Written and compiled by John C Overmeyer, Columbus, Ohio June,
1937
Transcribed for the Internet by Paul H Andree III June, 1997
John Wagner came from the town of Wasselone, Alsace, France and located in Maryland. We
know he had a brother, Jacob, in Berks County, PA. The first authentic record we have of
him in America; he was a resident of Washington County, Maryland, which was formerly a
part of "Old Frederick County", founded in 1748 and in the vicinity of
Hagerstown, which until 1814 was
known as Elizabethtown. This section of Maryland was settled by Pennsylvania Germans and a
strip of country 20 miles wide, now included in northern Maryland, was a part of
Pennsylvania until 1776, when the Mason and Dixon iinto Maryland. In this territory we
find John Wagner or Waggoner a young man, single, enlisting for service in the
Revolutionary War in Valentine Creager's Company as a private on October 3, 1776; then
about nineteen years of age.
This company was composed of the captain, first and second lieutenants, an ensign, four
sergeants, four corporals, a drummer, a fifer, and sixty-eight privates, and was to be
enrolled until December 1, 1776. This company marched forthwith to camp at New York. John
and Adam Waggoner were two of the sixty-eight privates (Maryland Archives, Volume
Eighteen, Pages 71 and 72).
John Waggoner, as now spelled, no doubt served with this company until the term of
enrollment expired and after that time he joined Captain Bartholemew Von Heer's Company.
Von Heer was in the artillery from March 3, 1777 to June 1, 1778, when he became Captain
of Provost, which was established by resolution of Congress May 27, 1778. (Volume Three,
Fifth Series, Page 973,
Pennsylvania Archives; Page 917, same volume; also Letter of General Washington, Volume
Nine, Page 486, Old Series, Pennsylvania Archives.)
The Command was known as "Von Heer's Light Dragoons"; also as "The Troop of
Marchausse" and consisted of a captain, four lieutenants, clerk, quarter master
sergeant, two trumpeteers, two sergeants, five corporals, and forty-three privates. They
were mounter and accounted as "Light Dragoons", which is a name applied to
soldiers serving on horseback or on foot, as the
occasion requires. Their duties were to apprehend deserters, rioters, and stragglers. In
battle they are posted in the rear to secure fugitives, and in general to be a provost or
guard.
The men were all recruited in Pennsylvania according to a letter from General Washington
to President Moore of the state of Pennsylvania, to which reference has been made (page
486) in which it was suggested that "if the men are taken for cavalry, thirty-two
dollars per man would be proper pay for this service.
A letter from the War Department and another from the Pension Bureau at Washington, D.C.
states that the following data taken from Pension Clain W-27855 is a record of his
service, as follows: "John Waggoner enlisted at or near Peading, Pennsylvania, and
served as a private in Captain Von Heer's Troop of Horsemen and in General Washington's
Life-Guard, his services terminated at the close of the war".
After the close of the war he no doubt returned to southern Pennsylvania and northern
Maryland and engaged in agricultural pursuits, for the next authentic record we have of
him is his marriage at the age of twenty-seven years. Volume Two, Page 529, of
"Maryland Records", published by G.M. Brumbaugh, contains the following entry
under "Maryland Records of Washington County", as taken from "Maryland
Marriages", pages 226-241: John Waggoner to Elizabeth Litch, July 18, 1785; by Rev.
Jacob Weimer, Luthern minister, from 1776 to 1786". (The name "Leach"
occurs frequently in the records rather than Litch.) From the date of their marriage in
1785 for a period of twelve years they resided in the vicinity of Hagerstown, MD. In 1797,
they moved to Bedford County, Pennsylvania (Everett's History of Sandusky County, Ohio).
Bedford County is one of the southern tier of Pennsylvania and joins the Maryland state
line, of which Bedford, the county seat, lies between Cumberland, MD. and Altoona, PA;
located in the mountainous section of Pennsylvania. Here the family resided for about six
years and in 1803
emigrated to Perry County, Ohio. The family at that time consisted of the parents and five
or six children, and from the incomplete records at hand, at least three and possibly four
of their ten children were born in Perry County, Ohio.
John Waggoner and family moved to Perry Co when John Sr. was forty-five years old and John
Jr. was about thirteen of age, and just at the time when Ohio became a state in 1803. They
settled in Section Five, Reading Township, about two and one half miles northwest of the
present village of Somerset. The government sold this land at $2.00 per acre, one third
down, one third in one year, and one third in two years. The ten children grew to manhood
and womanhood, and most of them married into other pioneer families of Perry County during
the twenty-five years of their residence there.
