FEATURED PATRIOTS

John Robbins

Doddridge, p.14; Record, p.5; Roster Vol.1, p.315

BORN: 1741, North Carolina.

SERVICE: History of Wayne County published in 1884, p.358, says he was a soldier of the Revolutionary War.

PROOF: ?

DIED: 1834, aged 93, Wayne County, Indiana.

BURIED: Locust Grove Cemetery (Methodist), near Abington. Family marker and bronze tablet placed by the Richmond Chapter D.A.R. and Old National Trails Chapter D.A.R. [Record: Baptist.]

MARRIED: Sarah ?

CHILDREN: Moses Robbins, born 1765, died 1850.

MISCELLANEOUS: Collected by Mrs. Paul L. Ross, Richmond, Indiana.

John Burk

Doddridge, p.3; Record, p.7; Roster Vol.1, p.78

BORN: July 23, 1760, in that which was in 1832 Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was the son of James Burk.

SERVICE: Private, North Carolina Continentals. He enlisted in March, 1776 while living on the Yadkin River in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and served three months as Orderly-Sergeant in Captain Jesse Walton’s North Carolina Company of Light Horse. In 1779, he moved to the westward on the Nolichucky River, where he served three or four tours of ten to thirty days each as Indian spy under Captain Amos Bird.

Soldier stated that his father James Burk, who was also a resident of Wilkes County, North Carolina, enlisted with him in March 1776 as Ensign for three months in Captain Jesse Walton’s North Carolina Company of Light Horse, and in August of that year he died in service.

In 1780, he went into South Carolina where he served a tour of two or three weeks in Captain William Ritchie’s South Carolina Company, after which he returned to North Carolina and in the same year served two or three weeks as a Private in Captain Samuel Johnston’s North Carolina Company.

He enlisted in 1781, served three months as a Private in Captain Alexander Gordon’s Company, Colonel Francis Lock’s North Carolina Regiment. He was in battle at the Battle of Eutaw Springs and was discharged September 26, 1781.

PROOF: Pension Claim S. 16332. Pensioned August 20, 1832, aged 75.

In 1791 he moved from North Carolina to Kentucky, and in 1811 to Wayne County, Indiana, where he was allowed pension on his application, executed August 20, 1832.

DIED: February 1, 1836.

BURIED: Elkhorn Cemetery. ? Yount, Vol.2, p.121.No stone.

MARRIED: 1781, Alcy Robinson.

CHILDREN: James Burk; William Burk; Mary Burk; Benjamin Burk; Jesse Burk; Dorcas Burk; John Burk; Lewis Burk, 1799-1877.

MISCELLANEOUS: Collected by Mrs. Paul L. Ross, Richmond, Indiana, and Mrs. Mary G. Elrod, 2233 Park Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana (1938).

Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

From April 19, 1775 when Minutemen and British redcoats clashed at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts until September 3, 1783 when The Treaty of Paris was signed, American colonists fought a ragtag, difficult war for independence and self-government. Men and boys would enlist, serve a few months, go home to get in crops or recuperate from wounds, and then enlist again. Women struggled to care for families, farm, run businesses, and provide supplies to the troops.

There seemed little doubt at the start of the conflict that England would prevail. An estimated 7,200 soldiers and sailors lost their lives, cities were destroyed, commerce and farming disrupted, disease and hunger were often suffered. Success was elusive. When The British General Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown and open hostilities ceased on October 19, 1781, the inconceivable had occurred. The former British colonies were independent and a new nation of self-governing people could be formed. At the Yorktown surrender, Cornwallis realizing the enormity of change the colonists’ victory signified, asked his military band to play a popular tune of that time, “The World Turned Upside Down.”

The United States would still have many years of struggle to define itself, create a workable constitution, and ensure that the union would endure. Some might argue we are still struggling to effect an ever more perfect union and realize the promise in the Declaration of Independence and the much later “Bill of Rights” in the American Constitution:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Veterans of the Revolution not only returned home to take up their daily lives, many went on to pioneer and settle lands far to the west of the original thirteen colonies. Quite a few of these veterans came to live and eventually die and be buried in Wayne County, Indiana. Between Memorial Day 2009 and July 4, 2009, Morrisson-Reeves Library will be remembering these Revolutionary patriots.

Original Photographs Courtesy of E. Duane Reed

Mr. Reed graduated from Centerville High School in 1966. He served in the U. S. Air Force for twenty years, retiring in 1986. He has an Associate’s Degree in Education and has studied U. S. history concentrating on the Civil War and World War II. Mr. Reed is also a retired antique dealer. He has engaged in genealogical research for the last thirty-two years. Mr. Reed is currently working on a study of Wayne County tombstones.

 

See the entire index of Wayne County Revolutionary Patriots
(This index is not completely finalized.)