Saturday Night Genealogy Fun...

I am so often late for making the SNGF challenge that I am almost afraid to post this one now, rather than wait for Sunday morning! Why? The proverbial roof may fall in on me for actually getting a SNGF challenge done on Saturday night! LOL

Here's Randy's  latest challenge from the Genea Musings blog:

Dear genealogists everywhere, it's Saturday Night! Time for some Genealogy FUN.

Is the bloom off of the Genea-Rose here? There has been very poor participation in SNGF the last two weeks, likely because the tasks were too hard or too esoteric. I'll try to fix that this week!

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) To celebrate Veterans Day, pick one of your ancestors or relatives with a military record and a gravestone.

2) Tell us about your ancestor's military service.

3) Tell us about your ancestor's gravestone - where is it, what is the inscription, when were you last there? Show us a picture of it if you have one available.

4) Write your own blog post about this ancestor and his gravestone, or share it in a Comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook, or in a Google Plus Stream post. 

Wow, Randy! You'd think that this would be a pretty straight forward, and rather easy, challenge. Right? But for me... it was a matter of which ancestor I wanted to choose from! See... I've got so many to choose from!!!

Well, I narrowed it down to my gr-gr-gr-grandfather, Joseph Wiseman [1759-1836]. Joseph's family was among the first settlers into what is now West Virginia. Back when they arrived, it was all wilderness. They assisted in building the very first church west of the Alleghany Divide, in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia. But I am ahead of this story!

Joseph was drafted in the first militia from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He first went out in August 1776, under Captain Thomas Berry, of Col. Mark Bird's regiment. They served in New Jersey and he was discharged from Paulos Hook in November.

The family then moved to Rowan County, North Carolina, in October 1777.

Joseph volunteered in September 1778 under Capt. Nickell and Lt. Chapman. They marched to Mecklenburg, where he was under the command of Col. Lock and Gen. Rutherford. They were then marched to Ten Mile House, near Charleston, then to the Two Sisters on the Savannah River, where he joined Gen. Ashe immediately after his defeat, covering the retreat across the Savannah River.

Joseph was discharged at Salisbury, North Carolina after nine months.

In July 1779 he substitued for three months, marched into Mecklenburg again, and was quickly discharged to go home and await further orders. No further call was made.

Making a move into Washington County, Maryland, where a call for every "ninth" milita man was given, he was drafted for the war. He and eight neighbors at that time hired a substitute each, for 45 pounds.

Joseph moved to Monroe County in 1794.

He was placed on the Pension Roll 10 Dec. 1832, at the age of 76. He received an annual allowance of $40, and received a sum total of $120 before his death.

Joseph was the father of eleven children, and one of whom became a clergyman.

He and his wife are buried at the northwest corner of the Old Rehobeth Church, the oldest church west of the Alleghany Divide.

JOSEPH WISEMAN

PVT NC MILITIA
REVOLUTIONARY WAR

MAR. 29, 1759          DEC. 27, 1836

He is buried at this church...

...which I last visited about 9 months ago, in the early spring.