Bovina and the American Revolution - Alexander Brush (1759-1840)

 

Alexander Brush (1759-1840)

I mentioned at the start of this series that we have five ‘official’ Rev War soldiers with Bovina Connections, but there may be a sixth. And that man is Alexander Brush, the first settler in the Bovina Center hamlet. The fact that he may have served in the Revolution comes from his obituary, published in the September 30, 1840 Delaware Gazette.

Brush was a native of Smithtown, Long Island. He came to Bovina in the late 1790s. His obituary noted that “…and when our fathers, few in number, were contending for Liberty and were resolved to throw off Britain’s yoke, he entered the contest and was among those who survived the bloody conflict, and long did he live to enjoy the benefits of American Independence.” Unfortunately, I’m not sure what it means to have ‘entered the contest.’ If he did enlist, we’ve had no luck finding an actual service record. So that’s why Alexander is a maybe on the list of Bovina’s revolutionary war soldiers. But I’ll keep digging.

I did a blog entry about Alexander in 2015 - go to https://bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/09/stories-from-bovina-cemeteries.html to see a bit more about him. 

Keep in mind that there may be other Revolutionary War soldiers with Bovina connections that we simply don’t know about. But I’ll keep digging here too.

Bovina and the American Revolution - Jesse Purdy (1748-1840)

Jesse Purdy, also known as Justus Purdy, is believed to have been born in Westchester County in 1748. A year after the Declaration of Independence, he enlisted in Dutchess County in 1777, serving in the Second Regiment, Artillery, Capt. Samuel Lockwood/William Steven’s Company. He was discharged in 1780. Jesse was in at least one battle, but he could not remember the name of it when he applied for his pension in 1826. By 1800, he was living in Delaware County, likely in what later became Bovina. 

Most of the information we have about Jesse Purdy comes from his pension application He noted that he was old and infirm (he was 76) and so was his wife, Deborah. 

His personal property included a bed and bedding, 4 very old chairs, a table, and a pot and kettle. Jesse also had “two suits of clothes of woolen and cotton, cheap and coarse in quality and worn.” He also noted that he had about 40 acres of land but never had a title to it.  In an amended filing from 1827, he said that until just before he filed his claim, that he "had sufficient bodily ability to labor" and that through "the kindness of the widow of General Richard Montgomery" he was allowed to occupy "a small piece of land belonging to her."  For the past three years, however, he claimed that old age and a rupture had made it almost impossible for him to support himself and that he "has now no means of subsistence save the charity of his country."  Purdy was placed on the pension rolls in 1828, receiving $96 a year.  

A problem developed with the pension a few years later when he claimed that his daughter-in-law, Ann Purdy, who had power of attorney for her father-in-law, refused to pay the funds to him. She held a certificate or warrant from the war office which authorized the pension, but she threatened to burn it up. 

The total sum he received was $594.57.  Purdy was in his 90s at his death in 1840, Bovina’s oldest revolutionary war soldier.

We are not totally clear as to where Jesse is buried. His name appears on the Hogoboom family monument in the main Bovina cemetery. The stone was installed in the early 20th century. Along with Jesse, the stone includes Elizabeth Hogoboom, who was Jesse’s granddaughter (and likely the daughter of Ann Purdy, who was withholding pension funds from her father-in-law). Elizabeth’s husband was John Hogoboom. Also on the stone is their son Henry, who was a Civil War veteran. 

Bovina and the American Revolution - Samuel Ludington (1744-1814)

The oldest Revolutionary War grave in Bovina, at least a marked one, is that of Samuel Ludington. We don’t know a lot about him, partly because he never applied for a pension. He died before the pension process began in 1818. 

He was born in Branford, Connecticut in 1744 and married Ruth Galpin in 1766. In 1775, he joined Captain William Douglas’ company, General Wooster’s 1st regiment of the Connecticut militia, serving as a private. Samuel and Ruth would spend the bulk of their lives in the New Haven area of Connecticut. They came to what later became Bovina around 1810, to live with their son, Henry. Samuel died in 1814. His widow survived him until 1831. Their son Henry died 11 years later, having drowned in the West Branch of the Delaware River just below Sherwoods. He is buried in Bovina too.

An interesting footnote to Samuel’s story is that of his niece, Sybil. Sybil is known as the female Paul Revere. In 1777, when she was 16, she is supposed to have ridden 40 miles from her home in New York (near Danbury) through Putnam County to alert militiamen under the command of her father Colonel Henry Ludington, that the British had landed and were marching to Danbury. It’s a wonderful story that probably is not true. There’s no evidence any such ride took place. Information from the time about the subsequent battle indicates that the people in Danbury were already aware that the British were coming. But Sybil was commemorated in a US Postage stamp in 1975 and still is remembered in Putnam County, where she is buried.

There is a wikipedia entry for Sybil Luddington at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Ludington with further information about her and the debate about her famous ride. 

Bovina and the American Revolution

 

It’s been 250 years since the start of the American Revolution, so now is a good time to look at Bovina’s role in the nation’s fight for independence. Officially, it had none – mainly because there was no Bovina until almost 50 years after the war. In fact, Europeans had yet to discover the delights of the Northern Catskills, and while Indians hunted here, they probably never settled. 

So, identifying Revolutionary War soldiers from Bovina is a bit tricky. I focused on finding Revolutionary War veterans who settled in or at least spent some of their time in Bovina. This involved reviewing a variety of records in order to track these veterans down. The service records are challenging to find, given that there were several militia companies in each state. But the records are out there, thanks to sources like Ancestry and Fold3. Several states in the late 19th/early 20th centuries published books on their state’s role in the revolution, including various lists of soldiers in the war. 

