David Hartman—was present at the battle of Bennington, and was shot through the chest. Notwithstanding, he lived for many years. He settled in Ernest town.
John Ham, the founder of the Ham family of Canada, so well and so favorably known in different sections of the Province. He was born near Albany. His father was a native of Germany, although of English parentage. John Ham was a soldier during the war, and in one of several engagements, was wounded in the leg. The ball, lodging in the calf, was cut out, and, at the request of the suffering but brave hero, was shot back at the foe. He was one of the company who settled in Ernest town. He had a family of ten children, eight of them being sons, namely: John, Henry, Peter, George, Jacob, Philip, Benjamin, and Richard, all of whom lived and died in Canada.
The name of Herkimer is engraved upon the history of America, both in the United States and in Canada. “Colonel Hanjost Herkimer, or John Joost, was a son of Johan Jost Herkimer, one of the Palatines of the German Flats, New York, and a brother of the rebel general, Nicholas Herkimer. His property was confiscated. He went to Canada, and died there before 1787.”—(Sabine.) Prior to the war he had occupied several public offices. He served as an officer in Butler’s Rangers. We find his name inserted for lot 24 of Kingston, on which now stands part of the city. His son Nicholas settled upon the Point now bearing the family name. He married a Purdy, and had several children. His end was a sad one, being murdered by a blacksmith, named Rogers, who escaped. A daughter was married to Captain Sadlier, another to an officer in the army, and a third to Mr. Wartman.
The old family place in New York State is yet indicated by the name of Herkimer County.
William Johnson Holt was ensign in Ferguson’s Rangers. This corps formed part of the army of Burgoyne at the time of his surrender, and, with other provincial prisoners, retired to Canada, by permission of Gates. The subject of this notice settled in Montreal, where he held the lucrative office of Inspector of Pot and Pearl Ashes, and received half pay for nearly fifty years. He died at Montreal, in 1826. By his first wife (Ruah Stevens, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts), he was the father of a large family of sons and daughters; by his second wife (Elizabeth Cuyler) he left no issue. His sixth son, Charles Adolphus, alone has surviving male children, of whom the eldest, Charles Gates Holt, is (1864) a distinguished counsellor-at-law, and a gentleman of the highest respectability, at Quebec. In February, 1864, he was appointed one of “Her Majesty’s Counsel, learned in the law,” and thus entitled to wear the “silk robe.”
“John Jones, of Maine, captain in Rogers’ Rangers. Being of a dark complexion, he was called ‘Mahogany Jones.’ Prior to the war he lived at or near Pownalborough, and was Surveyor of the Plymouth Company. As the troubles increased, the whigs accused him of secreting tea, and broke open his store. Next, they fastened him to a long rope, and dragged him through the water until he was nearly drowned. Finally, to put an end to his exertions against the popular cause, he was committed to jail in Boston. He escaped, went to Quebec in 1780, and received a commission in the Rangers. In Maine, again, before the peace, he annoyed his personal foes repeatedly. Among his feats was the capture of his ‘old enemy,’ General Charles Cushing, of Pownalborough. Jones, immediately after the peace, was at the Bay of Fundy, and interested in lands granted on that island to loyalists. In 1784 he resumed his business as surveyor, on the river St. Croix.—At length, ‘his toryism forgotten,’ he removed to the Kennebec. He died at Augusta, Maine.”
Captain William Johnson, of the King’s Royal regiment, afterwards colonel of the Militia of Addington. Besides the celebrated Sir John Johnson’s family, there were a large number of combatants and loyalists of this name, and mostly all of them were conspicuous for their gallant deeds in arms. Captain William Johnson settled some miles west of Kingston, on the front. Left one child, a daughter, who married McCoy. They removed to Toronto. It is said by Mr. Finkle that the first militia mustered in Upper Canada was by Col. William Johnson, at Finkle’s tavern.
The name of Johnson has become somewhat famous in Canadian history. James Johnson, an Irishman, was a soldier in Rogers’ Battalion. He came to Upper Canada with the first settlers of Ernest town, and was captain of the cattle-drivers that came at that time, or a year later. He got his location ticket at Carleton Island. He had a family of seven sons and six daughters. Six of the sons’ names were: Daniel, James, William, Matthew, Jacob, Andrew. The last-mentioned supplies us with the above information. He is now upwards of one hundred years of age.—(See U. E. Loyalists).
William Ketcheson, of Sidney, who was born September, 1782, at Bedford, New York, says that his father, William Ketcheson, was a native of England, and came to America with his grandfather, his father being dead. They settled in South Carolina, and lived there until the rebellion broke out. William Ketcheson, sen., was then about seventeen years of age, and entered the British service as a dragoon, under Lord Cornwallis. He served during the war; took part in many engagements, and was wounded in the thigh. Shortly before the close of hostilities he was married to Mary Bull, daughter of John Bull, a loyalist. After the peace he went to Nova Scotia, and engaged in fishing for a while; lived in a shanty at a rock-bound place, called Portoon. A fire ran over the place, burning up mostly everything, and almost our informant, who was then only about 18 months old. He and his mother were put on board a boat and taken to New York. The father remained to settle his affairs at Nova Scotia, and then came on into Canada, alone, in 1786. He worked a farm on shares, in the third township, belonging to John Miller. Raked in the grain; went for his family, and then subsequently worked Spence’s farm on shares for many years. Finally moved to Sidney, in 1800, and settled in the fifth concession.
“John Waltermeyer a tory partisan leader. He was noted for enterprise and daring, but not for cruelty or ferocity. In 1781, at the head of a band of Tories, Indians, and Canadians, he attempted to carry off General Schuyler, whose abode at that time was in the suburbs of Albany. The party entered the dwelling, commenced packing up the plate, and a search for the General. But that gentleman opened a window, and, as if speaking to an armed force of his own, called out,—“Come on, my brave fellows; surround the house, and secure the villains who are plundering.” The happy stratagem caused Waltermeyer and his followers to betake themselves to flight.”