July 26, 2025, Presentation: A Widow’s Story, A Quest for Her Husband’s Revolutionary War Pension
Description
David Powell
Presentation
“A Widow’s Story, A Quest for Her Husband’s Revolutionary War Pension”. This is a story about a widow. Actually, this is a story about a widow of a veteran of the American Revolution. It is also a presentation on how the Revolutionary War pension system was created and operated. We do not know much about Susannah Moore until she was about 16 years old when she married a young New Jersey soldier on March 25, 1779. She married a 20-year-old man named John Roe while he was on furlough from his service in the Continental Line. They married at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, NJ. Her husband had enlisted in September of 1778 in the 3rd NJ Regiment of the Continental Army and remained in the Army until Cornwallis surrendered in October of 1781. We will learn that after his death, Susannah Roe would petition the government under the Pension Act of 1836 to receive benefits as a widow of a Revolutionary War Soldier. It was denied and she began a quest to navigate the government bureaucracy to collect it.
Speaker
David Powell is a past President of the Empire State Society, Sons of the American Revolution (ESSSAR). David served two terms as a Trustee of the National Society of the SAR and is a SAR George Washington Fellow. David in the past has served two terms as the ESSSAR Vice President for the Central Region of NY and served two terms as the President of the Syracuse Chapter of the SAR. He is a member of the National SAR-CAR Committee, and he served as the ESSSAR liaison to the CAR. David also served a term as Senior State Historian of the New York State Society of the Children of the American Revolution. David has been involved in genealogical research for over 33 years.
Registration opens July 1st, for members of CDGS. If there is space remaining, non-members can register starting July 16th. Registration closes at 11pm, 2 days prior to the event.