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BAKER, SAMUEL, private, particular service not shown; enrolled on February 19, 1835, under act of Congress of June 7, 1832, payment to date from March 4, 1831; annual allowance, $20; removed to Kentucky.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
BIRD, JOHN, private, particular service not shown; enrolled on January 10, 1837, under act of Congress of June 7, 1832; annual allowance, $23.33; no record of any payment having been made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
CURRY, THOMAS, sergeant, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $31.82; not demanded after March, 1831.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
FABER, WILLIAM, private, particular service not shown; enrolled on December 27, 1836; annual allowance, $100; no record of any payment having been made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
KIRBY, EPHRAIM. Ephraim Kirby was the first Superior Court judge in what is now Alabama. He was also the first General Grand High Priest of the Royal Arch Masons of the United States, 1798-1804, and he is probably the highest ranking Mason ever buried in Alabama. Judge Kirby was the grandfather of Edmund Kirby Smith, the distinguished Confederate general. The following sketch of his life is condensed from a paper read by Thomas M. Owen before the Alabama State Bar Association, June 29, 1901:
"Mr. Kirby was born Feb. 23, 1757, in Judea Society, Ancient Woodbury, Conn., and was the son of Abraham Kirby a farmer. The house in which he was born has long since been destroyed, but the land on which it stood is still known as 'the Kirby farm.' About 1763 his parents removed to Litchfield, Conn. His boyhood days were spent in the occupation usually engaging a farmer's lad, but incidents of these years, and of his early education are wanting.
"However, he was trained as a patriot, for on the news of the battle of Lexington, he joined a company of volunteers and arrived at Boston in time to take part in the battle of Bunker Hill. In the latter part of 1776, together with other young men of Litchfield county, he united in forming a company of volunteer cavalry. The men furnished their own horses and equipment; and served about two years. The following is Mr. Kirby's record for this period of service: Ephraim Kirby, private, enlisted Dec. 24, 1776, at Litchfield,
farmer. Stature 5 ft. 6, complexion dark, eyes dark, hair brown. Discharged Aug. 7, 1778. His daring and bravery were conspicuous on many fields. He was in many battles and skirmishes. In the engagement at Elk river he received seven sabre cuts on the head, and was left on the field as dead. From the fearful cuts on his head he is said to have lost a nortion of his brain, and he was for a long time unconscious. However, his intelligence was suddenly restored, and He at once re-entered the service of his country, continuing active until independence was achieved. At one time he was a lieutenant in a Rhode Island company. In all he is said to have been in nineteen battles and skirmishes, receiving thirteen wounds, including the sabre cuts already mentioned. These honorable evidences of service he carried with him to the grave."The Revolutionary War ended, with widened experience and aspiration he set about preparing himself for an enlarged sphere of usefulness. For a while he was a student in Yale College, but he did not graduate. In 1787 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of master of arts in recognition, doubtless, of his expanding reputation. In Litchfield resided Reynold Marvin, who before the war had been King's attorney, but who had relinquished his official station to throw himself with the cause of the colonists. Determining to embrace the profession of the law, Mr. Kirby entered the office of Mr. Marvin, and under his instruction he was soon admitted to the bar. It was at this time, having entered upon the practice, that he married Ruth Martin, the daughter of his patron and teacher. From this time forth until his removal to the Southwest, although interested in many other matters, he practiced his profession in Litchfield. A fact is now to be noted which is of unusual interest. In 1789 he compiled and published the Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut, from the year 1785, to May, 1788, which has the unique distinction of being the first volume of law reports published in America. His work indicates rare legal ability, and is still authority in the courts. Mr. Kirby the same year took the initiative in another matter of great moment. He wrote the pledge and organized the first society, having for its object the promotion of temperance, ever formed in America.
