Henry Stone, Georgia Revolutionary War Soldier

Were there any applications for the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery in Georgia?  If so, where are they located?

There were two lotteries in Georgia in 1832, one Land and one Gold. The land lottery was in the northern most part of the state and gave away the Cherokee Nation in 160 acre parcels. It was these two lotteries that caused the "Trail of Tears." 

The records that exist are found on Georgia State Archives microfilm and are divided into four sections each consisting of plats and grants.  The basic requirements for eligibility were that a person be a U.S. citizen for three years and a resident of Georgia for three years. Other qualifications allowed for additional draws. One of these was a Revolutionary War veteran who had not previously won was entitled to two draws.

The source that I use for untangling the confusion in my mind about the Georgia lotteries is Paul K. Graham's book, Georgia Land Lottery Research, available from the Georgia Genealogical Society. It is full of explanations about each lottery, research strategies, eligible participants and maps.






I'm trying to find out how Henry Stone qualified as an R.S. in the drawing.   In the index, he is listed as R.S. Sweat's Company in Ware County Georgia. This Company was Militia.

I have always thought that R.S. meant Revolutionary War Service. Still do, but several things bother me about Henry Stone. There is a Henry Stone in James A. Sweat's Company of Ware County, Georgia Militia. 

Now the problem. I find him in Sweat's Company in 1838. A little removed from the Revolutionary War.

It is unlikely that there is a Revolutionary War militia company from Ware County, as the county is not formed until 1824. It was created out of Appling County in 1818 and before that it was Creek Land. It was named Nicholas Ware who was born in 1769, not really old enough to name a county in 1776.

There is a muster roll in The South Georgia Historical and Genealogical Quarterly, v.1, #3, p. 12 that shows a Henry Stone in Captain James A. Sweat's Company, mustered in June 1838 and serving until August 1838 to repel the Indian invasion in Ware County.

There is a Henry Stone, with a Revolutionary War pension, but he comes out of Loudoun County, Virginia and into West Virginia. There is no indication that he made it to Georgia. There is also is a Henry Stone from Connecticut in the militia. The DAR Patriot Index, on page 2592 has three Henry Stone entries, these two and another public service Henry Stone. All are dead by 1833 and the Henry who is the last to die in 1833 is the one from Loudoun County, Virginia who dies in Monongalia County, [West] Virginia. So these are not candidates for Henry Stone of Ware County, Georgia in 1838. There is also no Henry Stone listed in the Census of Pensioners 1840. Of course because he is alive in 1838 does not mean that he is alive in 1840. I am unable to locate a Henry Stone in the 1840 census of Georgia, or in any other census prior to 1850 (a cursory look). There are two Henry Stones (one born in 1780) in Ware County in 1850 (a cursory look).

Georgia Revolutionary Soldiers & Sailors, Patriots & Pioneers, Volume 2, Laurens - Worth Counties does not include any Henry Stone entries. There are four patriots buried in Ware County.

My assumption is that this information comes from Knight's book, Georgia Roster of the Revolution which on page 325 begins a list of Revolutionary War Soldiers and the Widows of Revolutionary War
Soldiers listed in the Cherokee Land Lottery, 1838. Henry Stone is listed on page 330 as District 14, Section 2, Lot 12, Sweat's District, Ware County. This entry is the only Henry Stone in the book based on a full text search. District 14 is in the middle of Cherokee County a far piece from Ware County. It is also possible that it is from The Cherokee Land Lottery, but that book is not in my library, at the moment.

So here we have a source in isolation that says that Henry Stone of Ware County, in Sweat's District in 1838 is a Revolutionary War soldier. 

Was Henry Stone of Ware County a Revolutionary War Soldier?

I doubt it. 

It Just Doesn't Add Up, part 2

You have pointed out a possibility which seems likely - - -

1. The 1903 book's paragraph on "McDowell or McDole" (page 976) concludes with "In 1784 Thomas and William went on to Shirley Hill, Goffstown, where they parted, Thomas going to Vermont where he was never heard from after."   If this 1784 date is correct it seems a cinch that the three generations from original emigre to one of his sons to adulthood to marriage and family could NOT be sufficient to cover the years from "1630 or 1640" to "in 1784"!   

Yep.

2. Also, with some three hours of reading and checking I have located on page 315 of "The History of Bedford" the following - which I had read several times before but had not connected the conflicting aspects of the statement:  "John McLaughlin and Mary, his wife, came from Ireland about 1735;" - obviously not close enough in date to support the trail of events from the genealogy on page 976.    

