For this post, I owe a debt of thanks to my friend Debbie, who, while we were talking genealogy the other weekend, looked over my 5great-grandfather William Wade's WikiTree page. It had been quite some time since I have closely examined it, and she pointed out something I had not noticed.
"You've looked at his DAR info?" she asked.
"DAR?" I wondered. I had no notes or recollection of him serving as a patriot.
She clicked the link, and together we examined his entry in the Ancestor Database. Somehow, if it ever occurred to me that he had served in the Revolutionary War, I had long since forgotten. The revelation caught me by surprise. I noted that his entry provided a source for his service, and planned to research it soon.
Last weekend, I began to delve. These are just my initial ponderings and discoveries. I know that they are far from fully thought out, and, honestly, I am finding this research rather confusing. This post is less intended to share conclusions than it is to help me lay things out and make some sort of sense of them. So take any genealogical information in this post with a great big heap of salt.
The Agreement
Following up on the source for William Wade's service cited in the DAR database, I located the following document transcription (hereafter referred to by me as "The Agreement"):
Agreement on the Part of Some of the Inhabitants of
Monongalia County to Submit to Future
Military Orders.
[Draper MSS., 51J59.--D.S.]
Hardins Mill Monongalia County
June 19th 1781.
We the subscribers being Accessary to a Riot in Suppressing a
draught in this county on the 12th Inst Being Sensible of our Error
and as a security of our future good conduct do hereby Engage to
Serve Ten months in the continental Service in case we should
be guilty of like misdeminor, Or acting against the Legal Laws
of any State or perticular Resolves of congress or saying anything
against the Genl Insterest of the country as witness our hands the
day & date above mentioned.
John Rorkley
Jesse his X mark Worthington
William Wade
Benjamin his X mark Deane
Daniel Robbens
John Lucas
William Robbens
John his X mark Harden
Peter his X mark Peekenpaugh
test B. W
Robert Harding
William his X mark Murfy
BW
Richd Lucas
John his X mark Worthington
Benjamin Brooke
Thomas Wade
George Robbens
Hezekiah Wade
George his X mark Wade
Isaac Robins
John Wade
Wenman his X mark Wade
Samuel Haily
As I understand it, William Wade (along with several other Wades, probably related, and a number of others) was involved in a riot on 12 June 1781 in Monongalia county, trying to suppress a military draft. They either signed this document as a promise of their good behavior, saying that if they should again be guilty of breaking the law or even just speaking against the country, they would serve ten months in the Continental service, or they signed it promising ten months in the Continental service to prevent them breaking any more laws. I find the language somewhat ambiguous.
At any rate, the idea that my 5great-grandfather participated in an anti-draft riot fascinated me, and my next step was to try (unsuccessfully) to find information on the referenced riot. That failing, I moved on to trying to find information on Hardin's Mill, the location cited on the document, as well as several of the other names signed, both Wades and some of the other surnames. I was finding such small bits and pieces of information, and so little that seemed relevant to my question, that I have utterly lost track of the sequence of research. This was not a case of one piece of information leading to another. Rather, it is like scattered pieces that may or may not belong to the same puzzle.
Pension File: George Wade
The Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters, an invaluable website for researchers of patriots in the southern states, notes that George Wade's "pension application was not found," but contains a transcription of a report by District Attorney W. G. Singleton. In it, George Wade provides a narrative in which he states:
I was nineteen years the month I first went into the service - I then resided in Fayette County Pensylvania [then claimed by VA] - was there drafted & marched under Capt Jno. cross... the second summer after I returned from the preceeding campaign, I served one month at Martin's Fort Mon'ga Cty... I cant tell in what year the preceeding service was done.
The part about Fayette county, Pennsylvania threw me at first, but I quickly discovered that the present Fayette county adjoins the present Monongalia county, which is currently in West Virginia, and was at the time of the Revolution in Virginia. The part about being drafted seemed at first blush to contradict what I had read in the Agreement, but then it occurred to me that perhaps he had rioted because he had been drafted.
The transcription goes on to refer to a suit for the recovery of money paid on false papers. First rioting, and now fraud? I am intrigued. Some notes follow:
Age 72 in 1833. Born in one of the lower counties of MD 25 Sept 1760. His father moved to Augusta Co. VA when he was 6-7 years old, and to Monongalia Co. when he was about 15. Drafted in 1777. Indian Spy guarding the frontiers 1779-83. His brother, Wenman Wade now lives in Monongalia Co.
Monongalia county was formed from part of Augusta county in 1776, when George would have been about 15 or 16, so, depending on where the family was living, the "move" to Monongalia may have required no actual moving at all. However, the other dates cause some confusion. The riot was supposed to have occurred on 12 June 1781. If he had already been drafted in 1777 and was drafted again in 1781, that might be some cause for rioting, but wouldn't working as an Indian Spy from 1779-83 preclude his being drafted? Why, then, would he be rioting?
