Editor’s Note: The Enterprise is pleased to partner with the Colonel Abram Penn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to present My Patriot Ancestor, an ongoing series.
There were three primary military branches during the American Revolution: the Continental Army, local state militia and the navy. Individual states managed the militia. Service was a mandatory civic duty for all “able-bodied” men ages 16 to 45. They were rallied to repel immediate threats, protect local regions and to supplement the Continental forces. Florence “Flo” Paul Bell’s and Sherry Jean Bell’s patriot ancestor was a member of the Vermont militia, the Green Mountain Boys.
Elishama Tozer was born on July 3, 1741, in Lyme New Hampshire. In 1758 he married Mary Miller. They were the parents of at least four sons and five daughters. They lived in what is now Whitehall, New York.
Tozer registered for military service in 1775 and took part in the surprise capture of Fort Ticonderoga that same year and the subsequent march on Quebec. He served as a lieutenant in the Green Mountain Boys under Major John Brown and later as a captain in the Charlotte County New York Militia. In 1777 he was attached to a company that fought at the Battle of Bennington. He eventually went on to serve as the first assemblyman (1778-79) and state senator (1779-80) for Whitehall, New York.
Around 1801 Tozer moved to Waverly, New York. In1828, as a local preacher, he, along with his Wife Mary and two other couples organized the Factoryville class in Waverly. The Factoryville Class was a religious class that later evolved to form the Waverly Community Methodist Church. He died in 1833, in Waverly, Barton, Tioga, New York at the age of 92, and was buried in Rest Cemetery in Sayre, Bradford, Pennsylvania.
The Vermont militia called the Green Mountain Boys was organized in 1770 in what is now southwestern Vermont. Settlers and land speculators comprised the area then known as the New Hampshire Grants. The Green Mountain Boys had several hundred members who controlled the area where New Hampshire grants had been issued. They were led by Ethan Allen, his brother Ira Allen, and their cousins Seth Warner and Remember Baker. They had become a de facto government, which was also an unauthorized, vigilante-militia. They resisted New York’s attempts to govern the region by intimidating surveyors, evicting New York-backed settlers and blocking sheriffs from enforcing New York laws. This resistance eventually led to the area declaring its independence from both New Hampshire and New York, thus establishing the independent Vermont Republic in 1777.
When the American Revolutionary War started in 1775, Ethan Allen and a troop of his men, along with Connecticut Colonel Benedict Arnold, marched up to Lake Champlain and captured the British military posts at Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Fort George, all in New York.
(Information for this article is from Wikipedia, Find A Grave, Wikitree, The Evening Star Times, Sayre, PA, Family, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the authors’ records.)
Everyone has a story. Let us help you find yours. Any woman 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion or ethnic background, who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution is eligible for membership. NSDAR in a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization. Help researching and proving your lineage can be provided by the Colonel Abram Penn Chapter by contacting Ann Robertson McConnell at [email protected].
