SAMUEL STALNAKER REVOLUTIONARY PENSION RECORD

On this 22 day of October, 1835 personally appeared .... Samuel Stalnaker a resident of Hackers Creek Settlement .... aged 70 years..[and made] the following declaration...

That he entered the service of the United States...in the month of April in...1780 he volunteered as a private in the county of Monongalia (now Randolph) Virginia under Captain Cornelius Bogard as an Indian Spy for 9 months .... that Adam Stalnaker was Captain Bogard's lieutenant and John White his ensign, that he was stationed at Westfall's Fort in the Tygarts Valley and placed upon his scouting excursions, that he spied through the...counties of (now) Randolph, Lewis, Harrison, Wood, Tyler etc. on the waters of Tygarts Valley, Buckhannon River, Stone Coal Creek, Hackers Creek, West Fork River, Hughes River, Ten Mile Creek in Virginia State, that during which time he affiant pursued on Indian trails frequently on their retreat to their habitations in Ohio State, after having made excursions arid committed thefts and murders upon the (then) thinly settled country through which he spied, but without ever being able to, get any other redress than rescuing stolen property in the first of his servitude of nine months as a volunteer under Captain... Bogard the winter of 1780 being an open one and favorable to the savage Indians the volunteers were not discharged .... until 1781. Then in March of 1781 affiant again volunteered for 8 months as a private to spy through the same counties and country as above enumerated .... under the same captain... lieutenant ....ensign.., was stationed at Westfall's Fort (again) [sic] ..... engaged upon his spying expeditions ....but without affiant or his company ....being able to kill any of the savages.

That he was discharged in November 1781 by his Capt Bogard, in April of 1782 affiant again volunteered under Captain Cunningham as a private to spy through the same counties .... for six months and was again stationed at Westfall's Fort on the Tygarts Valley River...during this servitude the Indians in one of their hostile raids killed five of William Lewis' family on the Tygarts Valley River, affiant was one that pursued after the savage and followed their trail twenty miles and entirely lost any further tidings of them and returned under Captain Cunningham who was along personally to Fort that trip the Indians stole horses out of the settlement. Affiant continued on this servitude six months .... without any other occurence of particular note.., and was discharged ... in October 1782. Then in April 1783 affiant again volunteered as a private to spy through [the same counties] under captain Stuffle Carpenter, Lieutenant James Tanner, Ensign John Brown for five months was stationed at Wests Fort on Hackers Creek .... remembers but one circumstance of particular note this last servitude namely the killing of three of his neighbors and making prisoners of three more by the Indians in July of 1783 which prisoners an active effort was made to save perticularly by affiant Elias and Jesse [Hughes] (two of the most renowned men of their day in defending the frontiers [)] and surprising the enemy who out travelled the rest of those who pursued but the Indians made such flight that they could not be overtaken. Affiant continued until August 1785 spieing at which time he was discharged by his captain Stuffle Carpenter....He knows of no person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to his services.

the said justice of the peace then proceeded to propound to affiant the seven several irrterogotories prescribed by the War Department to which he answered as follows As to the first affiant says that he was born in Hampshire County Virginia in the year 1763 [ nothing of note in 2 through 5] as to the 6th affiant states that he was regularly discharged but has lost or mislaid them so that he cant find them as to the 7th affiant states that he is known to Thos Brown and Ezekiel Powers who can testify to his charachter for veracity and their belief of his service...

[Brown and Powers testify that they believe Stalnaker to, be 70 years of age and to have served]

[Letter in file to Wm. F. K. Curley of Chicago dated 1924 to the effect that Stalnaker was placed on the pension roll November 1833 but upon investigation of his claim by a Special Agent of the War Department in 1834 it was shown that he was too young to have served in the Revolution and his named was dropped]

In a conversation with this man he said that he was 70 years old in September of 1833 can't recollect who wrote his declaration nor does he recollect whether he qualified to it ..... does not recollect how long he served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution nor where he done service nor what company or companies he served in under what officer or officers can't recollect any of the officers names nor the names of any of his companions in arms dont recollect to whom he applied to get him a pension nor any thing about it .... corrects himself by saying that he served under Captain Bogard in Randolph County all the service he done during the Revolutionary War was done in Randolph County said he only received about sixty five dollars out of all the money that had been return on his certificate that sum he received of R. D. Camden of Weston - after the war of the Revolution closed he removed to Lewis County and after his removal was frequently out against the Indians

After the forgoing statement had been made by Stalnaker I engaged him in conversation in reference to his settlement and history of Western Virginia .... seemed to be a man of ordinary intelligence his answers to my numerous questions were exceedingly ..... shrewd and his memory of old transactions of 40 years standing...frequently quoting day and date

He is a harty ... man from his appearance I should think him about sixty years old, Mr. Goff my assistant thinks he may possibly be sixty five years old.

John Mitchell, Samuel Bonnett, and William Powers (all old men exceeding 70 years) have known Stalnaker from a boy they all say he is too young to have been a soldier of "the Revolution and that he is an imposter. Stalnaker is one of Jonathan Wamsley's boys this of itself ought almost to exclude him from the benefit of the pension law

Editor's Note: "Jonathan Wamsley's boys" refers to a ring of conspirators in Lewis County known as the "Lewis Speculating Gentry" who made a lucrative profit by traveling about the country applying for phony pensions on behalf of the older residents of the community in exchange for a percentage. Whether or not the client had actually seen any service was immaterial. The pension declarations in the Lewis County area and probably in other areas as well must be treated by the historian with a good deal of caution and cannot be taken as first hand documentive evidence of the service of a particular person. In fact, some of the fraudulent declarations were taken word for word from the writings of Withers in his "Border Warfare". Dennis B. Rodgers covered this in detail in an excellent article entitled THE "LEWIS GENTRY": NEWLON AND WAMSLEY which was published in the HACKERS CREEK JOURNAL. It is the opinion of the editor that ANYONE interested in Revolutionary era history in West Virginia should study Mr. Rodgers' article.

As regards Samuel Stalnaker, the tax list trail that he left would support Singleton's contention that he was not born in 1763, but in fact was born closer to 1769. He was first taxed as an independant taxable in 1788, listing his age as 16-21, thus born between 1767 and 1772. This brackets his age at the time of his 1834 conversation with Singleton as 62 - 67, and not 70 as Wamsley seems to have put in his pension declaration.]

In the abstract above [ ] bracketed material was added by the editor but ( ) parenthesis have been carried as they appear in the record.