Tag Archives: War of 1812

Hezekiah’s Farm

This link is to an aerial view of what was my 4th great grandfather’s farm in Alabama. http://www.findaspring.com/locations/north-america/usa/robinson-hollow-spring-elkmont-alabama/. It’s located on Robinson

HESAKIAH ROBRSON: Yet another way to spell Hezekiah Robinson or is it Robison or maybe Robertson!!

HESAKIAH ROBRSON: Yet another way to spell Hezekiah Robinson or is it Robison or maybe Robertson!!

Hollow along Robinson Road near Elkmont, Limestone Co, Alabama where you’ll find Robinson Family Cemetery.

After marrying Anne Grantham who died young and then his sister-in-law Tabitha Grantham, Hezekiah Robinson (or Robison or Robertson or Robson) settled here after his service in the War of 1812.  The Robinson Family Cemetery is here but hidden by the trees in this view.  He was born sometime between 1777 and 1784 in Virginia and died in 1852 in Elkmont on his farm. His gravestone reads “HESAKIAH ROBRSON”!  Another case of “speeling duzn’t cownt”!!

Hezekiah’s widow, Tabitha spent almost 30 years trying to claim her widow’s pension. Government bureaucracy and the confusion as to how to spell his last name, letters went back and forth from Elkmont, Alabama to Washington for years!  She finally won out but died about 2 years later.

Hezekiah Robertson/Robison (1784-1852)

Hezekiah Robison was my 4th great grandfather, a well documented pedigree.  He was probably born in either Virginia or in what is now West Virginia.  I have never been able to locate anything other than references to “Virginia” as his place of birth on census records. His father was probably John or Jonathan, an immigrant from Colerain, County Londonderry, Ireland (now Northern Ireland).

But tonight, I found a reference to the military service that I had previously known only through the widow’s pension application of Tabitha who survived him by 32 years. It took her nearly that long to collect it! That was for two main reasons: 1) She was illiterate and 2) Hezekiah had spelled his name at least 3 different ways, Robinson, Robertson and Robison. His pension file has him listed as all three at various times.

At any rate, I just saved “AMERICAN STATE PAPERS, CLASS V, MILITARY AFFAIRS, VOLUME III” to Google Play.  In it, Hezekiah is shown to be a private earning $8 a month as an infantryman in the Tennessee Militia under Capt. Henry M Newlin commanded by Col Philip Pipkin.  In 7 months and 7 days, he earned $57.80 from June 20, 1814 to January 27, 1815. He’s on page 737 line 86.