State of Kentucky,
Harrison County §
On this 18th day of September in the
year 1832 personally appeared in Open Court before the Honorable
Henry O. Brown, Judge of the Harrison County Circuit Court now
Sitting, Michael Smith, a resident of the county of Harrison
in the State of Kentucky, aged Eighty years, who being
first duly sworn according to law does on his Oath make the following
declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress
passed June 7th, 1832. That in the month of June preceding
the battle of Bunker Hill he enlisted as a private at Hagers
Town in Maryland for one year under Capt. Cresup, in the Regiment
commanded by Col. Stephenson, and went immediately to Boston,
and from thence to New York. ~~
This declarant states that during this
year Capt. Cresup with whom he enlisted was promoted to the rank
of Colonel, & then Capt. Cresup the nephew of the first Capt.
Cresap commanded the company to which he belonged, and at the
end of the year, they were discharged at New York by Col.
Rawlings. That during this year was the battle of Long Island,
that the troops to which he was attached at the time of the battle
were at Bargain Town and could not get over the River.
That soon after the close of the year’s
Service he enlisted as a private under Capt. Smyser at Little
York in Pennsylvania for the term of Six Months and was attached
to the flying camp and commanded by Col. Swope during this Six
Months. We were in Fort Washington, Fort Constitution, and
Fort Lee, and had frequent skermishes with the troops commanded
by Genl. Howe.
And that during the last of of these
Six Months he enlisted again as a private with Capt. Smizer
for and during the war, & the Batallion to which he then
belonged was commanded by Maj. Williams and that Regt. by Col.
Swope, that this enlistment was at Fort Constitution on North
River in the State of New York and that he was immediately
taken over to Fort Washington and placed under the command
of Col. McGan, and about three days afterwards was taken Prisoner
by the Hessians commanded by Genl. Stephenson and was taken
to New York and imprisoned between two and three months
and then let out on parole.
The declarant further States that all
the documentary evidence of his Services have either been lost
or were taken from him by the enemy when he was taken Prisoner
and that he knows of no person who he can procure to testify
to his Services except Leonard Eddleman of Rush County in the
State of Indiana, whose affidavit accompanies this declaration
and that he the declarant is a native of Washington County in
the state of Maryland and was born in the year 1752 & that
he has no record evidence of his age.
That he hereby relinquishes every claim
whatever to a Pension or annuity except the present, and declares
that his name is not on the Pension roll of the agency of any
State. Sworn and Subscribed this day and year aforesaid.
Michael Smith
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Michael Smith md. 1st Regina Fruit, ca
1785. They had two sons, Martin (1786 in PA) & Peter Smith
(1787 in VA), and one daughter, our Catharine Smith, born 3 Feb
1795 in KY.
Theirs was one of many Rowan Co. families
to move to the Blue Grass region of KY. Many of the early settlers
of Harrison County had been soldiers in the Revolutionary army,
and at its close had received tracts of land in the “County
of Kentucky” for their services in the war for independence.
Regina died bef Sep 1797, when Michael
md. 2nd Mrs. Nancy Levite, widow, on 18 Sep 1797, in Montgomery
Co., KY. He was 45 years old and the Peter Smith who was his
bondsman was probably his brother (his son Peter was only 10).
Michael Smith and his 2nd wife Nancy
had four children -- John (1801), George W. (ca 1804), Elizabeth
"Betsy" (1806) and Amanda Smith (1820), all in Harrison
Co., KY.
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