In 1818, the federal government started to offer pensions to Revolutionary War veterans. These pensions are incredibly useful, though it also means that soldiers who died before 1818 won’t have a pension record (though sometimes you can find a widow applying for her husband’s pension). Veterans had to apply for their pensions, presenting information about their service and their current circumstances. These pensions are very helpful, though the information presented in these applications are based on memories over 40 old. One Bovina soldier was in a battle, but he could not remember the battle’s name. These pension records are mainly held by the National Archives and can be found on Ancestry and Fold3. If a veteran opted not to apply, there won’t be any pension records to review. 

Pension records also can be found at the county level. In the 1980s, Shirley Houck and the Delaware County Clerk’s office published a book of these applications from soldiers in Delaware County – “Delaware County’s War Papers.” This helped me identify two of Bovina’s five soldiers. I identified two other soldiers through their pension applications filed elsewhere. A fifth soldier died before pensions were offered, so I only found a bare service record. 

Over the next few months, I will be creating blog entries on each of the five American Revolution War vets that I have identified as having connections to Bovina. And there’s a possible sixth I also will write about. The five definite Bovina Revolutionary War veterans are:

• James Cooley (1755-1823)

• Samuel  Ludington (1744-1814) 

• Elisha Maynard (1763-1840)

• Jesse (or Justice) Purdy (1748-1840)

• James Vandenburgh (1758-1840)

Two of these veterans were Prisoners of War, one of the British and the other of Indians allied with the British. 

Two of them are definitely buried in Bovina. One more may be buried here and is memorialized on his granddaughter’s monument. One other veteran very likely is buried here but if so, the grave is unmarked and unlocatable. And one veteran we know is not buried in Bovina because he moved away over a decade before his passing. 

So more to come. 

Stories from Bovina's Cemeteries - The American Revolution

Shirley Houck at the Delaware County Clerk's office is trying to create a list of the Revolutionary War soldiers from Delaware County, looking at Federal pension records, among other sources, and has asked for help from the town historians in the county.  So this got me checking what information I had.

What kind of lead did Bovina take during the American Revolution? Given that there were no Europeans living in Bovina before the 1790s, the answer is 'none.'  But as settlers came to Bovina, among them certainly were veterans of the revolution.  Unfortunately, we do not have a good listing of all of them.  The fact that Bovina was founded almost 40 years after the end of the war may explain why there is so little information.   

One of the few sources of information come from Bovina cemeteries.  Bovina has three Revolutionary War veterans buried (or at least memorialized) in its cemeteries:

• Samuel  Ludington is buried in the Brush Cemetery next to the library, but he spent only the last 2-3 years of his life in Delaware County.  He does not show up in any Bovina records, primarily because there was no Bovina at the time of his death.  The records in which he does appear relate mostly to Connecticut.  He was born in Branford, Connecticut in 1744 and married Ruth Galpin in 1766 in Woodbury.  He served in the Connecticut Eighth Regiment during the revolution.  When he came to Bovina is not clear, but it was quite late in his life - a Samuel Ludington shows up in the 1810 census in Connecticut.  Samuel and his wife likely came to Bovina to live with their son Henry in their old age.  Samuel died in 1814.  Ruth Ludington survived her husband by over 16 years, dying in 1831.  Henry died in 1842 and is buried near his parents.  

Photo from Find A Grave, submitted by Richard Singleton

• Jesse Purdy (1748-1840) is believed to be buried in the main Bovina Cemetery. Shirley found two court records from 1826 and 1827 in which Purdy filed a claim for a pension based on his service  He said he enlisted in Dutchess County in 1777 and was discharged in 1780, but had lost the discharge paper.  By 1826, he was 76 years old.  In the application, Purdy noted that he was old and infirm and so was his wife Deborah. He also noted that he had about 40 acres of land but never had a title to it.  In an amended filing from 1827, he said that until just before he filed his claim, that he "had sufficient bodily ability to labor" and that through "the kindness of the widow of General Richard Montgomery" he was allowed to occupy "a small piece of land belonging to her."  For the past three years, however, he claimed that old age and a rupture had made it almost impossible for him to support himself and that he "has now no means of subsistence save the charity of his country."  Purdy was placed on the pension rolls in 1828, receiving $96 a year.  The total sum received was $594.57.  Purdy was in his 90s at his death.  I note that he 'likely' is buried in Bovina, but I'm not 100% sure.  His name is included on a much newer stone of the Hogoboom family.   Elizabeth Hogoboom was Purdy's granddaughter. 

Photo courtesy of Ed and Richard Davidson

• James Vandenburgh (1758-1840) is also buried in the Brush cemetery, and like his fellow veteran Samuel Ludington, appears to have spent only a brief time in Bovina.  He grew up in Dutchess County and enlisted in the Town of Beekman in Dutchess County in April 1776, joining the company of Captain Durling.  He re-enlisted in 1777 and again in 1779. When he filed his pension claim in 1831, he was living in Austerlitz in Columbia County.  When he came to Bovina is not clear, but it appears he came late in life to live with his son Clarence or Clarion.  

Photography taken by Stephen Pelletier, November 1978

There are likely other American Revolution veterans with Bovina connections.  I'll be working on that to help Shirley and for a future blog entry.