Pension Application of Peter McCune W7412
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
Virginia At a Court held for the County of Lewis on Monday the 3d day of August 1818
Present John Mitchel [pension application S5761] William Hacker, Samuel Z Jones
[S18474] and David Smith Justice of the peace for said County Whereupon Peter McCune of said County personally appeared in Court and after being duly sworn states that he Enlisted as a Soldier in the Revolutionary War in the year 1778 at Pittsburg [Pittsburgh] entered as a private in Captain Campbells Company of Regulars attached to the 9th Virginia Regiment under Colonel [John] Gibson that he remained in the service of the Untied States against the English and Indians attached to the said 9th Regiment for three years when he was regularly discharged at Wheeling in the year 1781 that he has lost his discharge that is aged 70 years next November and has now no other Evidence of his said services and that from his reduced circumstances he stands in need of the assistance of his Country for support. [Certification by the court.]
Virginia SS At A Court held for the County of Lewis on the 13th day of September
1820 it being a Court of Record for said County Peter McCune a resident of the said County of Lewis who being first duly Sworn according to Law doth on his oath declare that he served in the Revolutionary War as follows towit that he Enlisted as a Soldier in the Revolutionary War in the year 1777 in a Company of Regulars under the command of Captain John Lewis of the 2nd Virginia Regiment under the command of Col Thomas Morgan that he afterwards at Petersburg entered as a private in Captain Campbells Company of Regulars attached to the 9th Virginia Regiment under Col Gibson that he remained in the Service of the united states against the English and Indians attached to said 9th Regiment for three years when he was Regularly discharged at Wheeling in the year 1781 and that he has lost his discharge that he is aged 72 years next November that he has received a Pension Certificate dated the 5th day of March 1819, No 7165, Endorsed “payable semianuly the first payment on this Certificate will be made on the 4th of September next in Richmond Virginia at the U.S. Branch bank And I the said Peter McCune do swear that I was a resident Citizen of the United States on the 18th of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift sale or in any other manner, disposed of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an Act of Congress entitled “an act to provide for certain persons ingaged in the Land and Navle Service of the United States in the Revolutionary War passed on the 18th day of March 1818 And that I have not nor has any person in trust for me any property or securities contracts or debts due to me nor have I any Income whatsoever nor have I any property real or personal whatsoever Except the property named in the Schedule hereto annexed and I have no occupation & am not able to perform labour sufficient to support me and have a wife equally as helpless as myself and the said Peter McCune also made oath to the following Schedule towit
One Mare 12 years old,
One last Sprig’s [spring’s] Colt
One Milk Cow & three yearling Calves
On 4 year old horse, lame in one of his legs, for which Horse I am in Debt
Peter McCune
NOTES: On 1 Oct 1839 Christianna McCune of Kanawha County, 72, applied for a pension stating that she was married to Peter McCune on 13 Jan 1781 at age 14 by a Baptist preacher named Edwards while they were forted against the Indians in Fort Richards on West Fork River about 10 miles south of Clarksburg. She added “that her youthful affection was placed on the said Peter McCune as a soldier that she married him with the understanding that he was then a soldier in the service of his Country, guarding the fort, and she distinctly recollects that the said Peter McCune was married to her, dressed in his soldiers uniform, and that he rendered many and arduous services after their marriage, during the greater part of the Indian war… and that she herself has shared in all the dangers and toils incident to the wife of a soldier engaged in savage warfare and that she has slept by the side of her husband when he was ordered to lay upon his arms, and that such was the fondness of her late husband, Peter McCune for military life, that even in old age during the late war he substituted and performed at least one six months tour of duty.” She stated that she and Peter McCune had six sons and four daughters, and he died 15 Jan 1832.
In support of her application, Elijah Runion [pension application R9079], 78, deposed that he was present at the marriage of Peter McCune to Christianna, daughter of Adam Obrian, that Runion himself had married a widow with a daughter two or three years old. He added “that the appearance of the bride at the time she was married was that of a verry young girl, he says that he recollects Joking her on the occasion, and told her to roll up some handkerchiefs and put in her bosom to give appearance of breasts.”
On 9 Oct 1839 Adam Flesher [S18403], 75, deposed that he was also present at the
marriage and that McCune wore “what was called a Mcaruona [macaroni] hat such as soldiers wore, and a blue coat faced with red.”
A letter in the file states that Christianna McCune had been a pauper since about 1836 and was living with a son-in-law in Kanawha County near Lewis County. Another document mentions a son-in-law, Barnabas Cook, who was a Justice of the Peace.
A 25 Mar 1840 letter to J. L. Edwards, Commissioner of Pensions, indicates that Edwards had suspended Christianna McCune’s pension because of a supposed contradiction between the dates of marriage given by Peter McCune and his widow. In addition, Edwards appears to have been suspicious that Peter McCune did not mention his Indian service, even though such service would not have been covered by the pension law under which he applied. On 5 Jun 1840 Christianna McCune reapplied for a pension, giving the same date of marriage, but stating that Peter McCune died on 15 Jan 1831. A letter dated 10 Jun 1840 states that Mrs. McCune remembered that her husband was still in service at the time of the marriage, and he later went to Pittsburgh to get his discharge. It may be relevant that because of numerous fraudulent pension applications from Lewis and Harrison counties under the act of 1832, Edwards soured on all pension applications from that region. For details see the pension application of David W. Sleeth (S6111). On 24 Aug 1843 Christianna McCune successfully applied for a pension under a law passed in that year.
http://revwarapps.org/w7412.pdf