I rejoice to see the mention of his brother Wenman Wade, who also signed the Agreement. It seems verification that this pension statement refers to the correct George Wade.
The notes continue,
Ensign Pearce, Capt. Cross.... Charged with false swearing and for recovery of money paid on false papers. Defendant died just prior to 4 April 1840
and later, dated 12 Sept 1840,
G. Wade, who purports to be deceased, is still living.
The intrigue increases. Rioting, then fraud, and now false death? Am I reading all of this correctly?
The transcription contains yet more, some letters apparently written after George Wade's real death. As I understand them, George's sons were claiming that George had received a pension for several years, and then the pension was withheld, "as they conceive illegally and unjustly." His pension had been approved on the proof of "a respectable citizen named Amos Morris." His name was later stricken from the pension list, along with Peter Haught and Zachariah Piles, who were "engaged in the same kind of service," and "whose names have been restored to the Pension List."
It seems that W. G. Singleton embarked on prosecutions against these three veterans which
were cruel, highly repulsive to public sentiment at the time, and resulted in nothing but the loss of thousands to the government to secure a few hundred dollars, and to the parties prosecuted to more sacrifice and loss than the arrears claimed by their heirs will reimburse.
W. G. Singleton "was the laughing stock of the legal profession and never even obtained a mediocre standing at the bar."
The final note at the conclusion of the transcription explains the entire situation:
Haught, Piles, and Wade, were pensioned, through an agent named John Brookover, assisted by a Mr Wilson or some other attorney in Morgantown. The parties refused to pay Brookover an exorbitant fee he demanded. Brookover took offence, visited Clarksburgh and informed W. G. Singleton, Esqr U. S. dist. attorney that the pensions were fraudulently obtained. Brookover was a cunning and unprincipled man, but very ignorant.
So it seems that the entire fraud accusation was untrue, based only in the petty revenge of a dishonest agent.
As fascinating as this pension statement was, it provided no evidence of George Wade's relationship to William Wade, let alone evidence that the William Wade who signed the Agreement is my William Wade. It did help slightly in fleshing out the relationships of some of the Wades who signed the Agreement, proving that George and Wenman were brothers.
Pension File: Hezekiah Wade
The Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters does not have any transcriptions for Wenman Wade or William Wade, but it does have one for Hezekiah. There are also transcriptions for men by the names of Thomas Wade and John Wade, but on reading them I am less certain they are the same men who signed the Agreement.
Hezekiah's record declares that he, too, served as an Indian spy, beginning in April 1776 at Augusta, Virginia, now Monongalia, West Virginia. After three months' service he was discharged, and then ordered out again in March 1777. This time he served eight months. He volunteered again in March 1778 for a period of five months. For each of these periods of service, some details of the action were given, but this third one includes a heartbreaking incident which also contains some genealogical information:
Upon one of his Spying excursions had discovered the trail of a large number of Indians... affiant hastened to Stradlers Fort on Duncard Creek, to alarm the people of what he had discovered... On his approach to said Fort the marks of distress was obvious - the night preceeding the enemy Consisting of one Hundred warriors discryed a number of about twenty Five men, a working some Corn &c... the Savages placed themselves in ambush on each side of the path leading from thence to the Fort, and on the passage of the laborers to the Fort... they were fired at, by the savages and Eighteen of their number, were killed dead on the ground amoung whom was affiants Father, Joseph Wade, Jacob Stradler... the Fort was kept closed, until time had proved their Departure, when affiant amoung others repaired to the ground upon which the bloody deed was committed, and intered the mangled limbs of those who fell at the Charge of the enemy.
So now we could possibly infer that Hezekiah Wade's father's name was Joseph, and that Hezekiah had to see what no child ever wants to see. However, Hezekiah's WikiTree page gives his father's name as George. It seems that "affiants Father" and "Joseph Wade" are two different people, the latter perhaps a brother or an uncle to Hezekiah. However, that George Wade's WikiTree page gives his death date as about 1816 in Maryland, so there is obviously some error to clear up.
At any rate, Hezekiah was "feeling himself so much aggrived at the distruction by the Savages and hurt at the loss of his Father" that he volunteered again in March 1779 for nine months. He was ordered out again in April 1780 for a month, and April 1781 for six months. This last period of time overlaps the Agreement above, making the Agreement even more confusing.
The transcription ends with lots of genealogical information, mostly regarding Hezekiah's wife and children and therefore of little relevance to my current investigation. However, there was one tidbit that could aid in my research:
A letter dated 22 July 1845 states that two brothers of Hezekiah Wade had died while living in Monongalia County within a week or two of each other.
I don't know exactly how this knowledge will help me, especially since it does not share the names of the brothers, nor when or how they died. It could have been in childhood, during the war, or after. Was it sickness, warfare, or mere coincidence?
