"Join, or Die" by Benjamin Franklin to encourage the former colonies to unite against British rule. From the Library of Congress.
WILLIAM BEDEN, the longest-served Revolutionary War soldier in my line to date, is listed in very few genealogy trees.
Sometimes I troll through my tree because today, I have much different goals than I did back when I was a teenager. Then, I wanted to push each line back to the The Boat.
Now, my goal is to tell the stories of my ancestors. Perhaps it's because my maternal grandfather was an awesome story-teller. I don't know, but I enjoy this new goal.
The Revolutionary War is not my specialty. As a matter of fact, I was trying to do some research on one of my War of 1812 ancestors (also not my specialty) who had lived close to where I was raised and got totally sidelined when I had to look at my entire tree and William kind of jumped out and said "Me! Me!"
BACK STORY. William Beden (also spelled Beeden, Bedeen, Badon, among others), is thought to have been born in Connecticut but he seems to have emotional ties to Rhode Island. (He married in Connecticut and served in the Connecticut Line during the Revolution.) He married Caty Sunderland in 1784 and the following records pertain to their family:
Recent photo from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington_Center_Historic_District
RECORDS OF: Huntington Congregational Church, Shelton, Connecticut.
MARRIAGE: William, married Caty Sunderland of Ripton, 18 Apr 1784.
BAPTISMS:
4
Sep 1785 Son Alpheus Peleg baptized. It
is also noted in the church history that Caty “renewed her
covenant”. There is conflicting thoughts on exactly what this
means. Since she was from Ripton, it could be that it was his church. They most likely were members of the Congregational Church in Vermont too since the minister there officiated over daughter Katherine's marriage.
5
Nov 1785 Daughter Caty/Katherine baptized.
I do not know why Alpheus and his sister Caty were baptized two months apart.
5
Feb 1792 Child Smithfield baptized. All
the histories of the Fairfield, Vermont area has Smithfield born in 1789 there yet
here he is being baptized in 1792 in Connecticut. Why? Interestingly, Smithfield and Peleg, their first two sons, appear to be named for Smithfield, Rhode Island, and first Chief Justice Peleg Arnold, respectively.
From Wikipedia: The area was originally within the boundaries of Providence [Rhode Island] until 1731 when Smithfield was incorporated as a separate town and named after Smithfield, London. Chief Justice Peleg Arnold lived in early Smithfield, and his 1690 home still stands today. This definitely needs more research.
How did Caty and William end up in Fairfield, Vermont? Many of the early inhabitants were from Fairfield, Connecticut and, in fact, I think Caty's parents migrated there too, but I only have the briefest of information on them currently.
THE FIRST THING I DO when I start writing a timeline for an ancestor is to look for his/her presence on WikiTree. Although this is supposed to be a "records proven only" site, it is not and people have completely diluted it by just uploading their trees with no sources, or a gedcom as a source. Still I check it just in case, then compare it against all of my ancestry.com "hints". Then I meticulously go through every hint I have added.
I know I am supposed to investigate the hints before I add them because it messes up the algorithms for the searches if it's added to the incorrect person. But they sometimes disappear so I want to grab them when I can. My goodness, the information that is found when one actually reads the records!
New York Revolutionary War records compiled in 1835. William was a Corporal when the war ended, was living in Seneca County, New York, lists some financial info, notes when he was placed on the pension roll in 1821, he transferred from Vermont, and died 2 November 1832. Screen shot from Ancestry.com.
I would also like to mention something I just realized after years of using ancestry.com:
Always, ALWAYS look at the bottom of what you download. This has 12 freakin pages to scroll through!!! How did I not know this? At any rate, I'm trying to decipher the handwriting which is 100 times worse than anything I've run across in Civil War files. It appears to include an inventory of everything he owns (including cooper equipment and 10 acres). This could be because he is is receiving disability, not just a pension. His unnamed wife AND HIS 85 year old unnamed mother, and his last two children are also part of the household at that time. Who-hooooo!
The holy grail for some researchers of the Civil War is Gettysburg; for the Revolution, it is Valley Forge. I am trying to find something similar to a Unit History to find where William was for those war years. I am also trying to determine if the William Boden who owned property in the Virginia Military District of Ohio is our William Beden.
Stay tuned...
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