The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA
Qualifying Service: Private / Patriotic Service
Birth: 16 Sep 1755 / Hampshire / VA Death: 12 Aug 1844 / Decatur / IN
Qualifying Service Description:
Pvt, enlisted in unknown unit, Spring of 1775
Pvt, re-enlisted for duration of war in Capt Andrew Waggoner's Co, Colonel James Wood's 12th Regt, VA-CL, 1777 - Aug 1780
Participated in Battles of: Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, Camden
Pvt, unknown Co, 4th Regt, Virginia Contenintal Line Aug - prob Oct 1781
Pvt, waggoner for baggage of Maj Gen Lafayette's forces after Battle of Yorktown enroute to Boston, MA, 1781
DAR RC # 799705 and A031726 cite: Captain ANDREW WAGONER,Colonel JAMES WOOD, VA LINE
Additional References:
American Rev War Veterans Indiana Pension No 16299, 4 Dec 1819: John DeMoss, Exec Asst to the Administrator letter, dated 23 Feb 1937, extract from Amer Rev War Pension #S-16299 & Widows Pension No W-9632 records;
Caughron, Edith Susanna & Neodesha, G L Mrs, Kansas, The DeMoss Family in America, 1951, pg 32
DAR RC #826046: John DeMoss (Gen 6)
DAR RC # 799705 and A031726 cite: Pension: S*W9832
Find-A-Grave provides a note posted by Russell Wilhoit that the cemetery has been destroyed and the grave stones were not found. Added: 17 Feb 2021
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
No GPS in find-a-grave
Author: George E. DeMoss
The colonies of the new world called America struggled to stay alive and struggled to accept the rule by the monarchs in England. In Europe the Protestants were being persecuted by the rulers in the French government. Some French Huguenots fled to Holland, then to the colonies of America.
Charles and Fannie Demoss lived in Berkeley County, Virginia before 1755. Charles came from French Huguenot ancestry and spelled his name Demoss. Generations before him spelled the name Dumas or Demus. Charles was born 2 Nov 1731. With his first wife, Fannie, (maiden name unknown) they had four children, Peter, Andrew, John, and Susannah. Fannie died in 1765. Then Charles married Rebecca Throckmorton. Seven additional children were born to that marriage. They were farmers by trade.
John (b. 16 Sept 1755) told his life story personally at age 64 in the Dearborn Circuit Court, Lawrenceburg, Indiana. He had enlisted in the springtime of 1776, age 21. He joined a company of infantry commanded by Captain Andrew Waggoner in the Twelfth Virginian regiment, commanded by Colonel James Wood in the Virginia line, Continental line. He told of being at the battle at Brandywine, Pennsylvania, September, 1777, Germantown, Pennsylvania, October, 1777, the battle of Monmouth, June, 1778, and the battle at Camden, South Carolina, August, 1780.and other skirmishes. After the battle at Camden, he was transferred to the Fourth Virginia regiment. After Lord Cornwallis was captured, he was marched to Winchester, Virginia. There he was employed as a wagoner in the service of the national government to transport the baggage of the French Army, commanded by the Marquis De la Fayette, from Williamsburg, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. After the fighting ended, the army was disbanded and the soldiers discharged without knowledge of or formal proceedings of mustering out of the service. After returning home, he married Lucinda Chapel, 5 January, 1787, at New Kent County, Virginia. They had eight children, raising them in Ohio and Indiana. He too was a farmer. His children were Peter (b. 1788), Dorothy (b. 1790), Susannah (b. 1793), Sarah (b. 1796), John Jr.(b .1798), Charles (b. 1800), and Lucy (b. 1803) Mary (b. 1806).
His appearance at the Dearborn Circuit Court was to prove his service in the militia and file a pension request. That request was granted. John died a pauper, Aug, 1844, in Decatur County, Indiana. Burial was at Milton Byer’s Farm Cemetery, Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana. Thru the following years, the cemetery was not maintained and it does not exist today. Lucinda was granted a widow’s pension and died 5 August 1852, in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana.
His son, John Jr., was one of the early settlers moving on to Iowa, following rivers and trails, a part of the westward movement to new lands, new towns, new lives on the prairies of the Midwest.
John Demoss , Sr. was my GGG grandfather
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