On
5 Nov 1796,
Jacob Cohen, the son of Solomon Cohen was born in
Georgetown, South Carolina. In 1816 in
Charleston he married
Rachel Lopez, a native of Charleston. Jacob and Rachel had 2 children before Rachel died at the age of 39 in June of 1833.
Later, Jacob married
Sarah Barrett, who was born in 1809 in Charleston. To this marriage were born at least 4 children. Jacob Cohen died on 13 June 1871 at the age of 75.
Early in his life Jacob enlisted and participated in the
War of 1812. In an attempt to find more information about Jacob and his service I was able to search the
War of 1812 Pension Application Files that are beginning to be made available from
fold3.
In searching the fold3 website I was indeed able to find the War of 1812 Widow's Pension for Jacob Cohen alias John Cohen, who served as a
Private in the Georgia Militia under Capt. Bullock.
The file included numerous documents, three of which provided great information as to his life. The first, shown below, is just a quick view of his service, and residence after the war. We now know that he enlisted on 22 Jan 1815 and was discharged on 23 Feb 1815. This record also provides us with the date of marriage to Sarah Barrett, as it shows that date was 22 Oct 1834.
The other 2 documents that provide the most information are the
Widow's Brief and the
Summary of Proof. The first is a statement by the widow where she shares the information of why she feels she should be entitled to a pension and the second is the reply where the pension is either accepted or denied. The documents below provide her reasoning and in this case the acceptance of that claim including the record of his receiving 160 acres of land.
These records are being made available through fold3 because of the generosity of many groups. A project, the War of 1812 Pension Digitization Project, is under way to get these documents digitized so that they may all be available for the public to view. More information about how to help may be found at the
Preserve the Pensions website. What a great opportunity to help preserve some wonderful records.
