Morrison's Pensions
Pension Application for Thomas Sammons
W.19000
District
of Columbia
City of Washington
Thomas Sammons of the County of Montgomery in the State of New York being duly sworn doth depose and say that he is aged seventy two years and was a soldier in the Militia and State Troops during the Revolutionary War and is now on the pension Roll of the United States that is brother Frederick Sammons of the same county was in the years 1780 on the 22 day of May taken a prisoner of war along with this deponent while in arms against the common enemy and while actually engaged in a military capacity having been ordered out by Col. Fisher commandant of the regiment to which he belonged as a sergeant in Capt Abraham Veeder’s Company the week previous to his capture and this deponent further says that the said Frederick was permitted occasionally to return to his father’s house but without having been discharged from the service as this deponent believes and this deponent further says that he was informed and then believed and still does believe that the said Regiment as commanded by Col. Fisher was ordered into service pursuant to and according to the laws of the State of New York and this deponent further says that when the said Frederick Sammons was on the 22 day of May in the year 1780 made prisoner along with this deponent and this deponent had not then to his knowledge been discharged from the service but on the same day made his escape from the enemy and returned to the picket fort but the said Frederick was taken to Chamblee in lower Canada from there soon afterwards made his escape, was retaken by the enemy and remained a prisoner there and at prison island more than two years afterwards the most part of the time in irons, from prison island he and another prisoner by the name of McMullen by jumping or throwing themselves into the river and swam off, released themselves from the enemy and arrived at Schenectady after traveling through the wilderness about two weeks.
Sworn to before me, J. Broeck, (Justice of the Peace) February 24, 1834
State
of New York
Montgomery County
Thomas Sammons of the Town of Johnston County of Montgomery, former being
duly sworn says that his brother Frederick Sammons who is an applicant for
a pension was to this deponents knowledge actively engaged as a partisan soldier
a great number of times during the Revolutionary War that he was frequently
sent out with the Militia on scouting parties which was a dangerous, laborious
service that to his knowledge, he the said Frederick frequently turned out
and did duty under arms at various places and under various officers in the
County of Tryon, now Montgomery County.
And this deponent further states that he this deponent and his brother the said Frederick Sammons were both taking prisoners on the 22 day of May 1780 that this deponent made his escape from the same day but his brother Frederick Sammons remained a prisoner and was taken a prisoner to Canada where he remained till the fall of the year 1782 when he made his escape from the enemy which this deponent well recollects he arrived at Schenectady and wrote to father. I went with a wagon and fetched him and a Mr. McMullen who made his escape with him to the place wherein I said.
THO. SAMMONS
Subscribed and sworn to this 28 day of May 1833 and I certify that the said Thomas Sammons is a person of the first respectability and a credible witness.
Before me, Aaron Harring Jus. Peace of Montgomery County NY State.
State
of New York
County of Montgomery
On this 20th day of September one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, personally
appeared in open court before the judges of the court of Common Pleas in and
for said County now sitting Thomas Sammons a resident of the Town of Johnstown
in said county and state aged nearly seventy years, who being first duly sworn
according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order
to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.
That he was born in the town of Shawgunk in the County of Ulster in said State on the 29th October 1762. he has no record of his age except that contained in his family Bible.
When called into the service of the United States in the War of the Revolution he resided in the said Town of Johnstown, and has lived there ever since except for about three years to wit from the latter part of the year 1780, to the end of the war when his father’s family removed to the Town of Marbletown in said County of Ulster, they being obliged to abandon their residence in said Town of Johnstown in consequence of the enemy who destroyed their dwelling house and other property.
He entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.
In the month of June 1775 he entered the company of Militia under the command of Captain Abraham Veeder in the Regiment of Colonel Frederick Fisher at the Town of Johnstown aforesaid as a volunteer; and discharged the duty of a sentinel at the Village of Caughnawaga in said Town for the turn of one week. In the year 1778 in the month of October he was enrolled in the company aforesaid. The other company field officers whom he recollects were Nicholas Dockstader, Lieutenant; Volkert Veeder, Lieutenant Colonel and Major John Newkirk. He continued to serve in said company whenever called upon until the year 1780 when he moved to Ulster County as aforesaid.
The several expeditions in which he engaged, were as near as he can recollect them as following:
To the Town of Palatine for the term of a week with the beginning of the month of November in the year 1778 aforesaid, to the Town of Stone Arabia about six days in the month of November aforesaid.
During the year 1779, he served for the term of one month in the month of July with the whole of said Regiment of Col. Fisher at the German Flatts from thence he volunteered with the consent of said Colonel Fisher in the Regiment of Colonel Gansevoort commanding United States troops to Lake Otsego and served in said Regiment last named nearly two weeks, at the sand flatts in said town of Johnstown guarding this frontier eight days in the beginning of the month of September in the year last named to Fort Plank at Canajoharie and other places in that quarter eleven days in the month of November in the year last named.
