The Mercer Connection

School starts back, for me, tomorrow. On Friday, solamente hablo español. 

But I want to add one more post before I go to bed. And I'm going to issue an apology right now: I've again deliberately made some documents extra large to help you see them better. I know it looks awkward, y'all! But, trust me--it's much easier to read.

This blog is, of course, called "All Things Alawine." But as I mentioned in the entry I called "The Carpenters," we have all those other lines and names, too. Tonight I'm uploading a lot of information about the Mercers.

Interestingly enough, one of the very first genealogical things I got my hands on years ago was a batch of papers about a John Richards. For the life of me, I couldn't really understand at first why he had anything to do with me. He was killed at Goliad, Texas, in 1836. 

[By the way, if you're interested in history and would like to know more about this massacre--which happened before the Mexican American War of 1846-1848--just click on this link to History.com 
http://www.history.com/news/the-goliad-massacre-the-other-alamo  It will chill you.]

Now, the reason I didn't see anything to tie me to John Richards was that John didn't marry and had no descendants. The documents I obtained consisted of letters regarding a claim made on his estate by family members long after he was killed. None of it seemed to have any connection to me at all.

But never throw old letters out if they talk about family! Hidden in plain view in these pages was confirmation that his mother was Nancy Mercer Richards, whose husband was William Richards, and who was the daughter of Jacob and Jaelie Mercer. 

What makes all this instantly relevant to us is that Nancy's daughter Amy married Elijah Alewine. Elijah was the grandfather of my great-grandfather Andrew. 

And, once again, the fascinating part (to me, anyway) is the following document Jacob Mercer (your whatever-great grandfather) signed to apply for a Revolutionary War pension. Look at page 2 of the application, and about a third of the way down is where he signed...on September 4, 1834!   

(For that date, look at the top of the first page.)

 

It takes a while, and a little practice with the document, to decipher the handwriting, which seems to be that of a court clerk. For instance, counting down to the 7th full line (not including where it starts "State of Georgia"),

is translated as "according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the act of Congress passed June the 7th 1832...... That he entered the..." Those "s's" in "Congress" are typical of the script of the time. See how much of the document you can read!

Page one is a detailed description of when he joined the Revolutionary Army, where he served, what his service involved: "to build a line of forts."

Page two, about halfway down, gives his answers to further questions the court asked--i.e., his date and place of birth; where his birth was recorded ("in the Family Bible, but I do not now know where it is......"); where he was living at the start of the war; whether he volunteered or not ("I was drafted"); and so on.

The third document describes the pension request, along with whom he served under.
Another letter written in November of 1929 indicates that Jacob did receive his pension and that he died on August 6, 1837.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory: they show Jacob Mercer's Revolutionary War tombstone and a historical marker at the Providence Baptist Church in Jasper County, Georgia.

 

These church photos are of Providence in 1924 and (I believe) at a much later date. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure of the second, newer picture, as I didn't add identifying information to it; but it was in my files with the older one of Providence. If it is the same church, it's been greatly modified. If anyone finds out whether it's still standing, let me know.  [PLEASE CHECK COMMENTS BELOW to read additional information provided by Suzanne Benson.]

So, on this evening before the typical routine of life begins again for me after my break, I like to look back and see that there's a long line of people who lived their lives probably in a routine way, also. They served in armed forces, they married and had children, they founded churches, they filed documents to be able to get pensions from the government.
Just like us, huh? 

...Well, no, not really: Jacob fought in the Revolutionary War. In 1777. None of us did that.