Scoville, Amasa & Esther Merrill

Amasa Scoville: Pioneer, Farmer, American Revolutionary War Veteran

Birth: December 22, 1759, Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut
Death: March 30, 1844, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Burial: Vienna Township Cemetery, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
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Esther Merrill: Pioneer, Farmer

Birth: January 4, 1764, Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut
Death: March 30, 1843, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Burial: Vienna Township Cemetery, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
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Amasa Scoville (or Scovill), his wife Esther Merrill, and their family came to Vienna in 1810 or 1811.[1] A Presbyterian, he likely attended Vienna Presbyterian Church. He was a millwright and farmer. He voted as a Whig.

The couple married on April 10, 1782, in Waterbury, Connecticut. This marriage produced eight children.

Amasa Scoville's American Revolutionary War Service

Scoville claimed a pension in 1832. He described his military service in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) as follows:

In the Spring of the year 1776 I was drafted and marched from Waterbury in New Haven County in the State of Connecticut, to Brooklyn in Long Island in a Company of Militia commanded by Captain Curtis and was out Three months and was regularly discharged at Brooklyn. Soon after my return home, and the same summer, I was called out in the Militia to New York under Command of Captn Saml Bronson and in the Regt commanded by Col. Jonathan Baldwin. I was quartered in City and remained until its evacuation by the American army when I was taken with the sick to Harlaem [sic] where I was discharged. I was out on this tour about one month. In the year 177[7] I was drafted to join Gates[‘] army at the Northward and hired my brother, now deceased, as my substitute. He served out the term, six months for me and was at the Capture of Burgoyne. In the fall of 1777 I was a volunteer for two months and served as a musician in a detachment that marched to Peekskill to Fish-Kill and to Red Hook. Was there and saw Clinton’s fleet move up the River. Genl Putnam commanded. In the Spring of ’78 I served for two months as a musician at Rye & New Rochelle, under Captain Richards & Genl Wooster. The same year or the next I was drafted & placed in Garrison at Stratford County for Two months, served as a musician. I was afterwards called [illegible] where the British landed at New Haven.

Elijah Tompkins Merrill, another Vienna settler and Scoville's brother-in-law, offered an affidavit on behalf of Scoville's petition. Merrill stated that he served in the same company when the company was called out by an "alarm at New Haven."

Scoville served as a private and as a fifer. According to a family genealogy, Scoville lost the toes of one foot to frostbite while serving. He was also in New York City when the British evacuated in 1783.[2]

Pension

Amasa Scoville's pension of $35.33 per year was granted on August 22, 1832.

On June 7, 1832, the United States Congress passed the last of the service-pension acts for Revolutionary War veterans. This law extended to more persons a pension of full pay for life based on service of at least two years in the Continental Line or individual state militias. Veterans who had served at least six months but not more than two years were eligible for pensions, but not at full pay. This service-pension act did not require that applicants show financial need. This was the law under which Amasa Scoville claimed a pension.

His pension file also reveals that on May 9 1853, his daughter, Rachel Scoville Lowry, filed to claim monies owed her parents' estate. No record of payment is known.