A better way would be to have gone to Google and found the book. It is

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028812852

and download the text version (the PDFs don't seem to be searchable) and look for your names of interest.

3. Interestingly, I personally located the graves of William McDole "died 1784, at 65th year" therefore born 1719 and of Rosannah McDole "died 1791, 64th year" therefore born 1721.  A single 2" slab - wide enough to stretch across both graves - in Hillside Cemetery (Grasmere, NH).

Nice.

4. Do you ascribe to what I've been told: That those two-graves-wide headstones use the wife's name BEFORE marriage?  If so, "Rosannah McDole" on her stone verifies her prior marriage to William's elder brother, Thomas . . . when the two McDole's, the wife of one and children of two of them arrived in Bedford, Rosannah was then the wife of Thomas and mother of his several children.

To ascribe to it would mean that I considered such rule of thumb to always be true. I don't believe that anything is always true. This tombstone exists in isolation and given that the last names match it does not mean much. You will need to find other evidence to support the possibility of the prior marriage.. 

It Just does not add up

I would like to ask for your assistance in cracking a genealogical "brick wall" with which I have been struggling on and off for some 20 years. At age 97 I am starting to be concerned that I may not live long enough to see it broken.

I am not sure how best to proceed. Perhaps a brief description of what I have found and my understanding of the "brick wall" will suffice for now.

On page 975 of the "History of Bedford New Hampshire from 1737- published by the town - 1903" by the Rumford Printing Company of Concord, N.H. ... the page's heading reads "Genealogies - McDowell" and a sub-head of "McDowell or McDole".

The copy reads:

"This family comes from Scotch ancestry, which, like so many of our townspeople's ancestors, had settled in the north of Ireland (see McPherson.) A father and his two sons, whose names we have not learned, joined the Massachusetts Bay colony about 1630 or 1640. The father was killed in Boston in a singular manner, a tub of butter falling upon and crushing his chest. One son died soon after. The other son married and settled in Londonderry, where three children were born, Thomas, William, and Mary. Both parents died when the children were small, but they found a home with a Mr. McLaughlin."

The genealogy continues for another like number of lines, but the above is enough, I believe, for my query. I have searched Passenger Ship listings for years without locating one listing a father and two sons - under any name - sailing from any port to Boston or to other cities both north and south of

Boston - without locating a father and two sons.

I am anxious to confirm the story as told above - and thus either verify or find faulty the language quoted above.

______

So the time line as I see it is:

1630 or 1640 – Massachusetts Bay Colony, a father >30 lets say and two sons, >10 (old enough to travel)

Father dies, one son dies, remaining son marries at say age >20 or say 1650

1650 – 1660 Three children born of remaining son, Thomas, William, and Mary

1660 about parents die, children are small, live with McLaughlin.

Thomas and William serve in the Revolutionary War at the age of 110 or thereabouts.

So it is more likely that the 1630 to 1640 is a typo and that they arrived in 1730 to 1740 a full hundred years later and at a time much more consistent with Scots-Irish migration to the colonies.

So, I would say that the language is faulty and that going back from what you know and can prove about this family would be a better use of your time. The Bedford history can provide clues but it appears to have problems.

Revolutionary War Service

How did a person qualify for a Revolutionary War Soldier? Did they submit paperwork or any type of document?   Are there applications available for Revolutionary War Soldiers?  If so where are they located?






 A person did not really have to qualify to be a revolutionary war soldier. There were various kinds of service. You probably, before the war, spent time practicing in the militia. The age varied but generally it was 18 to 21. You could serve on multiple occasions through out the war. Then there was the Continental Line, either raised by a state at the request of the Continental Congress. Like the First Virginia Regiment or the Third Virginia Regiment. Then there were regiments raised by the Continental Congress, like the 23rd Continental Regiment. There were rifle regiments, there are artificers (guys who fixed stuff), and then there were also specialty regiments, like Lee's Legion. Then there were State Navies and the Continental Navy and Marines.  

For enlisted men there probably won't be paperwork for enlistment. They would be called enlistment papers. Some do exist, but I have no memory of every seeing but one and it was a recruit muster roll.

For officers, if there are officer appointments you will find reference to them in county court minutes for militia and in state archives, usually the executive branch records. For Continental Line you may find correspondence in the Papers of the Continental Congress available on Fold3. Appointment Letters or Warrants may also be found in the personal papers of the officer if they survive. I do not have any samples of any letters of appointment in my collection.

What is available for Revolutionary War soldiers are compiled military service records, company muster rolls, payrolls and other information. The best place to look for these if you are not in the National Archives is Fold3.