Geneabloggers Military Monday – John Ferguson a Revolutionary Soldier

The top of the stone says "Revolutionary Soldier"

When I began researching our family, I knew that those who immigrated came to the United States in the 1850s through the 1890s.  I didn’t look for Revolutionary War soldiers or Civil War soldiers.  However in researching my husband’s Scottish ancestors, it became apparent that the Ferguson/Furgeson line came to the United States and was in Virginia as early as 1665 when Robert Ferguson married Mary in York, Virginia. Thus I began looking at the Revolutionary War records.

 John Ferguson was a member of the fourth generation of Fergusons born in the United States.  The family began their roots in Virginia and by 1770 John Ferguson had moved, with his family, to Stokes, North Carolina.

John married Hannah Barrow about 1770 in Stokes and they began their family with their first child Mary born in 1775.  In his pension application, dated  20^th Oct, 1834, John states that he was drafted in Brunswick County, Virginia into the company of Captain Charles Lucas and that he and his company joined the troops under Col Grey Jenkins in Surry County. 

After five months of service he and the other volunteers serving under Col Phillips were discharged at Shrewsbury, North Carolina.  John Ferguson served a total of fourteen months in the Continental army in three different tours.  One tour he served as a sergeant and the other tours were served as a private.

In his deposition, John describes his birth in  York County, Virginia twelve miles below Little York.  He didn’t remember the year but he knows he was seventy nine last January.  (1834-79=1755)

Since the Revolutionary War he has lived in Green County, Ohio from 1811 to 1813 and then he moved to Union County, Indiana.  In 1831 John Ferguson moved to Boone County, Indiana, his current residence.

John couldn’t remember the names of any of his commanding officers above the rank of Colonel and had

no written documentation of his claims.  His advanced age had affected his memories.  There were

two witnesses to support the claim of John Ferguson and they were all residents of Sugar Creek

Township, Boone County, Indiana.  John B Miller and Abram Ultch were well regarded in the area and 

their testimony was believed.  A pension of $40.00 per year was awarded to John Ferguson on 3 Feb 1833.  

Bethany Deacons was John Ferguson’s second wife.  John Ferguson died 14 Feb 1843 and is buried

 in Boone County, Indiana.  In 1858, Bethany Ferguson applied for a widow’s pension.  They had married 

in Union County, Indiana 20 May, 1828 and had two children Jonathan (b 1830) and Bethany (b1831).

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photo credit : find a grave  R & S Fine

Revolutionary War pension files : fold3