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.
William Means was born May 3, 1763 in Staunton, Virginia. He was the son of William Means and Nancy Simonton. He married first, Nancy McElroy from whom I am descended. Most of his Revolutionary War experience was listed in pension application files at the courthouse in Edgar County, Illinois. Around the first of January, 1780, William entered the “state service” as a volunteer private, placed under the command of Captain Robert Faris. He served as a baggage guard at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, where Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeated British forces under Sir Banastre Tarleton as part of the campaign in the Carolinas. Sometime later, he was placed under the command of James Crawford, Captain in Col. William Fair’s regiment where, according to his pension application files, served in “scouting and ranging” about to prevent Tory depredations for his full term of two months. He was then placed under the command of James Crawford and marched to the village of Orangeburg on the Edison River in South Carolina and again engaged in what was called “scouting and ranging” in his pension application files. He again entered the State service on the last of September or the first of October 1781 as a volunteer private attached to Andrew Pickens brigade and was marched to several Indian towns to cut off and destroy the Indians. The Indians surrendered up seven white men three of whom were hanged by General Pickens and the rest turned over to General Clark of Georgia. William continued to reside in South Carolina for 12 or 15 years after the war ended and then moved to Adams County, Ohio, where he resided for about 23 years until he moved to Edgar County, Illinois--his final place of residence where he farmed for a living. After the death of his first wife, he married Susan Seal Chenoweth whose name appears in his pension application in Edgar County. William died Jun 11, 1848 in Edgar County, Illinois.
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