Our Patriots
Presley Dollins was born 9 July 1751 in Orange County Virginia. He moved with his family to Albemarle County before1761 and eventually succeeded to the land purchased by his father in 1761. (The land purchased in 1773 was willed to John and William). He married Ruth Alexander and raised a large family. On 7 June 1832, Congress passed a bill providing for pension of veterans of the Revolutionary War. On 23 October 1832 in Fayetteville, Tennessee, Presley Dollins filed the following petition for a pension based on his service during the Revolutionary War. In part it reads: "State of Tennessee on this 23rd day of October in Lincoln County in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two personally appeared in open court before Abner Steed, Jesse Daniel and Samuel Buchanan, gentlemen justices of the court of pleas and quarter sessions for Lincoln County now sitting Presley Dollins, a resident of the County of Lincoln and the state of Tennessee, aged 81 years who first being duly sworn according to law doth on oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832 that he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated, that in the spring of the year 1779 he was drafted for the term of two months to assist in bringing the Burgoyne prisoners from Charlottesville to the barracks in Albemarle County, Virginia. A man by the name of Allhuler was Captain at Charlottesville after the prisoners were received. At the barracks he was commanded by Captain Miller. Daniel Harvey was his colonel. He continued to guard the prisoners until his time expired and he was discharged by Captain Miller. In the year 1781 he was drafted again for the term of two months. His captain was James Woods. A man by the name of Richardson was colonel of the fifth regiment of Virginia Militia to which the applicant belonged. The Brigade was commanded by General Nelson. They marched to Richmond and through different parts of the state of Virginia after the British. Some times the British would run them and at other times they would make the British retreat. After his term of service expired he was discharged about seven miles below Louisa Court in the state of Virginia. This applicant did not receive any written discharge for this term. On the 28th day of July 1781, he was again drafted for a term of two months. Major John Mortin lead the squad from Albemarle County Virginia to Mobbins Hills on James River in the same state where they joined the great army commanded by General Nelson and did not remain there long before this applicant was detached from the great army and commanded by strange officers. He does not know any of their names except Colonel Matthews who commanded a regiment at Duncastle about 12 miles above Williamsburg in Virginia. He stayed at Duncastle some days when he was taken sick and sent to the hospital at Williamsburg. He remained there a short time and his term of service expired and he was discharged by a written discharge from General George Washington who at that time was commander in chief of the American army. He has since lost it and also the discharge he received from Captain Miller he has lost. He was born in Orange County, Virginia on the 9th day of July 1751. He believes he has always had a record of his age taken from his father's bible until some few years ago. He thinks he lost it at the difficult time he was called into service. He was living in Albemarle County, state of Virginia, and has lived there since the war until about twenty years ago he moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee where he now lives. His final discharge about 28 September 1781 coincides with the beginning of the Siege of Yorktown, the final battle of note in the Revolutionary War. George Washington would have been in or near Williamsburg at this time. Presley Dollins was granted a sum of $50 upon entering the pension rolls and a semi-annual pension of $10 thereafter. Most of Presley's children immigrated to Lincoln County, Tennessee between 1800 and 1810. His wife Ruth died around 1812. Presley moved about 1812, to Lincoln County, to spend his remaining years among his children and grandchildren. According to census data, he spent his declining years with a widowed daughter. He died 4 September 1833, and is buried in Lincoln County, Tennessee. His son, David, my great grandfather, moved to Illinois about 1820. Joel, Hugh and Taliaferro married and raised large families in Tennessee.
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Thomas Armstrong, born 20 July 1755 in York County, Pennsylvania, was also a Revolutionary War soldier. He was the father of Elizabeth, who married Hugh Alexander Dollins, son of Presley mentioned above. My mother, Gail Dollins had researched Presley thoroughly, which provided her the basis for entry to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She did not know about Thomas Armstrong but provided a clue in her genealogy notes concerning Elizabeth's maiden name. The following is taken from the Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements, Pension Application of Thomas Armstrong, National Archives Microseries M804, Roll 76, Application #S2925, transcribed and annotated by Nancy Poquette.
