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.
Author: Samuel E Kaiser
John Essary (Esarey) was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania 5 July 1744 and died 17 November 1828 in Clark County, Illinois. He married Hester Clark on17 June 1775 on Delaware County, Pennsylvania. She was born 5 January 1758 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania and died 16 October 1818 in Walnut Prairie Illinois. They had nine children. 1/
Corporal John Esarey mustered into Thomas Paxton’s Company of Rangers on 16 September 1776 and mustered out on 13 November 1776 (59 days). 2/
In November 1780-81 John Essery was a member of the Samuel Wells party who spent the winter of 1780-81 in the vicinity of Doe Run, Kentucky. 3/
John Esrey served in the Jefferson County, Kentucky Militia from 10 July 1780 to 25 Aug 1780. He was a Lieutenant in Captain Lewis Hickman’s Company during the Shawnee Expedition of 1780. John was the Company Executive Officer when Captain Hickman was killed. 4/
Colonel George Rogers Clark led this expedition and the engagement at Pickaway, Ohio on * August 1780. This engagement was the largest such action west of the Allegheny Mountains during the Revolutionary War. 5/
John Essary again served in the Jefferson County, Kentucky Militia from21 October 1782 to 25 November 1782 as a Private under Captain James Samuels during an expedition against the Indians in Ohio. 4/
Although the Revolution was ended in Virginia in 1781, the following year was known as the “Year of Blood” in Kentucky. Renegades led a force of 300 Indians against the Kentucky Settlement of Bryan’s Station on 16-17 August 1782 and then slowly retreated to the Blue Licks, Kentucky where they ambushed the Americans pursuers, killing 50 Americans, including Daniel Boon’s Son, and routed the remainder on 19 August 1782.
Colonel George Rogers Clark retaliated for the massacre of the settlers during the Battle of Blue Licks, with a force 1,050 to the Sandusky, Ohio area. They began marching toward Indian country on 4 November 1872 and crossed the Ohio River at the ford a Cincinnati, Ohio. Indian settlements, crops (Corn) and other supplies were burned along the Miami River area with only minor skirmishes as the Indians retreated. This was the last expedition of the Revolutionary War. 6/
John Essrey became a land holder in Kentucky beginning in 1781 and moved his family to Kentucky in 1783. In 1810 he moved his family to Perry County Indiana and in 1819 he moved to Clark County Illinois.
1/. “Logan Esarey and his Ancestors”, pg 16 2/. “Pennsylvania Archives, Fifth series Volume Five, Muster Rolls and Papers relating to the Associators and Militia of the County of Bedford” page 52-55 3/. “When Pioneers Came to Meade County, Kentucky”, 4/. George Rogers Clark National Memorial Park library, Gorge Rogers Clark’s Official Military Records for 1778-1784 5/. George Rogers Clark and the Shawnee Expedition of 1780 by J. Martin West 6/. George Rogers Clark and the Revolution in the West by Lowell H Harrison 7/ 1800 Kentucky Tax List with Name County and tax list date, page 92
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