"With a view to bringing about a better condition in the Mississippi Territory, Congress by act of March27, 1804, provided 'That there shall be appointed an additional judge for
the Mississippi Territory, who shall reside at or near the Tombigbee settlement, and who shall possess and exercise, within the district of Washington, in the jurisdiction heretofore possessed and exercised by the Superior Court of said Territory, etc., which jurisdiction was made exclusive, with right of appeal, however, to the Superior Court at Natchez."Under this act President Thomas Jefferson, on April 6, 1804, appointed Ephraim Kirby as 'the additional judge.' His commission is as follows, the copy being supplied from the records of the secretary of state at Washington:
THOMAS JEFFERSON,PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
To all who shall see these Presents, Greeting:
Know Ye, That reposing special trust and confidence in the Wisdom, Uprightness and Learning of Ephraim Kirby, of Connecticut, and in pursuance of an Act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the twenty-seventh day of March, 1804, entitled 'An Act for the appointment of an additional Judge for the Mississippi Territory, and for other purposes. I do appoint him the additional Judge for the said Territory to reside at or near the Tombigbee settlement; and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfill the duties of that Office according to law, and to Have and to Hold the said Office with all the powers, privileges and emoluments to the same of right appertaining during his good behaviour, and to the end of the next Session of the Senate of the United States, and no longer.
In Testimony Whereof, I have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the Seal of the United States to be herunto affixd.
Given under my Hand at the City of Washington, the Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand [seal.] eight hundred and four, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the Twenty Eighth.
Th. Jefferson.
By the President:
James Madison,
Secretary of State.
"At best Judge Kirby could not have held more than one term of Court, for he died on Oct. 20, 1804, at Fort Stoddert. As the U. S. government maintained a cantonment there, with a body of soldiers, his remains were interred with all the honors of war and other demonstrations of respect. His body was
laid away in the little cemetery to await the last judgment. Mt. Vernon, as is known, is now in the hands of Alabama Insane Hospitals. One of the trustees of this institution, Col. Sam'l Will John, on being told by the writer, some months ago, of his discoveries as to Judge Kirby, made local inquiry at Mt Vernon in reference to the matter. In response a communication was received by him from Thomas Rogers, of Mt. Vernon, from which the following pertinent extract is made:" 'I arrived in Mt. Vernon Jan. 14, 1850. When I came here I visited Fort Stoddert. I found the remains of chimneys,
which were built of sand rock; they have since been removed by negroes. I also found broken glass, and the neck of champagne bottles. In the cemetery, a little north of Fort Stoddert, on the lake, I found a red cedar board, at the head of a grave, with the name nicely cut, 'Ephraim Kirby, died Oct. 4th, [SO] 1804.' This board was the only one left to show where the cemetery was. I afterwards visited the place, and found that the board had been destroyed by forest fires.' And so it is that there is now no monument to mark the grave; and indeed the exact location of the grave will be hard to identify."In conclusion I think it may with all propriety be claimed that Alabama has a part in the splendid heritage left by this distinguished man. Certainly there is in his life much to emulate. Strong of mind and will, patriotic in all crises, far-seeing and constructive in his mental operations, he towers above scores of his public contemporaries, as does the mountain peak above the hill. He was essentially a pioneer—the first to edit a published volume of official decisions and reports, the founder of the first organized temperance movement in America, and the first Superior Court judge in what is now Alabama. An old lawyer of Litchfield pays this warm tribute to his worth: 'Colonel Kirby was a man of the highest moral as well as physical courage, devoted in his feelings and aspirations, warm, generous, and constant in his attachments, and of indomitable energy. He was withal gentle and winning in his manners, kindly in his disposition, and naturally of an ardent and cheerful temperament, though the last few years of his life were saddened by heavy pecuniary misfortunes. As a lawyer he was remarkable for frankness and downright honesty to his clients, striving to prevent litigation and effecting compromises. He enjoyed the friendship of many of the sages of the Revolution.' "—Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society, Vol. iv, pp. 550-553.
LUCAS, JOHN, private, particular service not snowu, enrolled on January 10, 1837, under act of Congress of June 7, 1832; annual allowance, $20; no record of any payment being made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
MAYRANT JOHN, lieutenant in the navy, particular serce not shown; annual allowance, $360; to be paid from September, 1835; transferred from South Carolina.—Pension Book. State Branch Bank, Mobile.
