upon the fort at Point Pleasant by a body of Indians who being compelled to abandon the attack directed their march to Donnally's fort situate about one hundred and fifty miles in the interior of the State and on the frontier of the inhabited part of the County of Greenbrier ascertaining that the Indians were marching against that part of the country two bold and daring soldiers dressed in the savages costumes and made the way through the wilderness and apprized [sic] the inhabitants of their danger barely in time to save them from that extermination. That after the discharge of the applicant as aforesd and his return to the inhabited part of the County of Greenbrier at the close of the year 1777, he was at the beginning of the year 1778 employed and he believes under the authority of the State of Virginia as an Indian spy at the rate of one dollar per day, but without rations, clothing or munitions of war, the applicant furnishing them for himself. That the distance he was employed to act as a spy was between sixty and seventy miles and immediately west of the inhabited part of the County of Greenbrier aforesd - That he continued to act as a spy for the period of two years beginning as aforesd in the early part of the year 1778 and quitting at the beginning of the year 1780. That William MORRIS, Leonard MORRIS and John PATTERSON were spies with him during said period he two first of whom died in the County of Kanawha and whether the latter still survives is unknown to the applicant. This applicant resided in the County of Greenbrier from the year 1773 until the establishment of the County of Kanawha out of the western part of it since which time until the present period on he has resided in the County of Kanawha. He has no record of his age but is satisfied it is correctly given wherein before stated. He cannot state with precision on the character of his engagements under Captain Arbuckle whether he belonged to the Virginia Continental line State Volunteers or Virginia Rangers. He knows however that in Lord Dunmore's expedition he was a volunteer and then when he engaged in aforesd in 1776 a second time in the service and was stationed at Point Pleasant it was under the authority of the State of Virginia and the applicant has alway believed that he was a regularly enlisted soldier and perhaps as a ranger. He never was drafted or acted as a substitute. The applicant refers to Major John HANSFORD as the person in his neighborhood most capable of attesting the truth of this declaration and with confidence appeals to him and all who know him for evidence of his character for honesty and veracity. There is but one person living within the knowledge of the applicant who can personally attest of his own knowledge the truth of any part of this declaration (__?__) the services performed. He is a very feeble and aged man who resides in this state in the County of Mason by the name of William Arbuckle and who was in Lord Dunmore's expedition. To procure testimony would be very inconvenient to the applicant as well as to the witness the difficulty of doing so the labor and suffering which it would inflict on himself as well as the witness have induced an abandonment of the attempt. The applicant hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension rolls of the agency of any state. Sworn to and subscribed in open court the day and year aforesd. Signed: John Jones Teste: A.W. Quarrier Clk Submitted by Adina Dyer, ____________________________________________________________