Daniel Messenger (1791 - 1852) and Martha Varner (1794 - 1850/52)
Halifax and Patrick Counties, Virginia and Rockingham and Stokes Counties, North Carolina
Relationship to Me: Great-Great Grandparents
1791: Daniel Messenger was born in West Granby, Hartford County, Connecticut to Daniel and Mindwell (Unknown) Messenger. Daniel was the third of seven children. Ralph and Elizabeth were his older siblings, and Lawrence, John, Phoeba and Talcott were his younger siblings.
1794: Martha Varner was born in Virginia. She is believed to be the daughter of Joseph and Mollie (McKinney) Varner. She was the oldest child and had three younger sisters: Nancy, Mary and Peggy.
1 June 1812: President James Madison sent a message to the Congress, recounting American grievances against Great Britain, though not specifically calling for a declaration of war.
18 June 1812: The conflict began with President Madison signed the measure into law.
2 March 1813: Daniel Messenger married Martha Varner in Halifax County, Virginia. Martha signs her own consent. They were married by Rev. Thomas Andrews. The surety and witness was Samuel F. Green.
5 July 1813 - 8 Jan 1814: Daniel Messenger was a Fifer in Captain Davenport's Company of Virginia Militia.
17 February 1815: The Treaty of Ghent arrived in Washington DC, was immediately signed and went into effect, thus ending the war.
1818: Daughter Mindwell Messenger was born in Halifax County, Virginia
1820 Meadsville, Halifax County, Virginia Census(Page 66)
Enumeration Date: 7 August 1820
- Free White Persons - Males - 26 thru 44: 1 (Daniel)
- Free White Persons - Females - Under 10: 1 (Mindwell)
- Free White Persons - Females - 26 thru 44: 1 (Martha)
- Number of Persons - Engaged in Manufactures: 1
- Free White Persons - Under 16: 1 (Mindwell)
- Free White Persons - Over 25: 2
- Total Free White Persons: 3
- Total All Persons - White, Slaves, Colored, Other: 3
1830 Patrick County, Virginia Census(Page 165) VERY DIFFICULT TO READ
- Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19: 1 (Probably Daniel)
- Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9: 1 (Unknown)
- Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14: 1 (Mindwell)
- Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39: 1 (Martha)
- Free White Persons - Under 20: 3
- Free White Persons - 20 thru 49: 1
- Total Free White Persons: 4
- Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored): 4
25 March 1831: Son Samuel M. Messenger was born in Patrick County, Virginia
Between December 1834 - January 1835: Daughter Elvira Messenger was born in Patrick County Virginia
1840 Rockingham County, North Carolina Census(Page 176)
- Free White Persons - Males - Under 5: 1 (Unknown)
- Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9: 1 (Samuel)
- Free White Persons - Males - 40 thru 49: 1 (Daniel)
- Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9: 1 (Elvira)
- Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19: 2 (Mindwell)
- Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49: 1 (Martha)
- Persons Employed in Manufacture and Trade: 1
- Free White Persons - Under 20: 5
- Free White Persons - 20 thru 49: 2
- Total Free White Persons: 7
- Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves: 7
October 1849: Martha I. Messenger was born. She is believed to be the daughter of Mindwell and granddaughter of Daniel and Martha.
1850 Stokes County, North Carolina Census(Page 76)
Peter's Creek District, 6 August 1850
28 September 1850: An Act granting Bounty Land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in the Military Service of the United States. . . .
Be it enacted by the Senate and House or Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That each of the surviving, or the widow or minor children of deceased commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who performed military service in any regiment, company, or detachment, in the service of the United States, in the war with Great Britain, declared by the United States on the eighteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and twelve, or in any of the Indian wars since seventeen hundred and ninety, and each of the commissioned officers who was engaged in the military service of the United States in the late war with Mexico, shall be entitled to lands, as follows: Those who engaged to serve twelve months or during the war, and actually served nine months, shall receive one hundred and sixty acres, and those who engaged to serve six months, and actually served four months, shall receive eighty acres, and those who engaged to serve for any or an indefinite period, and actually served one month, shall receive forty acres: Provided, That wherever any officer or soldier was honorably discharged in consequence of disability in the service, before the expiration of his period of service, he shall receive the amount to which he would have been entitled if he had served the full period for which he had engaged to serve: Provided, The person so having been in service shall not receive said land, or any part thereof, if it shall appear, by the muster rolls of his regiment or corps, that he deserted, or was dishonorably discharged from service, or if he has received, or is entitled to, any military land bounty under any act of Congress heretofore passed. . . .
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That each commissioned and non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, for whom provision is made by the first section hereof, shall receive a certificate or warrant from the Department of the Interior for the quantity of land to which he may be entitled, and which may be located by the warrantee or his heirs at law, at any land office of the United States, in one body and in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, upon any of the public lands in such district then subject to private entry; and upon the return of such certificate or warrant, with evidence of the location thereof having been legally made to the general land office, a patent shall be issued therefor. In the event of the death of any commissioned or non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, prior or subsequent to the passage of this act, who shall have served as aforesaid; and who shall not have received bounty land for said services, a like certificate or warrant shall he issued in favor, and enure to the benefit of his widow, who shall receive one hundred and sixty acres of land in case her husband was killed in battle, but not to her heirs, Provided, She is unmarried at the date of her application. Provided further, That no land warrant issued under the provisions of this act shall be laid upon any land of the United States to which there shall be a pre-emption right, or upon which there shall be an actual settlement and cultivation, except with the consent of such settler, to be satisfactorily proven to the proper land officer.
