My Family Tree

U.S. Pensioners, 1818-1872 > Indiana > 1818-1832 > C notes death in 22 June 1824

Listed on memorial " In memory of the Soldiers and Patriots of the Revolutionary War buried beneath Pike County Soil "
http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=23354
His pension application - http://revwarapps.org/s35834.pdf

http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpike/Clayhorn.htm
CHAMBERS, John. - 1749 - 6-22-1824 - enlisted at The Forks of the Cheat on the Monongahela River in VA. Dec.26, 1776 as Pvt.
served 3-1-1 - discharged Mar. 1, 1780 - Rev. Soldier - (no stone) "and moved to Jefferson Co, KY" (Philip G Hale)
[kdd: At the time he enlisted, the Cheats & Monongahela were the western frontier & had only forts. Contained by Monongahela County formed in 1776. Nearest county to the east was Hampshire County of Virginia.]

Bio from the Pike County Museum:
"John Chambers was born in Virginia in 1749. He enlisted on December 28, 1776 and served four years as a private under Captain David Scott in the 13th regiment of Colonel John Gibson. When Chambers applied for his pension in 1818 he was listed as living in Gibson County, Indiana.
He was mustered into the militia in September of 1811 and assigned to serve under Captain Walter Wilson, Lieutenant Benjamin Beckes and Colonel Luke Decker. The performance of Captain Wilson's Company at the Battle of Tippecanoe by General Harrison in an official dispatch to the Secretary of War written on November 18, 1811.
Chambers served as a second corporal from September 6 through November 9, 1812 in Captain Beckes' company during the War of 1812.He was living in Pike county in 1824 when he passed away."
[kdd: John Chambers was a Colonel by 5 Apr, 1778 in the same regiment ( Fort Pitt ) under Capt Thomas Moore ]

Following notes from Shari & Ken Knight (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=knight3&id=I508)
Orvil Hale believed John arrived in Indiana 1808-1812, but there is a John Chambers in Knox County Census 1807

McClellan claimed John Chambers resided in Gibson county in 1818 when he applied for a pension but was living in Pike in 1823. Clay township of Pike county borders Gibson county.

People came to Pike County either on the Buffalo Trace or the rivers. The Buffallo Trace entered Pike Co a mile north of Otwell or Delectable Hill, to Algiers and on to White Oak Springs (just west of present day Petersburgh). Those who came by river floated down the Ohio River, then worked up the Wabash and White Rivers. Orvil Hale thinks the Chambers came via the river. If the Straight Line Railroad had been finished, it would have provided an additional pathway. It was planned to go on a strait line between Evansville and Indianapolis. The town of Alfords in Pike County was a railroad town named after the contractors. But the company went broke and the line was never completed. [O. Hale to kk91]

Where was Rachel Chambers after John died? She is not listed as a head of household in the 1830 census, nor does she seem to fit in with John II, George, James, or Edmond. Perhaps she died. Hale's records list her a dying after 1824, the DAR lists that she died after 1850 (But the DAR also lists her as being born Rachel Welton in Louisville, Jefferson, KY in 1765. That part of the country was still Virginia in 1765, and Daniel Boone didn't move his family there until 1773/4. I could not find a Welton on the Kentucky census of 1790 or 1800.] Buela Grey was the one who started the idea that John Chambers came to Indiana around 1812. But she didn't know. The 1807 census lists him next to Joseph Phillips, his "dissapointing" son-in-law. Also, his daughter Rachel married David Welton in 1810 in Indiana. This after she had her first husband, Phillips, in court (in Vincinnes) a number of times and then divorced him. [O. Hale to kk91] John Chambers may have been raised in Hampshire or Greenbriar Counties, VA (now in WV). Jean (Margaret Story) and Trener (Allene J) wrote in a footnote in an article in the Indiana Magazine of History ("The first families of White Oak Spring 1810-1817, Vol 36(3):230, 1940) that he was thought to be from "Hampshire Virginia but a study of the name Chambers in the census of 1790 suggests that Greenbriar County was the families place of residance."
(end Knight notes)[kdd: That was John Thomas Chambers who married Margaret Fenister in Greenbrier and went to Monroe Co, IN]

http://www.ironsgenealogy.com/Chambers_Family_Only.html
John Thomas Chambers b.~1760 VA/WV m. Margaret Feamster in Greenbriar Co, WV 1786. Not known if he is related to our John Chambers.

Could be either of the John's father or brother - George Chambers bought a very large land holding of 64544 acres in Hampshire Co, VA 1794 (from the estate of Lord Fairfax) "located in various parts of the county, but chiefly near the Hardy county line, and other large tracts elsewhere in the county" from "History of Hampshire County, West Virginia" by Maxwell and Swisher. George's holdings include "near Patterson Creek Mountain, and North Branch" from "Early Records, Hampshire County, Virginia" [kdd: note our John had a son George, but John Thomas Chambers did not]
1767 "Christopher Chambers" bought land from John Relfe
1768-1795 "[Col] Benjamin Chambers" nine references in Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants
-> see http://familytrees.genopro.com/beltster/Marshall/Chambers-Benjamin-ind163830.htm
married Sarah Patterson and had son James Chambers

Only Chambers in 1789 Kentucky Census of Jefferson County is a James Chambers, also the name of one of John's sons.
A James Chambers had an early land grant in Monongahelia -
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS3J-B3PB-Q?i=536&cat=367655

M S Jeans, "First Families of White Oak Springs, 1810 to 1817" -
"John Chambers arrived in Knox County, according to tradition, in 1809. He was granted a Revolutionary pension as a citizen of Gibson County in 1818, and was recorded as a citizen of Pike County in 1820. He entered Revolutionary service in Hampshire County, Virginia, but a study of the name of Chambers on the on the census of 1790 suggests that Greenbrier County was the family's place of residence"

Administrator's Notice 12 Feb 1825 in the Western Sun -
"Notice is hereby given to the creditors of John Chambers, dec'd, late of Pike County, that the estate of said deceased is insolvent, and that settlement of the same as such, will be claimed by the undersigned. George Chambers Feb 7 1825"