REVOLUTIONARY LINKS

Notes in my grandfather's papers indicate that two names, formerly unknown to me, who are my great-grandfathers five times removed, were active participants in the American Revolutionary War. Both of these names come from my paternal side. Abraham Cook (b. 1 January 1754 in Branford, Conn--died 3 December 1843 in Philadelphia) served in Connecticut. He enlisted April 1775 under Captain Samuel Barker. He marched to New York and then to Fort Ticonderoga under General Montgomery. There they made flatbottom boats and was sent down to St. Johns to disrupt communications with Montreal. He was wounded in a skirmish. He later enlisted in a New Haven company under a Captain Livingston and marched to Boston, helping drive the British from the city. He then joined a regiment under General Sullivan on a march to New York. This information was gathered from a pension application presented by a Theodora Wright of Trenton, New Jersey. Abraham married Elizabeth Carpenter in 1790, and his granddaughter Mary Ann Rossiter Turpin married Horace Townsend Tidd in 1851. Their son was my future great great grandfather Milton Tidd.

Another forefather was Aaron Hankinson (born 1735 in Rowland's Mills, near Flemmington, New Jersey and died 9 October 1806 in Stillwater, New Jersey). He served as a major in Colonel Ephraim Martin's 2nd Regiment, Sussex County Militia, 10 June 1775; as a colonel in the same militia 18 February 1777; later appointed a colonel in the New Jersey Continental Line (26 December 1780). He commanded a regiment in Bergen County, 7 to 12 April, 1777 and in Pennsylvania under Brigadier General David Forman, 19 September to 11 October, 1777. He fought at the Battle of Germantown, 4 October 1777. He served at Minnisink, several months each between 1778 and 1781. And was appointed commissioner to purchase horses, saddles, and other supplies for the cavalry in service to the United States in 28 March 1778. He married Mary Snyder 9 February 1764. His great great great granddaughter Anna Wesling Hankinson Everingham married Milton Tidd on 17 July 1889 in New York.