Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 2688, for Jacob Kesler, North Carolina
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The State of Ohio 
Preble County
on this 21st day of September
AD. 1832 personally appeared in open
Court before the Honorable Judges of the
Court of Common Pleas now sitting
in and for the said county Jacob Kesler a resident of Harrison Township Preble County & State of Ohio aged 75  years who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath doth make the following Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers
and served as herein stated
-That he entered the service at the County of
York in the State of Pennsylvania where he
then resided under Captain George Deal in
Col. Michael Swoop's Battalion of Pennsylvania
Militia some time in the year 1775 or 1776 -
this was a draft for a two months tour of
duty. Marched to Elizabethtown in the State of
New York and that after the expiration of said tour of two months he entered the service
as a volunteer at Elizabethtown in the State of
New York aforesaid for a three months tour under captain John Mc Dannold[?] in said Col. M. Swoops Regt or battalion
.
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of Pennsylvania Militia, Remained
in the neighborhood of Elizabethtown most
part of this tour, during this time commenced building Fort Lee near said Elizabethtown, where he was discharged at the expiration of his tour of duty - served three months this tour & got no written discharge -And that shortly afterwards entered the service as a volunteer in Captain Nicholas Galwick's Company Pennsylvania Militia -
marched under Col. Albright in an expedition
against the Indians to Fort Roberts in
what was called sinking Valley Road - a tour of duty of two months - this tour he thinks was performed in 1778 - and that he afterwards entered the service as a substitute for one Jacob Finger in Lincoln county, N. Carolina in the N. Carolina Militia for a three months tour - does not recollect the name of his company
officers - marched to Charlestown South Carolina was under Col. Henry Wright[?] -served a tour of duty of three months most part of the time in Charles Town & S. Carolina - does not recollect the time he entered the
service but knows he was discharged the 7th day of May and on the 12th day of the same month that five days after he was discharged the British took the town of Charlestown
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And Deponent does further declare that
he did serve the several tours of duty
aforesaid during the revolutionary war
making aggregately ten months service -
And that he has no documentary
evidence - he had a written discharge which he has lost
and that he knows of no person whose
testimony he can procure who can testify to all his said
services - he herewith transmits the affidavit of Henry Horn who served a tour of duty with him - 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 -
he further states that he has a Record of his age which he believes was taken from one made
by father by which it appears he was born
July AD 1757 in the County of  Bucks in the State of Pennsylvania and that at the time he was called into service in the of that state he lived in York County, Pennsylvania and that he served in the militia of that State except the last tour he served in N. Carolina
and that since the revolutionary war he resided
in Rockingham County and Greenbrier Counties
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It is important, in all cases, to determine with precision the period for which each applicant served, and the particular rank he held, as the law directs the pension to be paid according to the grade of the pensioner and the length of his service. The use of the phrase about three or four months, is too indefinite, and all such qualifying expressions are objectionable. Some persons who apply for pensions merely state that they served two years in the militia, &c. without specifying the tours, the names of the officers, and other particulars respecting their service. This form of a declaration in highly objectionable. It must, in every case, be clearly shown under what officers the applicant served; the duration of each term of engagement; the particular place or places where the service was performed; that the applicant served with an embodied corps called into service by competent authority; that he was either in the field or in garrison; and for the time during which the service was performed, he was not employed in any civil pursuit. 
QUERE XIV. PROOF OF SERVICE. 
In a case where the name of the applicant is not found on the records of the Department, he must prove his service by two credible witnesses who are required to set forth in their affidavits the time of the claimant's entering the service, and the time and manner of his leaving the same, as well as the regiment, company, and line to which he belonged. The magistrate who may administer the oaths must certify to the credibility of the witnesses and the official character and signature of the magistrate must be certified by the proper officer, under his seal of office. 
QUERE XVI. MODE OF AUTHENTICATING PAPERS. 
In every instance where the certificate of the certifying officer who authenticates the papers is not written on the same sheet of paper which contains the affidavit, or other papers authenticated, the certificate must be attached thereto by a piece of tape or narrow ribbon, the ends of which must pass under the seal of office of the certifying officer, so as to prevent any paper from being improperly attached to the certificate. In every case where the clerk of the court, or other certifying officer, has no public seal of office, the certificate of a member of congress, proving the official character and signature of the certifying officer, should accompany the papers.