MOND, DUNCAN, private, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $48; records do not show that any payment was made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
MORGAN, DANIEL, private and sergeant, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $100; records show that he was paid up to March 4, 1834.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
QUINN, MICHAEL, private, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $96; transferred to South Carolina.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
SEVIER, GOVERNOR JOHN. "This hero of tne Revolution, whose life was a romance, was not one of the pioneer settlers of Alabama. He died in this State and his remains lay buried here for seventy-three years without a stone to mark the place of their repose or an enclosure to protect them
from unhallowed intrusion. In 1888 his body was removed by the State of Tennessee and laid to rest beneath the sod of the State he had loved and served so faithfully. He is now buried in Knoxvlile, and the State has erected a stately monument as a memorial of her everlasting though tardy gratitude to her honored son."Valentine Xavier, the father of John Sevier, was a descendant from an ancient Huguenot family in Navarre; he was born in London and emigrated to America about 1740; settled on the Shenandoah, Virginia; removed to Watauga, N. C, and finally settled on the Nola Chucka, at Plum Grove.—See Pioneer Women of the West.
"John Sevier was born in Rockingham Co., Va., 23rd of September, 1745, and was educated at the academy in Fredericksburg. He was married at the early age of seventeen to Sarah Hawkins; soon afterwards he founded Newmarket, in the valley of the Shenandoah; he became at once celebrated as an Indian fighter, and was made captain of the Virginia line in 1772. That spring (1772) he removed to Watauga, now Tennessee, served in Lord Dunmore's war and was in the battle of Point Pleasant, 1774. His work began at the dawn of the Revolution and lasted to the end. It is said he was in thirty battles. His wife's health was delicate and she never removed from Virginia, but died in 1779, leaving him ten children. In 1780, he married Catharine Sherrill, daughter of Samuel Sherrill of North Carolina, who was one of the pioneers in the valley of the Watauga. She was beautiful, tall, strong and courageous as became the wife of John Sevier. She always boasted that the first work she did after she was married was to spin and weave and make the suits of clothes which her husband and his three sons wore in the memorable battle of King's Mountain. She became the mother of eight children, three sons and five daughters. After the battle of King's Mountain, John Sevier received a vote of thanks and a present of a sword and pistol from the North Carolina legislature. A fellow soldier said of his appearance during the battle: 'His eyes were flames of fire, and his words were electric bolts crashing down the ranks of the enemy."He was elected governor of the State of Franklin in 1784; but, as this State was not long allowed existence, Sevier was captured and imprisoned because of alleged disloyalty. However, he was rescued and soon made his escape. That section of country was then given the name by the United States gove
rnment of 'Territory south of the river Ohio,' and he was made brigadier-general of this section in 1789. He was the first delegate sent to represent the Territory in Congress in 1790. During all this time he was incessantly and successfully engaged in defending the settlements from the Indians until their spirit was broken and peace was fully established. No man was ever more feared or respected by them, and as for the white people of the settlements, they loved him as a father, friend and protector. When the State of Tennessee was established, he was elected the first governor in 1796, and served three terms. In 1815, in spite of his age and infirmities, he was appointed by President Monroe to act as United States commissioner to settle the boundary line between Georgia and the Creek territory in Alabama. He died while engaged in this work, September 24th, 1815. He was attended during his illness by only a few soldiers and Indians. He was buried near Fort Decatur, Alabama, on the east side of the Tallapoosa river, at an Indian village called Tuckabatchee, with the honors of war by the troops under command of Capt. Walker, United States army. He was in the active service of his country from a boy of eighteen until he died at the age of seventy.—Mrs. P. H. Mell in Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society, vol. iv, pp. 565-566.SIBLEY, JOHN, sergeant, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $120; records do not show that any payments were ever made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
SMITH, ISAAC. "The Rev. Isaac Smith, a native ot Virginia, for three years an orderly sergeant in the army under Washington and Lafayette, the friend and host of Bishop Asbury, and other of the Bishops of the Church, for more than half a century a minister of the Gospel, serving the longest term at Asbury Mission of any man ever connected with it, and terminating his active ministry at that place, was a man of noble character, a model Christian, and he made an honorable record. 'Believing every word of God, meek above the reach of provocation, and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of love and devotion, he was a saint indeed.'
