Revolutionary War Pension Papers of Reuben Clatterbuck.
State of Service: Virginia
File number: N9796
State of Missouri, Callaway County}
On this nineteenth day of November in the year eighteen hundred and thirty three personally appeared in open court, before the County Board of the County of Callaway aforesaid, now sitting-Reuben Clatterbuck a resident of Round [unreadable] Township in the County of Callaway aforesaid and State of Missouri aged about seventy eight years, who being first duely [sp] sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of congress passed June 7th 1832-that he was born in December seventeen hundred and fifty five, but has no record of his age, according to his computation which he has no doubt is correct, he will be seventy eight years old the last days of December next-he was born in the County of Caroline, State of Virginia where he lived until about the year 1810 when he removed to Shelby County, Kentucky, where he resided until the month of October in the year 1829 when he removed to the County of Callaway in the State of Missouri where he has continued to reside until this day-he further states that in the year 1776 being then about twenty one years old, in the Spring of that year (what day or month he can not recollect) he volunteered to serve as a private soldier in a company commanded by one Captain Philip Buckner (none of the other company officers recollected) and marched from Caroline in company with other forces, the whole under the command of one Col. Phillip Jonston, to Richmond, Va, then crossing James River marched into and down the county on that side until three months had expired from the day of their marching where and when he was discharged by word of mouth and returned home-In the fall of the same year this applicant was drafted in the militia of Caroline, and marched again in a company, the name of whose captain and officers he does not recollect, but he recollects that he in company with a considerable force under the command of one Col. Mathews marched from Caroline to James River and after having scoured the country round about and passed through Gloucester, Williamsburgh and other places they were discharged in that country, at what place precisely he does not recollect. He remembers however that they had been drafted for three months and that the time had expired some time before he was
discharched-he was discharged verbally-the forces with which he acted amounted to four or five hundred men-but he has forgotten the names of many of the officers who were along.
In the year seventeen hundred and eighty one he was again drafted for a three months campaign and marched from Caroline under the command of one Peyton Stern who however was promoted to the rank of Major while in service, to Gloucester there we had a fight with some of the troops while Washington was fighting the main body across the River at Little York-Cornwallis and his army surrendered while I was there-we guarded the prisoners to Fredericksburg where we delivered them up to other troops and our three months having expired we were verbally discharged at that place-while at Gloucester I saw Gen'l Weeden and Col Mathews and stood guard by the Marquee of Gen Lafayette and whilst at Gloucester we marched up to meet the forces of Wayne and Lafayette-we met them at Racoon Creek and returned with them to Gloucester following the retreating British-I have now no recollection of any other officers than those I have named on that expedition-it seems to me that my last campaign above mentioned commenced on the first of April '81 but my memory has so entirely failed of late years that I have no confidence in it and may be mistaken both as to the day of the month and the year-I refer however for the year to others who know by history the date of the taking of Cornwallis-I am very confidant that I served in the lines several expeditions above mentioned when taken together, something over nine months-that I have never yet received the first cent of pay or pension for or on account of my said services-I know of no living person by whom I could prove my services in the revolution, except it be General Lafayette himself whom I met in Kentucky whilst on his late tour through the United States and who recognized me and gave me the hand of a brother soldier-I am known to several persons who live in this county now and who have known me some twenty years and who can testify as to my reputation as a revolutionary soldier-among these I will name Weiden Major, Reuben B. Overton, William Tureman and Lewis Overton-I am known to the reverend Frances? Sugget who lives in my neighborhood and who could testify as to my character for veracity and other particulars, but he lives at some distance from this place and I do not know that he is here. I hereby relinquish every claim to a pension on annuity, except the present, and declare that my name is not on the pension Roll of the agency of any state. Reuben Clatterbuck ( X his mark ) Sworn to and subscribed the day & year aforesaid in open court before me clerk of the County Court of said County. Irvine O. Hockaday Clerk
We Reuben B. Overton Weiden Major and William Tureman & Lewis Overton residents in the County of Callaway certify that we have been acquainted with Reuben Clatterbuck who has sworn to and subscribed the above declaration for many year, that he is a resident of Callaway County Missouri, that we believe him to be at
least as old as he states-that we know that his memory is even more weak than [unreadable] is usual with persons of his age, that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the revolution and that we concur in that opinion and
know that he was so convinced in Kentucky when we knew him before his removal to this county. Sworn to and subscribed the day & year aforesaid in open court before said Clerk of the County Court of said County. Ervine O. Hockaday Clerk
R. B. Overton
Lewis Overton
Wm. H. Tureman
Weden Major