I’ve been using War of 1812 pension records, bounty land claims and service records to try and assemble a group of Asher males who might be related. There are 6 Asher males (or their widows) who applied for either Pension or bounty land. Two of them can be eliminated from my group easily. Neroway and Waller Asher served from Virginia and lived in Virginia and Ohio all their lives.
However the other four are potentially interesting – especially when connected to the individuals on the Asher time-line of my earlier posts.
Thomas Asher, according to his pension file, was drafted in Anderson County, Tennessee, into Captain James Tunnell’s Company of the Tennessee Militia in October 1814 and was discharged at Anderson County Tennessee in May 1815. He married Mary McGee in Anderson County on 6 May 1817. And he was a widower residing in Dewitt County, Texas on 10 January 1872. The pension file statement from Thomas Asher indicates that he was a substitute for Walton Taylor and that Michael Asher, David Landrum, James Black??, Andrew Eden, George Garner, John Sexton and William Sexton also served with him and supported his bounty land claim. He was 75 years old on 10 January 1872, which would make him born c. 1798. He signed by mark. (There has been some question as to the maiden name of the wife of this Thomas Asher. By his own testimony it was McGee – therefore this cannot possibly be the Thomas Asher who married Polly Asher in Wayne County, Indiana in the 1830’s.)
Charles Asher served twice – in his deposition dated 2nd September 1852 (age 62) he states that he served as a private in the company commanded by Capt Andrew Brayden in Major Clark’s battalion in the war against the Creek Indians and was then drafted at Clinton, Anderson County, Tennessee in the “fore part of the winter” 1813 or 1814 and was mustered out in the summer of 1814 or 1815. He served under Capt James Berry. He signs the deposition in Reynolds County, Missouri on 28 September 1852, by mark. According to the application of his widow Barbary Asher, he died 1 January 1858. She has witnesses that assert that Charles Asher and Barbary Otis were married in 1816. Barbary survived until after 1880 but died before 1895 when her pension check were returned to the Pension office as having been unclaimed for at least 3 years!
John Asher’s wife Isabell Asher made an application from Marion County, Iowa in 1873, age 81. She states that John Asher was drafted into Captain Zacheriah Glover’s company, regiment unknown on or about 1 May 1813 at Brookville Indiana and he was discharged about 1 August 1813. She states that she married him as Isabell Manley on 2 February 1813 in Franklin County, Indiana. John Asher died in Marion County, Iowa on 11 August 1864. According to Tabitha Kennedy (her married daughter?) John and Isabell raised 9 children.
Lastly, Solomon Asher applied for a bounty land on 27 January 1857 (age 57) and indicated that he was a private in the company of Captain Solomon Hendrix in an unknown regiment of the Tennessee Militia, regimental commander Colonel Samuel Bayles/Baylis. He was drafted at Roan’s Creek, Carter County Tennessee circa 1 October 1814 and was discharged 20 April 1815. At the time of his application he was living in Putnam County, Indiana. In August of 1859 he and his family of 8 were working for a William W Graham who wrote to the Commissioner of the GLO on account of their extreme poverty. Previous to this in 1855 Solomon Asher was a resident of Hancock County Illinois where he signed his name to his original application for bounty land. In 1879, in Muhlenberg Kentucky, Eleanor Asher widow ( and second wife) of Solomon Asher applied for pension after his death. Eleanor’s son by her first marriage John R Ford attests that he knew the first wife of Solomon Asher to have been Mary Stone and that she died in March 1866 in Putnam County, Indiana and that both she and Solomon Asher are deceased.
So what do I do with this very interesting information. Well I start by thinking and considering the genealogy of Tennessee counties. I find it very very intriguing that John Asher served from Indiana not from Tennessee. Hummmm