Thomas Armstrong, a resident of Lincoln County, Tennessee, aged 77 years: “ He entered the service, he believes, in the year seventy-seven, in the month of April, under Captain John Davis who was afterwards cashiered, and George Pearce the first lieutenant in the company, was promoted to the command of captain under whom he served till he quit the service. He was drafted for three months, which he served out, and did not return home till the month of September following, in consequence of sickness.” “The company to which he belonged was attached to the regiment commanded by Colonel McDowell, whose regiment was attached to the forces commanded by General Butler, General Lincoln being commander in chief of the whole North Carolina forces. He was drafted in the County of Guilford, in the state of North Carolina immediately before he went into service. He was at the Battle of Stono Ferry (he believes) [per Heitman, June 20, 1779] in the state of South Carolina, though not in that battle, being one of the guards of the baggage. Said battle was fought between the American forces under General Lincoln and the British forces were commanded he believes, by Provost.” “He served as a drafted militiaman in the state of Pennsylvania, a tour of two months, guarding the British prisoners taken at Burgoyne's defeat (17 Oct 1777), which prisoners were kept about two miles below the town of Little York under Captain Arbison, John Aidy being Major then in command of that place. He does not recollect the year in which he rendered this service.” “He afterwards served as a volunteer in the state of Pennsylvania some considerable time in collecting and bringing into camp the British prisoners who had made their escape from the Americans. He does not recollect how long he was engaged in this service, but he thinks two months or more.” “He afterwards served some time as a volunteer in the state of North Carolina in guarding the magazine at Guilford Courthouse. But he does not recollect the year nor the length of time he served, he believes about two weeks in this last tour. Captains Whitesell and Dent were at the magazine while he was guarding the same. He served at various times as a volunteer against the Tories in North Carolina through several years, attached to no particular regiments or companies, but to scouting parties, he believes in all, more than a month….”
After the close of the Revolution he moved with his father, to York District, South Carolina, where he married. He moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee between 1801 and 1820.
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Ethan Curtis, born 3 December 1753 in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut and died on 29 Oct 1815 in Burlington, Hartford, Connecticut.
We know some about Ethan Curtis and it is proven that he served in the Revolutionary War during the Siege of Boston in 1775 where he enlisted as a Private on 4 May 1775 in New Haven, Connecticut. The 6th Connecticut Regiment was raised on May 1, 1775, under the command of Col. Samuel Holden Parsons. In June, under the "1st establishment" of the Continental Army, the unit joined General George Washington at the Siege of Boston. In August, to promote cohesion among the various colonial units, regiments were given precedence by Washington and the 6th Connecticut was also designated the "13th Regiment of Foot.”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army garrisoned in what was then the peninsular city of Boston, Massachusetts. Both sides had to deal with resource supply and personnel issues over the course of the siege. British resupply and reinforcement activities were limited to sea access. After eleven months of the siege, the British abandoned Boston by sailing to Nova Scotia.
The siege began on April 19 after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, when the militia from surrounding Massachusetts communities blocked land access to Boston. The Continental Congress formed the Continental Army from the militia, with George Washington as its Commander in Chief. In June 1775, the British seized Bunker and Breed's Hills, but their casualties were heavy and their gains were insufficient to break the Continental Army's hold on land access to Boston. Military actions during the remainder of the siege were limited to occasional raids, minor skirmishes, and sniper fire.
Ethan Curtis was discharged on 18 December 1775.
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William Brashears, b 5 Oct 1741 in Prince George's County, Maryland. He was a Revolutionary War Soldier for 12 months beginning 1 June 1776 under Captain John Blassingame. Regiment Commander was Colonel Thomas Sumpter, of the Continental line of the Spartanburg Regiment. Pension certificate # 13790. He had moved from Rowan County, North Carolina, to South Carolina shortly before the war.
