Morrison's Pensions

Pension Application for Derick VanVechten or Van Veghten

S.23047
State of New York
Montgomery County SS
            On this nineteenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty tow personally appeared in open court before the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in & for the County of Montgomery now sitting Derick VanVechten a resident of the Town of Florida in the County of Montgomery and State of New York aged seventy nine 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 the said Dirck VanVeghten was born on the 24th day of October at Catskill, Greene County in the State of New York. That he has a record of his age in a Bible which was kept by his father & Grandfather.  That he entered the service of the United States at Florida in the County of Montgomery aforesaid, at which place he then resided, as an ensign & as a volunteer in a company of Militia sometime in the year 1776 but cannot recollect the day or month, that the officers in said company were Emmanuel DeGraff Captain, Josias Swart 1st Lieutenant, Peter VanOLinda 2nd Lieutenant & himself as Ensign, that he served as an Ensign in this company from the time he so entered until the close of the war in the year 1783.  That this company was attached to a Regiment commanded by Col. Frederick Fisher, Lieut. Col. Volkert Veeder & Major John Newkirk that he was chosen Ensign at the time of raising the company but did not receive his commission till sometime in the year 1778, that the names of the other Captain in the same Regiment were Captains McMaster, Yeomans, Pettingal & Hodges.  That his is unable to give the order of their marches or movements, that sometimes the regiment was connected with outer Regiments sometimes separated in companies & parts of companies in such numbers & stationed at such places to guard the dangerous places as the reports received, second to render necessary.  That they were at different times at Fort Hunter, Caughnawaga, Johnstown, Canajoharie, Fort Plain, Stone Arabia, Fort Stanwix & other places along the Mohawk River & the County of Tryon which was then considered frontier & much infested & disturbed by frequent depredations from parties of British, Indians & Tories which required the constant vigilance of Sentinels & Levies of Militia, that he was in the Battle of Oriskany in August 1777 in which Gen. Herkimer was shot & afterwards died of the wounds.  Col. Coxe [Cox] was killed in the same battle & Captain Pettingal also, that Col. Willett came to their assistance and by his activity much greater slaughter was prevented.  That he was also in another battle at a place called Nellis Flatts above Canajoharie against a party of British, Indians, & Tories under the command of Sir John Johnson who had come across the country from Schoharie which place they had burnt.  That the militia at this battle were under the command of Gen. VanRensselaer whose conduct on this occasion did not give much satisfaction to the militia generally.  That his company with others of the Tryon Militia were ordered to Johnstown at the time of the battle at that place that they arrived just after the battle was over.  That they met Col. Willett just leaving the field that the militia were discharged at the close of the war in the year 1783.  But had no written discharges.  That the only documentary evidence he has of his services is his commission that he has resided in Florida ever since the war & still resides there.  That he can prove his services by Hugh McMaster who served with him through then was in another company but in the same regiment.  That the said Hugh was with him in the battle at Nellis Flats & was shot through the body in that battle.  He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever for a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.
            The said Dirck VanVeghten further declares that his services during the period of the war were so spent that he is unable to make any regular computation of him actually on duty or to follow with any order the events or incidents, that this whole period was spent in attending to alarms at the several places above mentioned in periods of time from one day to two weeks, in the winter season they performed but little duty but the remainder of the time they were as much of the time on duty as at home.  He is satisfied that he was during the war actually on duty more than two years.  (Signed) Derick VanVechten
            Subscribed & sworn the day & year aforesaid.  [No signature as witness but a subsequent page it is dated the 20th of September 1832 and signed by Geo. D. Ferguson]
            Reply to request for information dated March 14, 1929.
            I advise you from the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim, W.23047, it appears that Derick VanVechten or VanVeghten was born October 24, 1753 in Catskill, Green County, New York.
            While residing in Florida, New York in 1667 he was elected ensign in Captain Emanuel DeGraff’s Company, Colonel Frederick Fisher’s New York Regiment, his commission as ensign was dated August 22, 1778, he served at various times in said company and regiment, was in the battles of Oriskany and Klock’s Field, was out when Cherry Valley was burned, land out on many other alarms and scouting parties, also did garrison duty, and served until in 1783.
            He was allowed pension on his application executed September 19, 1832, at which time he was living at Florida, New York
            In 1850 George R. Milmine a resident of Fonda, Wisconsin, stated that his mother (her name not given) was a daughter of Derick VanVeghten.
            There are no further data as to family.

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