Morrison's Pensions


Pension Application for Garrit S. Veeder

S.7792
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 now sitting Garrit S. Veeder, a resident of the town of Rotterdam in said County aged eighty-one years 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, in the then now County of Schenectady then County of Albany in said state on the 4th July (old style) in the year 1751.  The record of his age is contained in his Bible & in the Register of Baptisms, kept by the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in said city.
            From the time of his birth, until the commencement of the revolutionary war, he lived in said township—since said war he has lived in said township, & he now lives in the town of Rotterdam aforesaid.
            He entered the service of the United States and served as herein stated.
            In the month of July 1775, he received the appointment of First Lieutenant in the company of Minute men commanded by Captain John Mynderse in the Regiment whereof Abraham Wemple was colonel.  He served as such lieutenant until the spring of the year 1776 when he received the appointment of captain has herein after stated—while in the service as such Lieutenant he marched to Johnstown in the beginning of the year 1776, with a detachment of militia from Schenectady, on this occasion Sir John Johnson surrendered himself a prisoner of war & disarmed his tenants & dependants.  He also while such lieutenant marched to Albany & other places in the vicinity of Schenectady aforesaid and performed his quota of duty at the Schenectady garrison.  In confirmation of said appointment he received a commission as such lieutenant which is signed by Nathaniel Woodhull President of Congress & is hereinto annexed, & bears date the 20 October 1775.
            He received the appointment of Captain in the Continental Line by commission dated 1st March 1776 in the regiment of forces of the United Colonies raised in and for the defence of the Colony of New York, commanded by Colonel Cornelius D. Wynkoop.  The lieutenants of said company were Solomon Pendleton & David Bates & Ephraim Snow Ensign.  This appointment he accepted & served under in the winter of the year 1777, he received the appointment of Captain in the Continental Line “during the war”—which appointment he declined to accept, but still continued to serve as captain as aforesaid until the end of the revolutionary war.
            He was in the engagement at the taking of Burgoyne and his army, and had then the command of a detachment of men at Bemis’s Heights.
            He was marched to the Norman’s Kill to Caughnawaga, Fort Plain, Fort Plank, Stone Arabia, Schoharie, & had then the command of the Middlefort—also to Beaverdam, Ballston, and at many other posts & passes to intercept the enemy, and repel their incursions upon our frontiers.
            His commission as Captain as aforesaid has several times been used by others to substantiate the claims for pension of George Shannon and other soldiers who served under him and who were found entitled to the benefits of the acts under which they applied.  In consequence his said commission became mutilated, and he has now only fragments thereof which are hereto annexed.  This commission was signed by John Hancock, President of the Provincial Congress & Countersigned by Charles Thompson Secretary.
            He declares that he is the identical person mentioned in the first named commission as “Garrit N. Veeder” and in the last named commission as “Garret, S. Veeder”.
            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 and militia regiments or companies with which he served, or as he can recollect, viz:  Col. Wemple, Gen.Schuyler, Major Swits, Generals Gates, Arnold, Poor, & Patterson & Larned of the Connecticut line also Colonels Daton, VanSchaick, Willett & he never received any written discharge from the service.  Besides his commissions he had a muster roll of his company which is hereunto annexed—He had several other but they are now lost.
            He has no documentary evidence, and knows of no person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to his service except those whose affidavits are annexed or who can testify to [?] services.
            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 a soldier of the revolution, to wit:  Joseph G. Yates, James V.S. Reyler, Jacob Swits, John Lander, Rev. Jacob VanVechten.
            Her hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.  (Signed) Garrit S. Veeder
            Subscribed and sworn to the day and year first aforesaid, John S. Vrooman.
Letter of inquiry answered September 3, 1936.
            The data furnished herein pertaining to Garrit S. Veeder were obtained from papers on file in pension claim, S.7792, based upon his service in the War of the Revolution.
            Garrit S. Veeder was born July 4, 1751 (old style) in Schenectady, New York.  The names of his parents were not stated.
            While a resident of said Schenectady, Garrit S.Veeder was appointed sometime in July, 1775, first lieutenant in Captain John; Mynderse’s company, Colonel Abraham Wemple’s New York Regiment, and was commissioned, March 1, 1776, captain of the fourth company in Colonel Cornelius D. Wynkoop’s New York Regiment; he was at the taking of Burgoyne, and continued in the service until the close of the ar.
            He was allowed pension on his application executed October 18, 1832, at which time he was a resident of Rotterdam, Schenectady County, New York.  He died February 18, 1836.
            On February 26, 1855, C. N. Northrup, writing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, referred to Captain Garret S. Veeder of Schenectady, New York, War of the Revolution as “my grandfather by marriage”.

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