William Bratcher served from 1 June 1776-1777 with Sumpter in South Carolina. He made his pension application from Maury Co. Tennessee. His discharge papers verify that William Bratcher served under Blassingame's Company of South Carolina and it is signed by Sumpter.
His application to the judicial court of the state of Tennessee reads in part: “There he was in the battle where the British first attacked the city of Charleston, SC, and Sullivan's Island where he received a wound with a bayonet from the enemy in the right hand. That he was in several skirmishes. That he is now in his Seventy Ninth [1741] year of his age. He is unable to get a subsistence (sic) from his labors. And has been supported by his children. He stands in need of assistance from his country for a support. He has never received a pension from his government and hereby relinquishes all pensions
Heretofore granted him by laws of the United States and kept the one hereby. He wishes to be placed on the pension … to the provisions of an act of congress… such cases now and forever.”
February 28 1819
WILLIAM BRATCHER
After the War, William continued in South Carolina and continued growing his family as William, Jr., had been born in 1770, well prior to his service in the Revolutionary War, along with three or four siblings. He moved to Maury County, Tennessee in 1810 after a year in Greene County, Tennessee. He died in Maury County in October 1824.
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Thomas Vaughn, born 1743 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia and died on 27 November 1828 in Lincoln County, Kentucky, also served in the Revolutionary War.
We do not know much about Thomas Vaughn's military service except that he and his brothers took Oaths of Allegiance in 1777. It is very likely that our Thomas and 3 of his brothers were in their neighbor Captain Thomas Dillard’s unit that began service in 1776 and all took the Oath together in 1777 as documented.
The problem is the records of that unit, except for the reference of Avory Mustein Pension Papers naming 3 men, are all missing and likely destroyed. Following is an excerpt of Dillard's unit service:
"One company of Minute Men marched from Pittsylvania against Lord Dunmore and there may have been others of which there is no record. In June 8, 1776, Captain Thomas Dillard, Lieutenant Jesse Heard and Ensign Robert Dalton commanded a company of which David Irby, Thomas Davis and Avory Mustein are the only known members. They marched from Pittsylvania through the counties of Halifax, Charlotte and Dinwiddie to the town of Petersburg, crossed James River at Cobham, and proceeded on to Gwynn's Island. Here they were stationed several weeks under General Andrew Lewis and took part in the battle fought there July 9, 1776. A steady cannonading had been going on for a day or more when the enemy from their lookouts, perceiving our men taking boat, cried out, "The shirtmen are coming!" and fled precipitously. Lord Dunmore feared the deadly aim of the shirtmen, as the soldiers of the up-counties, clad in hunting shirts, were called. Dunmore did not desert his post at the capitol until it was reported to him that the shirtmen were marching on Williamsburg, when he fled to a man-of-war on the river."
Thomas moved his family to Kentucky from Pittsylvania County, Virginia in 1782 and is enumerated in the 1790 Tax List of Lincoln County. He also appears in the 2nd Census of Kentucky for 1800 on Aug 23, 1800 on page 304. Thomas is also enumerated in the 1810 Census in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Abigail Franklin, his wife, died in 1803 and he married Sallie Farthing in Lincoln County in 1804. The 1820 Census in Crab Orchard, Lincoln, Kentucky, shows James, Thomas and Elisha as heads-of-households.
In 1831, James Vaughn left Lincoln County, Kentucky to go west. James Vaughn, his wife Isabel Davis, thirteen children and slaves migrated to Monroe County, Missouri buying land west of Strother, Missouri. The children were William, Harrison, James M., Thomas F., John, Mary, Harriett, Eliza, Joseph D., Frank and Polly. Polly was a baby at the time and was carried by her sister Harriett on horseback from Kentucky.
Thomas Vaughn died in Lincoln County (probably Crab Orchard) on 27 November 1828. Shortly afterward, James and some brothers made the trip to Missouri.
