Morrison's Pensions

Pension Application for Joseph Peek

W.2568  (Widow: Catharine VanVleck of Florida.  Married June 25, 1834.   Joseph Peek died May 25, 1842, aged 86 years & 6 months.  Catherine was aged eighty years in 1853.  Joseph got a pension of $480 per annum.)
State of New York
County of Schenectady SS.
            On this eighteenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two personally appeared in open court before the Judges of the court of Common Pleas in and for said County Joseph Peek, a resident of the City of Schenectady in said County & State aged seventy six years and upwards who being first duly 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.
            He was born in the then township now City of Schenectady aforesaid in said state on the 25th Novem’r 1755.  He has no record of his age except that contained in the Register of Baptism of the R.P. Dutch Church of said City.
            When he was called into the service of the United States in the army of the revolution he was living in said township of Schenectady and since the revolutionary war he has lived in said township (now city) up to the present time.
            He entered the service of the United States under the following named officers & served as herein stated.
            Earley in the spring of 1775 he enlisted in Capt. John Mynderse’s company of minute men.  His other company officers were Lawrence Mynderse and Pendleton Lieutenants. Shortly after his enlistment as aforesaid he proceeded to Ticonderoga under and enlistment in Captain Canne’s company and was there employed in erecting works of defence and constructing boats for the American Army to be used on Lakes George & Champlain.      
            He was there with the troops under the command of General Schuyler while General Montgomery effected the reduction of Chamblee and St. Johns.
            The period for which he served in this campaign was between eight & nine months.  He did not return to Schenectady until late in the fall.
            In the beginning of January 1776 he was out with the militia & troops under General Schuyler & Ten Broeck to Johnstown on which occasion Sir John Johnson surrendered himself a prisoner of war & his tenants & dependants were disarmed. He was out in this expedition at least two weeks.  Early in the spring of the year 1776 he enlisted in Capt. Teunis Bradt’s Company of Artificers and served in said company for the whole season about one half of the time at Lake George landing when over Lake George to Ticonderoga from thence to Skenesborough.  Under this engagement he was the most part of the time employed in constructing whale boats for the use of the American Army.
            In the month of April in the year 1777 he was drafted in Capt. Jesse VanSlyck company of Militia was made orderly sergeant thereof and marched with a detachment from his company to Albany from thence up the north river to fort Edward thence to Jessups Patent in pursuit of a large party of Tories who rendezvoused at that place in the summer of that year last names he was again ordered out in the same company of Capt. Jesse VanSlyck to Fort Edward he was in service at that fort and at Stillwater Bemis’s Heights and the other posts occupied by the American troops in the fall of that year until the surrender of Burgoyne and his army on the 17th of October.  In the whole of this campaign he was out more than six months.
            In the spring of the year 1778 he enlisted again in the aforesaid company of Capt. Teunis Bradt and served therein at Coeymans for the term of seven months.
            In the winter of 1779 he received the appointment of Captain on the Continental establishment and served as such until the end of the war.  To wit: for three years and more, he believes in the Quartermaster’s Department.
            He was in this capacity engaged and had the charge of the embarkation and transportation of the public stores to Forts Hunter, Plain, Plank, Paris, Schuyler, Harkimer, Fort Stanwix & other frontier garrisons & posts.
            In the latter part of the summer or fall, he thinks of year 1778, he performed garrison duty at the lower fort in Schoharrie for the term of between three weeks and four weeks.
            He has also aided in guarding Schenectady during the winters of the year 1778 and the winters of the subsequent years of said war and was out on duty in this service at different times for a period in the whole exceeding four months.
            The following are the names of some of the regular officers whom he knew, or who were with the troops where he served; and such Continental & Militia regiments or companies with which he served & as he can recollect viz:
            General Gates, Colonel Willett, Colonel Cortland, all the officers of Colonel Wemple’s Regiment colonels VanDyck, Gaansevoort, General Schuyler &c &c.
            The date of his commission he cannot recollect nor by whom signed as the same has been lost more than twenty years ago.
            He never received any written discharge from the service.  He has a number of orders & letter received while he served as Captain as aforesaid which will be forwarded to the war Department if required.
            He has no other documentary evidence and knows of no person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to his service except those whose depositions are hereunto annexed.
            The following are the names of persons to whom he is known in his present neighborhood, and who can testify as to his character for veracity and their belief of his services as aforesaid to wit.  Joseph C. Yates and James V.S. Ryley.
            He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name if not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.  (Signed) Joseph Peek
            Subscribed and sworn to the day and year first aforesaid.  John S. Vrooman, Clerk

 Return to opening page of Morrison's Pensions