MIUSA1775D_135547-00509

Pension Application - Revolutionary War: Joshua Ferguson

******************************* ***** In order to obtain the benefit of
the ___ of cover __ __ 7th of June 1832.
State of Missouri County of Callaway
On this [blank] day of May in the year of our Lord in one thousand eight hundred and
thirty four personally appeared in open court before John Conger; James McKinny and
Larkin Craig judges thereof, it being the County Court of Callaway County aforesaid,
at the May Term of the said Court, Joshua Ferguson, a resident of Cotesandein
Township in the County of Callaway aforesaid, aged about eighty one years, who being
first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following statement and
declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions of the act of congress
passed seventy of June 1832. -
I was born in the County of Fairfax in the State of Virginia on the eighth day of
December in the year seventeen hundred and fifty three where I continued to reside
until the year 1784 - in the year '76 or '77, I can not be certain which, we began
to be very much annoyed by the inroads of the British who came up the Potomac in
vessels for the purpose of foraging, getting provisions and burning the property of
the inhabitants, when it became necessary to raise troops to repel the for the
purpose of repelling these inroads of the enemy - I was belonged at that time to
Captain Wrens company of Militia of Fairfax - this company and some others along the
Potomac were under the command of Col. Waggoner and Lieut Col Triplet were reserved
and kept us minute men for the purpose of marching at any point on the river where
the enemy should appear, at a moments warning we were not drafted and I do not
recollect whether we volunteered or not, but I am inclined to think that we did not,
but were ordered, as the militia of that part of the country, had been exposed to a
great burden for the support of the war. - I can not at this day recollect the
precise times where our company marched, but I recollect very well that upon
innumerable occasions we were ordered to march and did march sometimes to Genl
Washington's house to protect it from the invasions of the enemy where we would
remains for several weeks at a time, some times to Alexandria where I along with my
company spent several months at a time in building batteries for cannon for the
defence of the Town - This species of service continued from the year '76 or '77
until the close of the revolutionary, as the british ships during the whole of that
time very frequently visited the Potomac for the purpose of plunder and succeeded in
burning the residence of Col Lyle on the Maryland side and afterward went to Col
____ in Stafford on the Virginia side upon the retiring of the british down the
river we were generally permitted to return to our several homes until again wanted
which very frequently occured, it seems to me that it much has been I know well that
we were several times called upon whilst at times when our marching was almost the
cause of starvation to our families, once I remember in the midst of harvest time
when became compelled to remain on the watch for several weeks in consequence of
which our crops were nearly lost - It so happened that I was not did not during all
this service get into an action with the enemy, though other companies did as the
british were generally not very far from their ships and would retire to them upon
the approach of the our forces except in a very few instances - I was not discharged
by Capt. Wren that I know of - when the war was closed there being no farther need
for our services and we were permitted to remain at home - It is impossible to me to
state with any thing like exactness, at this day, the length of time that I was
engaged in service - properly speaking it seems to me that I might well consider my
self in service from the time of the first organization of our company as minute men
in 76 or 77 until the close of the war, for although it is true that we were
occasionally permitted to go home and attend to our families farms, yet the great
uncertainty as to the time which we would be permitted to remain there prevented us
from being able to do much any thing of much consequence; and besides, it was
generally in the spring, summer & fall & particularly in the summer that our
services was most frequently called into requisition but counting the time of my
service only the time that I was actually out from my house actively employed
guarding the country and protecting the inhabitants I find by reference to my former
statement that I set it down at "three summers" and I can not believe that it was at
all short of that time - by three summers I mean three whole summers or about nine
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MIUSA1775D_135547-00509
months - I am now nearly eighty one years of age. I have tried to recollect more
particularly - but I find my memory has failed me and that however I may suffer in
consequence of it I can not be more particular as to what I have been speaking - I
well know that had it not been for the extraordinary exertion of my wife who was
under the necessity of laboring in the fields on account of my absence - my family
would in all probability have suffered, I can not say to what degree ---- In
addition to the performance of the above named services, I was in common with all
the militia of Fairfax subject to drafts for the regular service, when every sixteen
men had to furnish a soldier for the continental army and as I was poor and had a
wife & children to take care of I was unable to leave home upon such long services
and was therefore put to an expence which I was illy able to bear in procuring or
assisting to procure soldiers for my class [?] . In the year '84 I removed with my
family from my native county to Kentucky where I settled and remained there until
the year eighteen hundred and sixteen when I came to this country and settled in the
county of Callaway where I now reside - whilst in Kentucky my family was much
exposed to danger from the Indians - in common with all the Settlers of that country
- and employed a substitute to march in my place on a campaign against the savages,
as my family was large and I could not leave home without great inconvenience - I
have now stated all that I can distinctly recollect on the subject of my
revolutionary services, I have out lived my contemporaries and therefore know of no
one living who knew me during the revolutionary war - I am not on the pension roll
of the United States nor of an state and have never applied for a pens or received
any pay or pension for or on account of my revolutionary services - except the
application which I made under the law under which I am now applying and which
appears to have been rejected because I could not recollect what day my service
commenced and ended and how long it lasted and also on account of some deficit in
the authentication I did not learn the fate of my application until a long time
after I had made it and as I live some 20 miles from the place and am still able to
travel, I could not as I am advised renew my application but at a Court - for the
officers with whom who commanded our troops & other circumstances I refer to my
first statement - I knew Genl Washington, Major Fitzgerald of Fairfax who was one of
his aids - also Capt West of Fairfax who went into the regular army and under whom
one of my brothers enlisted. But I was not acquainted with many of the officers
belonging to our regiment, because our services as minute men were required in
detached companies and at different points. I have no record of my ages, but have
seen it recorded in my Fathers family bible and my children, some of them are over
fifty years old - I am well known to many people in this county some [?] of them
knew me in Kentucky and I know some here who are the children of my old neighbors in
Fairfax - I am known personally to some of the members of this court and
particularly to John Conger, James McKinny, two of the judges who have known me some
years and am acquainted with my character both here and in Kentucky - I am also
known to George Bartley - Col. George King Hughbert Waugh & others. ---- I do hereby
relinquish all claims to pay or amnesty for any against the government except the
pension which I now ask.
Joshua Ferguson[signature]
Subscribed & sworn to in open court before me clerk of the
County Court of Callaway
Court, this 19th day of May
AD 1834 - Irvine O. Hockaday clerk
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