"An incident may be related here which will relate his patriotism, and which will indicate his fidelity to the ministry and his constant adherence to his religion. In August. 1824, Marquis De La Fayette, the friend of Washington and of American liberty, made a visit to the United States, landing at New York, and he was tendered a reception worthy of his patriotic services and worthy of the country whose liberty he had helped to achieve. The Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, at Cahawba, Alabama, passed, by unanimous vote, a resolution, which was approved December 24, 1824, as follows: 'And be it further resolved, That his excellency the Governor be requested to invite, in such manner as he shall deem most respectful. Major General La Fayette to honor the State of Alabama with a visit, and in the event of his acceptance of such invitation, he be received in such manner as shall best comport with the important services he has rendered the American people.' In pursuance of the resolution, Governor Pickens invited the distinguished guest of the nation to Alabama, and the invitation was accepted, and the visit was made. On March 31, 1825, the venerable and honored La Fayette under an escort of Georgians, halted, in the midst of the Creek National, upon the eastern bank of the Chattahoochee River, whose western side laves the soil of Alabama. The Georgia escort delivered the hero of American liberty, and their guest, to fifty nude and painted Creek Indian warriors. The Indians, vying with the citizens of the United States in the homage paid the noble Frenchman, conveyed him across the river and put him down on Alabama soil. He was then about one mile from the Asbury school. One of the first white men to greet La Fayette when he set foot on Alabama soil was the man who for three years attended him as orderly sergeant, and carried messages for him while the struggle for the independence of the American colonies went on. That man was the Rev. Isaac Smith, the Missionary in charge of the Asbury School for the Indians. They greeted, recollected, and recognized each other. There in the howling wilderness, and in the presence of painted warriors and naked savages, the old comrades in arms embraced each other, and gave expression to their friendship, and vent to their emotions, and the once young orderly, now a grave preacher of the Gospel and a devoted Missionary, prayed with and for the old Commander and patriot, and with deep emotion, strong faith, and earnest petitions commended him to the court of Heaven, and besought for him citizenship in the Kingdom of Christ, and the liberty which pertains to the sons of God. How anomalous and yet how appropriate all this! No event in all the course of that triumphal tour through the American continent made a deeper or more lasting impression upon the old patriot than that reunion of himself and the orderly sergeant of the former times, on the borders of Alabama. La Fayette tarried for the day, and he and Smith, the Missionary to the Indians, talked of the past and the present, in sweet counsel, and in the meantime witnessed one of those special contests and social pasttimes peculiar to the aborigines, a game of ball. The meeting of his old Commander at the very spot of his missionary labors was one of the unexpected pleasures which the Rev. Mr. Smith enjoyed beyond description. That meeting recollectetd the reminiscences of the past, revived his spirits, renewed his youth, strengthened his patriotism, and made an epoch in his eventful life.
"The Rev. Isaac Smith died in Monroe County, Georgia, at the age of seventy-six, and went to his eternal home. His children have honored him by reiligous lives." Rev. Anson West's, History of Methodism in Alabama, pp. 380-2.
STUDROE, READY, enrolled under act of Congress of March 18, 1818; no further details given.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
WALKER, TANDY, private, particular service not shown; enrolled on September 20, 1838, payment to date from January 1, 1828; annual allowance, $96.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
WARD, CALVIN, private, particular service not shown; annual allowance, $53.33; records do not show that any payment was ever made.—Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
Source: Revolutionary Soldiers in
Alabama; Author-Thomas McAdory Owen, 1911 - Transcribed by C.
Anthony
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