State of Indiana
Vigo County

On this 19th day of July in the year eighteen hundred and forty-three personally appeared before me, Jacob Jones, one of the special Judges of the Circuit Court in and for the County of Vigo and State of Indiana (said Court being a Court of Records, having a clerk and official seal, and so declared by the laws of this State of Indiana creating said court) Rachael Soesbe, a resident of said County of Vigo, aged seventy-seven years in October last, who being by me first duly sworn according to law, doth on her oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions made by the act of Congress passed July seventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, entitled "An Act Granting Half Pay and Pensions to Certain Widows" and the several acts and resolutions of Congress passed since that time explanatory thereof, That she is the widow of Daniel Soesbe who was a private in the Army of the Revolution and belonged to the Company commanded by Capt. Swaringen or Van Swaringen in the Eighth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Troops or of the Pennsylvania Line in the Army of the Revolution; that he voluntarily enlisted, she thinks, in the fall of the year 1776 for the term of three years and entered the service in said company at Catfish Camp, now Washington County, Pennsylvania. He was part of the time under the command of Capt. Finly, and after the death of the Col. who commanded the 8th Regiment, he was attached to Col. Morgans Rifle Company in the Campaign of 1777.

The troop marched to Grand Camp, after he entered the service, and was stationed at various other points, not now recollected. He was at the taking of Burgoyne. He was a part of the time engaged against the Indians on the frontier, she thinks, and about the close of his service he assisted in the storming and taking of an Indian town, under Capt. Brady or Colonel Brady, she is not certain which. That the said Daniel Soesbe served out his term of three years and was discharged at Fort Duguesne, now Pittsburg, in the fall of the year 1779. That the said Daniel Soesbe had some documentary evidence of his service which she believes was a discharge or a receipt for his gun, which he gave up, she thinks, when he was discharged, and was signed by some of his officers or Quartermaster, she thinks most likely, his name is not recollected, which discharge or receipt was sent to the War Department, she thinks in 1832 or 1833, with his application for a pension.

She further declares that the said Daniel Soesbe was a Revolutionary Pensioner, on the Indiana Pension roll and agency, at the rate of eighty dollars per annum; that he resided in the County of Green in the State of Indiana when he made his application for a Pension before the Circuit Court of Green County, she thinks, by the Hon. John Ewing as his agent or attorney in that behalf; next at Indianapolis, she believes. This claimant begs leave to refer to the evidence in the War Department with the application of the said Daniel Soesbe for greater certainty as to the fact of his service, the length of time thereof and of his officers names, etc. She believes them to be substantially true as herein set forth.

She further declares that she was married to the said Daniel Soesbe on the 15th day of April in the year 1781 by publication in the Church by one Mr. Wood, then a Baptist Minister in Washington County, Pennsylvania and that her maiden name was Bircham. That she had borne in wedlock with the said Daniel Soesbe eleven children, viz: John Soesbe, born 25th September, 1782, who now resides in or near Pensacola in Florida; Susannah, Margaret, Daniel Junior, Rachel, Polly, Sarah, Samuel, Martha, William and Asenath.

She further declares that the said Daniel Soesbe, her late husband, died in Vigo County, Indiana on the 4th day of March 1841. That she was not married to him prior to his leaving the service, but the marriage took place previous to the first of January, seventeen hundred and ninty-four, viz: at the time above stated. She further declares that she is the same idintied person and widow of the said Daniel Soesbe, deceased, who proved her widowhood before the Circuit Court of Vigo County in the spring or summer of 1841 and drew forty dollars arrearages of pension money due the said Daniel Soesbe at the time of his death, and that she now resides in the County of Vigo and State of Indiana and that she and her husband did reside there eight years next previous to his death, and that she still resides there; and that they resided in Pennsylvania; next on the waters of Licking river in Montgomery County Kentucky for about twenty years, then near New Salem, Indiana; next near Fairplay in Indiana.

She further declares that she has never intermarried with any other person since the death of the said Daniel Soesbe, her late husband, and that she yet continues to remain his widow.

She further declares that she has a family record of her marriage and of the birth of her children which is now in her possession and was made about seven years ago by Daniel Harbert, her grandson, at the direction of her husband and herself, all of which more fully appear by reference to the proof hereto annexed.

Given under my hand at the said County of Vigo this 19th day of July 1843.
Jacob Jones
Associate Judge
of Vigo County