Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-02-08
few wanton shots at the defensss Of Sac
ketts Herbor while passing.
second Enlistment.


second Enlistment.
On October s, 1914, Hiram Cronk again
enlisted. this time as a substitute FOR Jona-
than Waldo of Western. in Capt. Edmund
fuiier's company. in Major Hathaway's
regiment. in the command OF Gen. Jacob
Brown; and at Sackett's Harbor he served
forty days and helped TO build log barracks
along the shore until his discharge on No
vtmber 10 following
On March 81. 1926. Hiram Cronk married
Polly Thornton at Western. and I'm the
years that followed they reared n good
sized family. He subsequently received
from the government two military bounty
lano warrants, one for 10 acres and the
other for 20, and negotiated both Of them
for cash. as was the prevailing custom in
his nefghborhood. Back in 1871. while liy-
ing at Northwestern. Oneida county he
Med claim for pension. which was at
first rejected, but in 1873 allowed at the
rate OF IS per month. On that occasion
four OF his ancient comrades in arms. then
living, but now ali dead. namely, Jacob
Nandawaker, Simeon Fuller. Jasper Cron5
and Cornelius Doty. Identified him and tes-
titled that he had served with them under
Captain Fuller at Sackett's Harbor In
1856 his pension was increased to SD per
month.
His Later Life.
OF late years he has been quite feeble
and has been slowly gravitating back into
state of second childhood. requiring the
aid of guardian. He has a little farm of
loo acres near the town of Ava, worth per-
haps $780, but mortgaged for 81. poo and
on this he resides with his daughter and
his son-fn-law, Mrs. Sarah and jeremiah
Rowley, the latter being his guardian
His daughter is seventy years old and
her husband still older, and the two find il
difficult in their advanced years to extract
from the little farm sufficient to pay in
terest on the mortgage and exc out sub
StSteure for him and Themselves lnlQad
were IL not for the kindness of charitable
friends and nelghbors the three would sUf-
fer absolute privation of some OF the ncces-
stiles Of life. The neglect by Congress OF
this last survivor of the war of 1872 has
come about merely because attention was
not hitherto called TO the case.
a Long Retrospect.
Hiram Cronks face, as Indicated by the
accompanying photograph, taken only a
few days ago at Bonneville. Oneida county.
n. Y, bears witness to the food Of years
that have furrowed IL with countless lines
and to the winters that have piled their
snow upon his venerable head. A glance
at those lines and those snowy locks suf-
fees to suggest the whole story of that
wonderfully heightened span of life which
began In the eighteenth century. Tapped
completely over the nineteenth and eN-
tends thus far into the twentieth. Though
feeble, he Is remarkably well preserved,
considering his extreme age, and his IN
derstanding in many respects is uuimpaired.
He still takes lively interest in war mat
ters and in current politics. and realizes
that the United States has in his lifetime
grown from a weak and poverty -stricken
country of 100000 souls to a great and
dominating power embracing 5000, 600 peo-
pie, the richest on earth. And though his
sight and hearing are somewhat affected.
his faded eyes are still sharp enough to
note that the national flag bears on fits
field forty-five stars instead of eighteen,
as 1t bore when. with the sparkling eyes
of youth, he saw il waving I'm the breeze
above the works at Sackett's Harbor in
1914, and his ears are still acute enough to
enable him to rejoice in the strains of the
Star Spangled Banner" our noblest ma
tional anthem, born as the direct offspring
of an episode OF that Identical struggle in
which he personally participated eighty
eight years ago.