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Joshua Pettit, born 20 September 1734 in Scullville, Essex, New Jersey and died on 15 September 1786 in Spartanburg, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Joshua Pettit, Sr., moved to the 96 District near Cowpens in Spartanburg County, South Carolina around 1768. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775, he was engaged in helping to build Wofford's Fort on the Pacolet River in Spartanburg County. Joshua served in Colonel Benjamin Roebuck's Battalion of the Spartan Regiment of the the South Carolina Militia both before and after the fall of Charleston.
Roebuck's Battalion fought in 22 battles and skirmishes in South Carolina after the Seige of Charleston on 29 March 1780. Joshua served with William Brashears during the Seige of Charleston and prior battles.
Joshua was in the Battle of Cowpen fought on 17 January 1781 between 2000 Patriots and 1100 British Troops where a significant victory resulted.
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Braxton Pollard, born 25 Dec 1760 in Lancaster, Lancaster, Virginia and died on 1 September 1840 in Florida, Monroe, Missouri.
Braxton Carter Pollard was the son of Thomas Pollard who died in Lancaster County, Virginia, in 1770. Braxton and his siblings appear in the orphans accounts in Lancaster County from 1770-1781. From 26 Nov 1778-1785 the orphans appear in the guardian accounts in Loudon County, Virginia. Braxton was a resident of Loudon County when he enlisted as a private in the Virginia Militia. While servingin that Militia in Hanover County, Virginia, in April or May 1780, he enlisted and served as sergeant in Captain William Armistead's company, Colonel Charles Dabney's Virginia Regiment of Light Dragoons.
On 20 August 1832 in Pendleton County, Kentucky, Braxton applied for apension for his Revolutionary War service. He gave the following account of his service: "he was at the taking of Cornwallis at the Siege of York and assisted in guarding the prisoners up to Winchester, Virginia, where he was taken with the smallpox and continued until the spring of 1783, and was stationed at Richmond, Virginia, where he remained until he was discharged in May 1783. From the great lapse of time he cannot recollect the different counties he passed through, that he served with no Continental troops until the taking of Cornwallis at the Siege of York: He was then with General Washington at LaFayette."
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John Poage, born 16 May 1724 in Antrim County, Northern Ireland and died on 16 March 1789 at the Poage Homestead in Staunton, Augusta, Virginia.
General John Breckenridge Poage and his brother Colonel George Poage were Revolutionary soldiers at the Battle of Point Pleasant and the Siege of Yorktown.
Poage’s Landing in today's Boyd County, Kentucky, the settlement which pre-dated the town of Ashland by over 50 years, was so named in honor of these distinguished gentlemen who had pioneered their way into this section from their ancestral homes in Virginia.
The Ashland, Kentucky Chapter of the DAR was named the Poage Chapter in October, 1909 when it was founded. "On that historical occasion, seventeen women banded themselves together for organization, and formed the nucleus of the outstanding Poage Chapter that it is today. The name Poage was chosen in honor of General John Poage from whom fourteen of the seventeen members were lineally descended."
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John Hopkins, born in 1732 in Donegal, Ireland and died on 4 June 1791 in Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Virginia.
John Archibald Hopkins was the subject in a letter written December 7, 1876, by Cyrus Hopkins, of Uppertract, Pendleton County, Virginia, a grandson of John Hopkins, the pioneer, he says, "John Hopkins lived in Rockingham County and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He also represented his country in the Legislature." We also have this from the War Department, military secretary's office, at Washington: "The records of this office show that one John Hopkins served as a private in captain David Stephenson's Company, 8th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Abraham Bowman, Revolutionary War. He enlisted February 21, 1778, to serve three years. He was transferred to Captain William Croghan's Company, 4th, 8th, and 12th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel James Wood, in June 1778; to Captain William Croghan's Company, 4th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Nevill, in September 1778, and to Captain-Lieutenant Leonard Cooper's Company, same regiment, in May 1779. His name last appears in the roll dated December 9, 1779, without special remark relative to his service."
His SAR Membership number is 89552.
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