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.
Cemetery is on private property and hard to reach. Behind house that has Pet Cemetery in the front yard. Grave appoximately 200 yards in the woods behind Pet Cemetery
Author: Dr. Walter B. Stevenson, Jr
John Stevenson was born on 20 Nov 1750, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. John Stevenson, the youngest child, came to America 1772 with Mary, his mother. Others in his family had previously come to America. John and his mother stayed in Ireland until he completed his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. John was not free to leave the apprenticeship until he was 21 years old. He turned 22 on the ship on the trip to America. John and his mother were on the ship the “Pennsylvania Farmer,” which landed in Charles Town (Charleston), SC.
John's father and the older siblings came from Ireland first and worked to sent them money to Mary and John to come. The father and older children's ship came to New York, and John’s mother and father corresponded to know that both had reached America, but travel was difficult and they never got to see each other before they died.
Both John Stevenson and his mother received land grants in the Waxhaw Settlement area in the vicinity of the North Carolina and South Carolina line near Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC.
John Stevenson pension application stated, “…at the commencement of the War of the Revolution he espoused the cause of his adopted Country and of Liberty. He served from the beginning of the war as a blacksmith. He stated “he shod horses, made guns, gunlocks and swords and was on various scouting parties under Colonel Davie” [William Richardson Davie]. When not performing duties as a blacksmith, he engaged in scouting parties after the Tories.”
In 1780, he entered the service as a drafted militia man as a private in the Company under the Command of Captain William Alexander, commonly called Black Billy. Later, “… in …indisposition and long confinement of the wife of deponent, he hired a substitute by the name James Barron to serve out his tour of duty … who was accepted by Captain Alexander and on his acceptance this deponent [John Stevenson] received an honorable discharge…” John stated he continued to be “…engaged in shoeing the troops horses, making swords, repairing fire arms and on scouting parties under the direction of Colonel Davie until the close of the War...”
After the War John and his wife moved to the Pendleton District, SC, then to Todd County, KY, after which he moved back to Pendleton District, then to Dekalb County, GA. After selling his land in Dekalb County, he moved in with his grandson, William Stevenson in Murray County, GA. John passed away in on 27 Apr 1851 at age 100. He had selected a place and instructed to be buried there at” Lonesome Knole, on Koiehulla Creek” about six miles from Dalton, GA. His tombstone inscription, which John Stevenson wrote is -
John Stevenson was born in the North of Ireland in the County of Antrim in the year of our Lord 1750 Nov. 20th In Religion a protestant, in politics a democrat, in the Revolution a Whig Died 27th April 1851
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