Michael Lacopo is my 7th cousin through Elizabeth Dawson and Enos Moore who
settled in Tippecanoe County, IN.
Michael D. Lacopo,
D.V.M.
10525 Red Pine Drive
Granger, IN 46530-7529
The Edward Dawson
who is buried on the Shelby Farm in Shelby Township, Tippecanoe County,
Indiana, was a pioneer on the forefront of the tide of westward migration. He was a Maryland native and an early settler
of both Ohio and Indiana. He was NOT a
Revolutionary War soldier.
Edward Dawson was
born in or around 1755 in what is now Allegany County, Maryland, the son of
Edward Dawson. His mother’s name is not
known. He met and married his wife
Hannah here. His children Elizabeth and
Leonard were born in present day Allegany County, Maryland, in 1777 and 1778. He was a private in the Washington County
Militia, 1st Class, Capt. Daniel Cresap’s Company, 3rd
Battalion in 1776 and 1777.[i] He also took the oath of Allegiance before
the Hon. Lemuel Barritt before 16 March 1778.[ii] Edward paid taxes in Upper Old Town Precinct,
Washington County (now Allegany County), Maryland, in 1783.[iii] He owned land here in 1788.[iv] His children married in Allegany County,
Maryland, in 1792 and 1797.[v] Edward Dawson was enumerated in Upper Old
Town Precinct in 1800.[vi] He was still living in Maryland in 1801 and
1805 when his father’s estate was inventoried.[vii] In short, Edward Dawson never left the
confines of his home near the Potomac River from his birth until his migration
in middle age.
Edward Dawson
removed to Ross County, Ohio, in 1806 where his daughter and son-in-law, Enos
and Elizabeth (Dawson) Moore, had moved a few years previously. He and his wife, Hannah, lived in the
household of Enos Moore in 1830 in Franklin Township, Ross County, Ohio, but
shortly thereafter undertook the long journey to Shelby Township, Tippecanoe County,
Indiana, where Enos purchased land on 22 September 1831.[viii][ix] Edward Dawson died shortly thereafter on 28
August 1833.[x] His wife followed on 25 July 1839.[xi] Only her stone is left standing on the old
farm cemetery in Shelby Township.
So who is the
Edward Dawson, private of the 7th Regiment Pennsylvania Line, who
people believe to be the man buried in Tippecanoe County? It can be seen by the brief biography above
that this Edward Dawson spent the Revolutionary years in Washington County,
Maryland, in the area soon to become Allegany County. Would he go to Pennsylvania to serve in the
war effort? We know he was supportive of
the cause as is evidenced by his taking the Oath of Allegiance. All adult men were required by law to belong
to a militia unit in their county, as Edward Dawson was. This was a legally mandated position, and
often one of social importance rather than military.
If we look back
to 1931 we will find where the error began.
Miss Wilhelmina Sarah Lank applied for entry into the Daughters of the
American Revolution upon the notation that an Edward Dawson served as a private
in Captain Samuel Montgomery’s Company, 7th Pennsylvania Line, in
1776. She was accepted, and this “fact”
has been repeated ever since.
If we take a
closer look at the document from which Miss Lank got her information, we do see
that the transcribed documents of the Seventh Pennsylvania does note Edward
Dawson as a private in such a company on 24 December 1776.[xii] A closer look at the very same collection of
papers shows this man to be Edward Davidson
of Captain Montgomery’s Company as a sergeant on 19 March 1777.[xiii] Another roll of Captain Montgomery’s Company
taken on 9 September 1778 shows Edward Davidson
now as a corporal.[xiv] A roll of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment
commanded by Lt. Col. Samuel Hay with the dates and terms of enlistments dated
16 June 1779 again shows “Edw’d Davison”
in Captain Montgomery’s regiment, enlisted 24 December 1776.[xv] The muster roll of April 1780 again shows
Sergeant Edward Davidson.[xvi] He was transferred to Captain William Lusk’s
Company where he appears on the muster rolls as Sergeant Edw’d Davison in September and October 1780.[xvii] Undated lists which seem to be from 1776 show
that Edward Davison was first a
private in the Company of Captain Samuel Hay.[xviii] A final list of noncommissioned officers of
the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment shows Edward Davidson as a sergeant from 1 January 1777 to 1781.[xix]
It can be seen
that Miss Lank’s hypothesis that the “Edward Dawson” of the Seventh
Pennsylvania Regiment is based on a misprint for Edward Davi(d)son. Nowhere in the papers of this regiment does
the name Dawson appear again.
