Holbrook line: Joseph Nation 1750-1803 Revolutionary War veteran

 I'm always glad to find an ancestor acknowledged as a Revolutionary War veteran, because there is a good chance that, if his records or pension application can be found, there will be good information in it.  That is the case with Joseph Nation.  However, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Family trees disagree regarding his parents, because some of the same first names are used over and over in the family and it gets confusing.  However, based on birth and death dates, I am going to eliminate John Nation and Bethia Robbins as his parents.  I believe they were his grandparents.  Joseph's parents are most likely to be Christopher and Elizabeth Sharpe or Swaim (there's a dispute about that, too), since Joseph was born in 1750.  Unfortunately, Christopher's will seems to have one illegible name in it, and that name would, according to my theory, be Joseph.  

Christopher was born in New Jersey but by the time of his death in 1779 he was in Randolph County, North Carolina, which is where Joseph was born in 1750.  He was one of at least 10 children.  We don't know anything about Joseph's childhood but can imagine that he worked hard and probably also learned to hunt and fish.  He married Jerretta or Jereter Vickery, daughter of Marmaduke and Elizabeth Nation Vickery, at Christmas time, 1770, when she was not quite 16 years old, and their first child, one of 11, arrived soon after.  Yes, Joseph and Jerretta appear to have been first cousins, which was not unusual for that time and place.

Joseph was 29 years old, with small children at home, when he first served in the North Carolina militia, in a unit from Randolph County.  His widow's pension application says that he was a calvaryman or mountain man during both of his terms of service.  The first enrollment was for 6 months of service and seems to cover the time period that included the battle of Stono Ferry and the Siege of Charleston, as well as numerous small skirmishes and battles.  We don't know how many of those Joseph actually participated in but it was a difficult time in the Revolutionary War.  The battleground had shifted from the New York-Philadelphia area to the south, and war was particularly vicious there.  The pension application says that Joseph fought the British and the Tories, but there was no mention of the Cherokees, so perhaps Joseph wasn't involved in those battles.  He apparently re-enlisted, in either 1780 or 1781, for three months service, and may have been involved in Camden or King's Mountain, also.  If he wasn't there, he certainly would have heard stories from his friends and neighbors who were there.  I would love to hear his stories, because this was a vital part of American history.  He entered as a private and left as a private.

Sometime between 1790 and 1799 Joseph and some of his family left their home and moved to what is now Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the mountains and part of the area that tried to form the state of Franklin.  By the time Joseph arrived, though, the issue was settled and he would have known he was in Tennessee.  Joseph died there on April 12, 1803, when he was just 53. 

 Several of the Nation children moved north to Preble County, Ohio, and Jeretta traveled with them, probably before 1820.  In 1840, she applied for and received a pension based on her husband's service,  although there is correspondence in the file indicating that she may have not received what she was due, because of an agent's actions.  "Agents" were people who did the paperwork of applying for a pension, generally pocketing some percentage of the amount awarded.  Jeretta was almost 96 when she died July 30, 1849.  By 1855, all of their children except Joel were dead, and Joel was still trying to get the pension issue straightened out.  

I think Joseph led a hard life, farming land that may not have been the best, and taking time from raising his family to fight in the war.  But Jeretta likely had it even harder, as she lived so many years as a widow.  We can be grateful to both of them for their sacrifices to make a better life for their family and for their country.

The line of descent is

Joseph Nation-Jeretta Vickery

Elizabeth Nation-Christopher Myers

Phoebe Myers-Adam Brown

Phoebe Brown-Fremont Holbrook

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants