Person:Amos Ashcraft (1)

Ashcraft, Amos (S16610)^[2]

Affidavit, Cooper County, Missouri, 9 Feb 1833.

Amos Ashcraft, aged about 76 years, resident of cooper County, states that he first joined the service as a volunteer in Pennsylvania under Capt. Thomas Gattis in 1775; marched to the Ohio River about 10 miles above Wheeling at the mouth of Short Creek to guard the frontier against Indians. After about 3 months, they moved upriver and built a fort at "Black Bottom," and he remained there until his 6-month term expired. The following summer [1776], he joined as a volunteer the company of Capt. William Hamon and was stationed for 3 months at Scott's Mill in Virginia, then was detailed to guard the public store of provisions at Col. John Evans's plantation in Virginia, remaining there 3 months until his 6-month term was up. The next season [1777], he joined a "ranging company" under Capt. William Hamon and Maj. James Chew, in which he spent 3 months on the frontier; he was then transferred to the command of Capt. Jesse Pegman and continued his previous duty until the expiration of his term. In 1778, he joined James Daugherty's company under Col. John Evans and Gen. McIntosh, and marched to the Ohio River at Manshone's[?] Bottom, where the militia concentrated. They crossed the river and marched to "the Bluff," where they built Fort McIntosh and were joined by regular army troops. They then marched to the Tuscaroras Fork of the Muskingum River and built Fort Lawrence, near which the fight later took place between the regular army and the Shawnee & Delaware Indians. The militia was then dismissed and returned home.

He declares he was regularly dismissed at the end of each term of service but never received any written document.

[signed] Amos Ashcraft

Supporting statement by William Munro, aged 49, who has known the petitioner since 1810, and similar statements by Otho Ashcraft [relationship not stated] of Howard County, Missouri, and by Rev. Justinian Williams.

Amendment to original affidavit notes that Amos Ashcraft actually resides in Howard County, on the north bank of the Missouri River, but because of age and infirmity has crossed the river to the seat of Cooper County.

To further interrogation, he replies that he was born in Virginia in 1757 but has no written proof of his age; that he first lived in Pennsylvania and since the war lived in Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri; and that persons willing to testify in his support include William Munro, Otho Ashcraft, James Cole, Mark Cole, "and others."

Granted a pension of $80 per year in August 1833. No dated recorded of last payment or death.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Neal, Martha Ashcraft. The Ashcraft Family: Descendants of Daniel Ashcraft. (Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, 1994)
   pp. 452-53.

   According to family tradition, Amos and Elizabeth died in a cholera epidemic, along with 14 other members of their family.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Revolutionary War Pension Application.