This man’s
identity is confirmed by other documents.
Another muster roll of Captain William Lusk from September and October
1780 exists and lists Sergeant Edward Davison.[xx] Edward Davidson was paid $50.00 on 1 January
1781 by the Paymaster General as a member of the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment.[xxi] Lastly, Edward Davidson received a Bounty
Land Warrant to receive land for his service in the Seventh Pennsylvania
Regiment on 10 March 1795. It was given
to John Steward, assignee.[xxii]
None of these
references mention an Edward Dawson.
It is not known
what happened to Edward Davidson, but we do know that he was NOT the Edward
Dawson who was living peacefully in Washington County, Maryland, at the time of
the Revolutionary War. Nor is he the man
who traveled the frontiers of Ohio and Indiana to be buried in field in Shelby
Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in 1833.
Edward Dawson, my ancestor, is a man worthy of our praise, but not the
man Miss Sarah Lank thought him to be in 1931.
It is now that we should set the story of his life straight.
[i]
Henry C. Peden, Jr., Revolutionary
Patriots of Washington County, Maryland, 1776-1783 (Westminster, MD: Willow
Bend Books, 1999), 91.
[ii]
Ibid.
[iii]
“Washington County 1783 Tax Assessment,” Western
Maryland Genealogy, Volume 9, Number 1 (Catoctin Press: Middleton, MD, Jan
1993), 26.
[iv]
Email from Peggy Reen parkave1@gte.net to
author, 10 May 2003.
[v]
Audrey Moore Hanson, “Dawson-Moore Families,” James F. Howell, editor, Montmorenci and Shelby Township (1979),
212.
[vi]
1800 Census, Allegany County, Maryland, Micofilm 32-9, 35.
[vii]
Maryland Hall of Records, Allegany County Inventories, Book A, page 94, “Edward
Dawson, 9 March 1801” and Allegany County Administration Accounts, page 86,
“2nd Acct. Edward Dawson, admin. Of estate of Ed. Dawson, late of Al. Co., 11
Dec. 1805.”
[viii]
1830 Census, Franklin Township, Ross County, Ohio; Microfilm M19-139, 209.
[ix]
Hanson, 212.
[x]
“Enos Moore’s Bible,” The New Testament
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Translated out of the Original Greek; and
with the former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised and Canne’s
Marginal References (New York: J. Collord, Printer, 1829).
[xi]
Ibid. and transcription of stone in Shelby Township, Tippecanoe County,
Indiana.
[xii]
Thomas Lynch Montgomery, editor, Pennsylvania
Archives, Fifth Series, Volume III (Harrisburg Publishing Company:
Harrisburg, PA, 1906), 221.
[xiii]
Ibid., 212.
[xiv]
Ibid,, 234.
[xv]
Ibid., 253.
[xvi]
Ibid., 263.
[xvii]
Ibid., 268-269, 271, 274.
[xviii]
Ibid., 277. 279.
[xix]
Ibid., 282.
[xx]
William Henry Egle, editor, Pennsylvania
Archives, Third Series, Volume XXIII (Harrisburg Publishing Company:
Harrisburg, PA, 1897), 372.
[xxi]
Daughters of the American Revolution, Pierce’s
Register, Register of the Certificates Issued by John Pierce, Esquire,
Paymaster General and Commissioner of Army Accounts for the United States, to
Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army Under Act of July 4, 1783
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1973), 8, 135.
[xxii]
Virgil D. White, Genealogical Abstracts
of Revolutionary War Pension Files, Volume I: A-F (Waynesboro, TN: The
National Historical Publishing Company, 1990), 886.
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