Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 22122, John Bickel, Penn.
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State of Pennsylvania
County of Lebanon SS

On the {blank} day of March 1833 personally appeared in open court before the judge of the Court of Common Pleas now sitting, John Bickel, Esquire a resident of Swatara Township in the county and state aforesaid, aged eighty years the second day of May last, who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7 1832.

That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.

I entered the service of the colonies in the Revolutionary War in Captain Thomas Coppenhafer's company on the 2nd day of January A.D. 1777, marched from Jonestown to Philadelphia, thence to Trenton, thence to Princeton, thence to Rocky Hill, thence to Princeton again and was there discharged by General Putnam from militia duty and returned home, after having served a tour of duty for two months as ensign

About the 1st of September A.D. 1777 I made another tour of militia duty, marched as ensign to Teterboro Hill near Germantown, was present at the battle of Brandywine and served my two months in Captain Amos Green's company, under the command of Colonel Rogers.  I was discharged and returned home again.

I served a third tour of two months against the Indians as ensign and was ordered to rendezvous at Greensville in East Hanover Township, Dauphin County, then Lancaster County, and state aforesaid.  Our Captain Thomas Coppenhafer did not come and I was an ensign in the company and had received my appointment and commission as such in Augt. 1777, and being dated the 31st of July 1777, which I now exhibit in court, signed by Thomas Wharton {illegible} and countersigned by T. Matlack, secretary.  And in the autumn following August 1778, marched on my third tour of two months as an ensign.  I then acted as captain and marched the company under the command of Colonel Harley and Major Eichelberger to Sunbury, did all the duties of a captain but never received a commission as such.  I remained out on this tour three months and was part of the time, from 6 to 8 weeks, stationed at Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, about 30 miles above the junction of the North and West branches.  I never saw an Indian on this tour, but we were in pursuit of them.  I was again discharged in the town of Sunbury on the said river by Col. (I think) Buttler.
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and returned again to Jonestown in the county of Lebanon aforesaid, then Lancaster County, and there I have lived ever since, except a part of the time I lived in Hanover Township in the said county, about a mile from Jonestown.  I have no documentary evidence of my discharge, but I have the commission appointing me as ensign of a company of foot in the sixth battalion of militia in the county of Lancaster. 

That he knows of no other person whose testimony he can procure who can testify to his services except Frederick Becker, John Gerberich and Jacob Lehman.  He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.  I served six months as ensign and three months as captain.
Signed:  John Bickel

Sworn and subscribed in open court the day and year aforesaid
Signed:  Adam Ritscher, Clk.

We hereby certify that we are well acquainted with John Bickel, who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, and we believe him to be eighty years of age; that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution, and we concur in that opinion.
Signed:  Valentine Shoufler, Wm. Wood

Sworn and subscribed in open court the day and year aforesaid
Signed:  Adam Ritscher, Clk.