In addition to the mentioned one half section of land, he made other entriesuntil he owned
1127 acres; either separately or jointly with other family members. It is a fact worthy of
note that members of the Waggoner family sold their holdings in Perry County between the
dates of 1812 and April 27, 1829 when John and Elizabeth signed the last deed for South
1/2 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section Seven, Pike Township, located about one mile southwest
of New Lexington. Elizabeth was evidently taken by the hand of death sometime between 1829
and 1832, for the last record we have of her is when she signed the 1829 deed.
The children of John Sr. and Elizabeth Leach Waggoner are here given:
Elizabeth Waggoner, born February 25, 1788; married
Barnhart Bowman. He was born April 3, 1784, in Northhampton County, Pennsylvania.
John Waggoner Jr, born January 15, 1790; married
January 16, 1816, to Mary Bowman, by Philip Spohn, J.P., Hopewell Twp, Perry Co., Ohio.
Jacob Wagner (twin to David), born September 15, 1792;
married Susannah C. Heck in Perry Co., Ohio.
David Waggoner (twin to Jacob), born September 15,
1792; married first Susan Fry on July 28, 1813 in Licking Co., Ohio.David married second
on March 2, 1819 to Susan Opp (or App) in Perry Co., Ohio
George Waggoner, born November 30, 1795; married
Margaret Klingler of Perry Co., Ohio.
Nancy Waggoner, born April 7, 1798; married John
Mechling on May 8, 1824 in Perry Co., Ohio
Daniel Wagoner, born October 24, 1800; married Sarah
Stockberger, in Perry Co., Ohio
Catharine Waggoner, born in 1804; married Christian
Dersham on September 15, 1822 in Perry Co., Ohio.
Solomon Wagoner, born in 1807; married first Elizabeth
Stockberger on August 16, 1827 in Perry Co., Ohio. Elizabeth died and he married second
Harriet Kratzer in February, 1839. Harriet died and he married third Anna Eberts on
December 16, 1876.
Samuel Waggoner, born November 10, 1809; married Anna
Smith on March 23, 1834 in Sandusky Co., Ohio
After the death of his wife Elizabeth, he no doubt had his home in Sandusky Township with
his oldest son, John Jr., on what is the Samuel B Waggoner farm in Section Eighteen until
his second marriage, which occurred on June 30, 1833 at Somerset, Ohio; when he was
married to Sarah Minic by John E. Linn, J.P., Reading Twp., Perry Co., Ohio (Volume One,
Page 145, Marriage
Records, Perry County). She was bornApril 11, 1778 and was married to J. Smith when about
eighteen years of age. They apparently had three daughters:
Catharine Smith, born May 7, 1797, died single January 31, 1852.Eve Smith, born November
2, 1803, died single August 2, 1865.Anna Smith, born March 25, 1813, died December 11,
1877; and apparently married John Waggoner's youngest son Samuel.
These daughters and their mother Sarah are buried in the Four-Mile Cemetary, west of
Fremont, Ohio.
John Waggoner's health evidently began to fail about 1840, where records showed that he
required medical services until his death on December 15, 1842 at eighty-five years of
age. The funeral accorded him was no doubt in keeping with his military service, for we
are quite sure his body was
attired in Revolutionary costume and in accord with the times and station in life which he
occupied. His coffin was carried by men about two miles to the Bowles Cemetary, located on
the bank of the Muscalongue Creek in Section twenty-nine, on the pioneer farm of the
Bowles family. His body remained there for more than a half century when his descendants
decided to the same to the lot of one of his grandsons, Daniel Waggoner, eldest son of
John Jr., in the Four-Mile Cemetary in Fremont, Ohio. In more recent years, a suitable
monument has been erected to his memory by his descendants.
The source for this information is: "THE WAGNER - WAGGONER - WAGONER
FAMILY" History - Genealogy, 1941 by Clark R. Wagner; Arlington, Ohio
Advertiser Press, Printers; Tiffin, Ohio
Researcher and Contact Person: Paul Howard Andree III
1306 Old Eustis Rd Mt Dora, FL 32757
352-735-7672
Email - pandree@netmender.net