We continue the story of Warren's role in the American Revolution with the pension record of Benjamin Moor[e], born March 22, 1754, in Bernards Township (there was no Warren then), died here February 4, 1836, aged 81 years, 10 months and 15 days. He applied for his pension in February 1833, it was granted June 8 of that year and he received $33.33 per year retroactive to March 4, 1831. "On this...day of February 1833 personally appeared in open court before the Judges of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in and for said County of Somerset Benjamin Moore a resident of the Township of Warren in said county of Somerset aged seventy nine years who being first duly sworn on his oath makes the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832. That he entered in service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. That in the spring or summer of 1777 he was drafted in the militia for one month and served under Captain Ebenezer Tingley. He was stationed at Newark and Elizabethtown under Colonel Frederick Frelinghuysen and that on this tour he served three months for want of other militia to take his place. Thinks Davison or McDonald was his Major. He also served one month in the same year under Captain Van Arsdalen and was then stationed at the same places. That in the year 1778 he was drafted and served another month under Captain William Moffet again stationed in the same section of country. Frelinghuysen was Colonel. He also in this year served another month under Captain Tingley at Elizabethtown. He was likewise about this time drafted in the militia for one month under Captain Corey and served during the same under the command of Colonel William Winds. He was stationed at Green Brook in Somerset County. He also volunteered in a company under Captain Benjamin Corey when the British were retreating through Jersey. They joined the army at or near Allantown and marched with it untill after the Battle of Monmouth in which I was. I served this tour nearly or quite one month. Davison & McDonald were our Majors. In the fall of 1779 he went into the service as a volunteer under Captain Henry Van Blarcon and served in the militia and as a spy for two months. He was stationed at Aquacanack & Second River and thereabouts, and was employed during the night to ride and see whether the enemy were about or any refugees stirring near them. He also served many other tours than those abovementioned but from old age and loss of memory is unable to particularize them. They were almost always of a months duration and the service was keeping guard at and about Elizabethtown, Newark and that section of country. He was in the battle of Monmouth, Springfield and in an engagement in Bergen County at a settlement called Pollifly. From old age and loss of memory as above stated he cannot swear positively as to the precise length of his service but according to the best of his recollection he served not less than eighteen months all which service was as a private soldier. He was born the 22nd of March AD 1754 in the Township of Bernards in the County of Somerset in which county he resided when the Revolutionary War commenced. His age is written in his family bible which he took from his father's Bible where it is written in his father's handwriting. Where that is now he does not know. He has lived all his life in said County of Somerset except about three years when he resided in the County of Essex. He never received any written discharge, has no documentary evidence to prove his services nor does he know any living witness who can testify in his behalf." [Pension S727] Research by Shirley Christopher sheds further light on Benjamin Moore's life. He married three times, first to Kezia Frazee, second to Mary Smalley and third to Eurnice Tingley. Kezia died January 16, 1801, aged 44 years. Her gravestone in the Mount Bethel Baptist Cemetery is still legible. Benjamin's third wife lies next to her husband in the same cemetery. She died November 30, 1842, in her 76th year. Littel's First Settlers (p.387) mentions that John Smalley, the son of James, married Sally Moore, daughter of Benjamin Moore of Acquackanac. Samuel Smalley, the son of David Smalley, Esq., and Hannah Roff, married Rhoda Moore, the daughter of Benjamin of Mount Bethel. Stryker-Rodda's Revolutionary Census of NJ places Benjamin Moore in Bernards in 1778, in Acquackanock, Essex County, in 1779, 1780. Benjamin was an early resident of Warren and a member of the Mount Bethel Baptist Church. In Mallette's history he is shown as owning Pew No. 16, West side. Villages of the Crossroads tells us that Benjamin Moore Sr. lived in the northerly section of Warren known as Dead River. The present Mountainview Rd., formerly Dead River Rd., or Penington Rd., was laid out as a three rod road in 1770. At that time the land on either side was owned by Samuel and Reuben Compton and John Manning. The road then ran "to the top of a bank near the low ground and across Pound Brook." Passing James Moore's land it continued east through Henry Alward's field and William Stites' land to "the great road leading from Dead River to Quibbletown." Benjamin Moore Sr.'s homestead was in the vicinity of what is now 5 Mountainview Lane. In 1850 John Moore owed 56 acres which he bought of the estate a Benjamin Moore in 1847. John B. Moore bought 59 acres from Isaac B. Moore in 1847. Isaac was the son of Benjamin Moore Sr. and died at age 68. Benjamin's 131 acre farm was sold in 1839 to William Coddington for $2,484, a large sum in those days. When Moore died, he willed to his wife "two cows of her choice, all the furniture she brought to me when we married and the use of two east rooms of the house." The Moore family also owned property in the southeastern part of the township along Mountain Avenue near Stirling Rd., including the Isaac Moore farm, known later as the site of Schmalz's Dairy and now owned by the high school. Snell's History of Hunterdon and Somerset records that Benjamin Moore served on the Warren Township Committee from 1810 to 1812. Benjamin Moore may have been the son of John More of Acquackanonk Township whose will was proved November 7, 1805. He names 10 children: Benjamin, his third son and co- executor, received the sum of 12 Pounds. NJ Archives, 1st Series, Vol. XXXIX. |