Revolutionary Soldiers

Michael Crontz

In common with many veterans of the War of the American Revolution, Michael Crontz joined the Westward movement and spent the last years of his life in the still pioneer country of Northern Indiana.

He was born in Orange County, New York, in about the year 1753 and was raised in that county. When he applied for a pension based on service in the Revolutionary War, he told nothing of his personal background but, in accordance with the regulations governing such applications, he gave a detailed account of his military career.

He appeared in the Allen County, Indiana, Probate Court during the August Term of 1833, and was described as a resident of that county, aged about eighty years. He stated that he first entered the Army in 1775 in Orange County, New York, as a volunteer guarding �Old Fort Constitution� on Constitution Island located on the east side of the Hudson River. He spent four months of guarding the stores there, and on May 1, 1776, he again volunteered as a Private for a term of eight months service during which time he marched to the city of New York. He was in that city at the time the Declaration of Independence was announced. His regiment was stationed on Long Island from which point they were guarding the City of New York. He said that they �took some potshots at John Bull�s red coats� but apparently were not engaged in serious action. After having crossed the Hudson River, his regiment wintered in New Jersey near Hackensack.

In the spring he returned home to Orange County. While there he volunteered to help �guard the fortress against the Indians�. He probably had reference to Fort Putnam since he later referred to returning there after an unsuccessful engagement with the British at Stony Point �the year Burgoyne was taken 1777). A march to Saratoga was halted at Kingston by the news that Burgoyne�s army had been captured and there was no need to continue further. Crontz referred to having participated in �several skirmishes� until the close of the War but said that all of his military service was in Orange County and the Hudson River area. Incidentally, his pension application was approved, and he was granted $40.00 per annum.

Following the War he continue to live in Orange County until about the year 1817 when he moved west to the state of Ohio. The 1820 census of Fayette County, Union Township, lists him as the head of a household consisting of one male, aged 26-45 (probably a son), one male over 45 (Michael, himself),two females, aged 16-26 (probably daughters), and one female over 45 (his wife). In 1827 he moved on into Indiana, settling in Wayne Township of Allen County, but by the time the 1830 census was taken, the family included only Michael (between the ages of 70 and 80) and one female (between the ages of 50 and 60). The census of 1840 recorded veterans of the American Revolution by name and age, and Allen County, Indiana, has a listing for �Michael Cronce, 87�.

The compilation of Revolutionary soldiers buried in Indiana prepared by the Indiana DAR in 1938 states that Crontz was married twice, one of his wives having been named Dorcas. It also gives the date of his death as March 17, 1841, and his place of burial as McCulloch Park, Fort Wayne. However, interments in that early cemetery were later moved to Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne, and that is probably his final resting place although there is no marker to prove this.

References:
1840 census, Allen County, Wayne Township, Indiana(microfilm).

1830 census, Allen County, Wayne Township, Indiana(microfilm).

1820 census, Fayette County, Union Township, Ohio(microfilm).

O�Byrne, Mrs. Roscoe C., comp. & ed. Roster of soldiers and patriots of the American Revolution buried in Indiana. n.p., Indiana Daughters of the American Revolution, 1938.

Revolutionary War Pension Application No. S32191.

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