It is unknown whether young Henry, some six years old when his father died, lived with friends or relatives in the Maryland-Pennsylvania area, as his siblings, Naomi₂ and Robert₃ evidently did, or whether he immediately went west with his eldest brother John₁. Whatever was the case, by 1781 at about age 21, he had settled on the Little Levels of the Greenbrier River along with brother John_1.

The earliest documented date we have concerning Henry₄ is found in the revolutionary pension application of his friend and neighbor, Richard Hill, who had come to the Little Levels area from North Carolina.

Hill, in 1834, stated that on 8 April 1781 in Augusta County, Virginia [now Pocahontas County, West Virginia], he volunteered to serve against the Indians under Captain George Clendinen's command and that he was stationed for six months in a garrison situated on Swago Creek, a branch of the Greenbrier River. That creek empties into the Greenbrier just north of the Little Levels, between present-day Hillsboro and Marlinton. Hill said that his assignment was to guard the garrison and to range and to spy on Indian movements through the gaps in the mountains north from Swago creek to the head of the Elk River. In this duty he said he was sometimes accompanied by Jacob Kinnison, Henry Casebolt, Thomas Drinnon, William Gwin and Charles Buck. He further stated that he performed the same service in 1782 and in 1783.

Hill's application for a pension was turned down as were all similar applications on the grounds that he had not seen regular military service. Ad hoc defense of one's home and family and, incidentally, of the western flank of the Revolution was considered militarily very important to the success of the Revolution, but pensions voted by Congress were confined to those who had served in the regular military establishment.

These requirements were clearly spelled out in

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CASEBOLT -- An American Family         Copyright 1992 - RAK

Ch.4 - Second Generation, South                   Page 4-33

Last Revised: 6 September 1992