Sometime in the month of April 1780 he was ordered out to guard the frontiers at the residence of Adam Fonda in said town of Johnstown and elsewhere in that quarter for the term of eight days and more. In the month of May the next in the said Town of Johnstown at the village in said town named there a few days and from there went out with a scouting party under Lieutenant William Wallace and served in this tour about nine days. On the 22d day of the month last named he was taken prisoner together with his father and his two brothers by a party of the enemy about 500 strong under Sir John Johnston, the same day he succeeded in effecting his escape and returned to the Village of Johnstown aforesaid and was there examined by Col. John Harper and Lt. Col. Veeder respecting the condition of the enemy, he there joined the Militia when in pursuit fo the enemy. He was in this town only three days when the Militia aforesaid were dismissed.
In the month of June then next was ordered out in search of Tories who rendezvoused in the vicinity of Johnstown aforesaid for about four days.
In the month of July he was ordered out again in the Militia on an alarm that the enemy were approaching which however did not prove to be the case.
In the latter part of the month of July last named he volunteered to join the Militia in pursuit of the enemy who were then engaged in destroying the settlements at and near Fort Plank and was out in this town about four days.
In the month of November in the year last named Sir John Johnson with the troops under his command having attacked Schoharie by surprise marched to Fort Hunter on the Mohawk River and from thence proceeded up the Mohawk River burning and destroying everything within their reach on both sides of said river as far as Palatine.
The Militia on this occasion were ordered out under General Van Rensselaer to pursue the enemy, he the claimant joined with the volunteers under Captain McKean who had a party of Oneida Indians with him, and served under said Captain McKean in this expedition about fourteen days. He was in the battle fought on this occasion.
In the year 1781, he enlisted and served for the term of nine months in the company of State Troops commanded by Captain Henry Pauling in Colonel Albert Paulding’s Regiment. He enlisted in said company at the Town of Marbletown aforesaid and served in said County of Ulster in guarding the frontiers in that quarter, and at the end of said term of nine months he was discharged at Marbeltown aforesaid, but received no written discharge of his service.
In the following year 1782, he served as a substitute for Thomas Broadhead in Colonel Wysenvelt’s Regiment of State Troops under said Henry Paulding for the term of one month at Churchland in said County of Ulster in guarding the frontiers. During said year 1782 he served several times in the company of Militia in his ?? in said County of Ulster to wit, Captain Frederick Shoonmaker’s company in John Cantine’s Regiment, for how a period he served in the Militia aforesaid he cannot give an exact account, but knows that the whole period for which he served his country, as a soldier in the War of the Revolution exceeds thirtten months and eight days.
He knew Major Van Benschoten, Colonel Lewis Dubois, Colonel James Livingston, and Major Thomas DeWitt, Captain Andrew Finks, Captain Fincks.
He never received any written discharge. He has no documentary evidence, but can product the testimony of witnesses who can swear to his services.
The following are the names of persons to whom he is known in his present neighborhood, and who can testify as to his character for veracity and their belief of his services as a soldier of the Revolution. Viz.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declared that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.
Signed Tho. Sammons
Subscribed and swore the day and year aforesaid. (can’t read that name)
We, Isaac S. Ketcham a clergyman residing in the Town of Palatine in the County aforesaid and Simon Veeder of the Town of Johnstown in said county do hereby certify that we are well acquainted within Thomas Sammons who has subscribed and sworn to the foregoing declaration: that we believe him to be nearly seventy years of age, that hid is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution and that we concur in that opinion.
Subscribed and sworn the day and year aforesaid.
Signed, Simon Veeder
Isaac S. Ketcham
And the said court do hereby declare their opinion after the investigation of the matter and after putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department.
State
of New York
County of Montgomery
On this twenty fifth day of January in the year one thousand eight hundred
forty three personally appeared before me, Jacob Graff, a Judge of the County
Courts of Montgomery County (the same being a Court of Record) Mary Sammons,
a resident of the Town of Mohawk in said County, aged sixty nine years, who
being first duly sworn, according to law, doth on her oath, make the following
declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the Act
of Congress, passed July 7th 1838 entitled “An Act granting half pay
and pensions to certain widows.” That she is the widow of Thomas Sammons
who was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army and was a pensioner under the
Act of Congress passed June 7th 1832. She further declares that she was married
to the said Thomas Sammons on the sixteenth day of December in the year seventeen
hundred and ninety two, that her husband the aforesaid Thomas Sammons died
on the twentieth day of November in the year eighteen hundred and thirty eight.
That she was not married to him prior to his leaving the service, but the marriage took place previous to the first of January Seventeen Hundred and Ninety four, viz at the time above stated. She further declares that her surname previous to her marriage was Wood, and that she was married in the Town of Caughnawaga, County of Montgomery, and State of New York by the Rev’d Thomas Romeyn, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in that town and that owing to infirmity she cannot write.
Sworn and subscribed on the day and year above written before me. Her Mark, Mary Sammons.
Jacob Graff, a Judge of Montgomery County. Can't read the other signature.