22 November 1850: Daniel Messenger applies for a Bounty Land Warrant based on his service in the War 1812.
North Carolina
Stokes County
22 November 1850
Daniel Messenger personally appeared before me John Banner, JP of Stokes County, NC,
He is 59 years old and is a resident of Stokes County, NC.
He was a Fifer Major in the Company commanded by Thomas Davenport Captain in the 84th Regiment of Militia commanded by Colonel Mayson in the war with Great Britain declared on the United States on 18 June 1812.
He volunteered on or about the 15 April 1813 and continued in the war for six months and was honorably discharged about the 10th or 15th December 1813 at Norfolk.
The discharge has been lost.
John N. Banner, JP
Joseph G. Kington was acquainted with Daniel Messenger while he was in the service of the United States at Norfolk . Daniel Messenger was a Fifer Major in 84th Regiment in Company commanded by Captain Thomas Davenport.
Between 1 June 1850–29 October 1852: Martha (Varner) Messenger died in Stokes County, North Carolina. [In Elvira Messenger's Bounty Land Warrant, Elvira is listed as the only heir of Daniel Messenger. Daniel had left no widow.]
29 October 1852: Daniel Messenger died in Stokes County, North Carolina.
December Term 1852
Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions
Stokes County, North Carolina Court Records: Mindwell Messenger, 15 years of age, on 7 May 1852, is bound to Samuel Messenger to learn the trade of farming. At his freedom, he would be given $50. (This child, Mindwell, is believed to be the mulatto boy listed in the 1850 Stokes County, NC Census living in the home of Daniel Messenger. It is believed that Daniel Sr., took in a mulatto boy and named him Daniel Mindwell Messenger. This happened in either Rockingham or Stokes County. Records to support this claim have yet to be found. At Daniel Sr's death, the boy was then bound to Samuel Messenger. In the 1860 Census, Daniel Mindwell Messenger is living in the home of George Dillard in Henry County, Virginia. Daniel Mindwell Messenger could not be a child of Daniel and Martha, as in Elvira Messenger's Bounty Land Warrant Application, it is stated that she is the only minor child of Daniel Messenger.)
3 March 1855
An Act in Addition to certain Acts granting Bounty Land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in the Military Service of the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That each of the surviving commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States, and every officer, commissioned and non-commissioned, seaman, ordinary seaman, flotilla-man, marine, clerk, and landsman in the navy, in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since seventeen hundred and ninety, and each of the survivors of the militia, or volunteers, or State troops of any State or Territory, called into military service, and regularly mustered therein, and whose services have been paid by the United States, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant from the Department of the Interior for one hundred and sixty acres of land; and where any of those who have so been mustered into service and paid shall have received a certificate or warrant, he shall be entitled to a certificate or warrant for such quantity of land as will make, in the whole, with what he may have heretofore received, one hundred and sixty acres to each such person having served as aforesaid: Provided, The person so having been in service shall not receive said land warrant if it shall appear by the muster-rolls of his regiment or corps that he deserted, or was dishonorably discharged from service: Provided further, That the benefits of this section shall be held to extend to wagon-masters and teamsters who may have been employed, under direction of competent authority in time of war in the transportation of military stores and supplies.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in case of the death of any person who, if living, would be entitled to a certificate or warrant as aforesaid under this act, leaving a widow, or, if no widow, a minor child or children, such widow, or, if no widow, such minor child or children, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant for the same quantity of land that such deceased person would be entitled to receive under the provisions of this act, if now living: Provided, That a subsequent marriage shall not impair the right of any such widow to such warrant if she be a widow at the time of making her application: And provided, further, That those shall be considered minors who are so at the time this act shall take effect.
June Term 1855
Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions
Guardian Records
Thomas Martin is appointed Guardian for Elvira Messenger who entered into a bond of $150.00 with John Banner for security.
State of North Carolina
Stokes County
23 June 1855
Thomas Martin, a resident of the County, was legally constitued Guardian of Elvira Messenger, the minor child of Daniel Messenger deceased.
Daniel Messenger was a Musician in company commanded by Captain Thomas Davenport's Regiment of VA Militia in the Great War with Britain declared by the United States 18 June 1812.
Daniel Messenger was in the for more than 14 days. He received under the Act of September 28th 1850 a warrant for 80 acres, No. 48515 which he legally disposed of and cannot now return.
Daniel Messenger died in Stokes County, NC on 29th day of October 1852 leaving no widow now surviving him.
Elvira Messenger is now aged 20 years and 6 months is his only surviving minor child.
Thomas Martin
Guardian of Elvira Messenger
(Bounty Land Warrant Application #27842 - Thomas Martin, Elvira Messenger)
September Term 1856
Administration Returns
Thos Martin Guardian for Elvira Messenger
1 April 1856
Under the Act of Congress, approved March 3, 1855, entitled "An Act in addition to certain Acts granting Bounty Land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States", Thomas Martin applied for and received a Bounty Land Warrant, Warrant No. 27842, for 80 acres, for Elvira Messenger, based on Daniel Messenger's service as a Musician in Captain Davenport's Company of Virginia Militia War 1812.
The land is located in Manistee County, MI.
June Term 1857
Pension To
State of North Carolina, Stokes County
Thomas Marttin a resident of said county & state having Presented before said Court a military Bounty Land Warrant for 80 acres numbered 27842 issued on the first day of April 1856 to Elvira Messenger, minor child of Daniel Messenger deceased, musician in Capt. Davenport's Company of Virginia Militia in the War of 1812 and the said Thomas Martin having requested of said court authority to sell and assign said Bounty Land Warrant for the benefit of his said ward (the designated) it is hereby ordered by said courth that the said Thomas Martin shall sell, assign and convey the said warrant for the best possible price for the sole use & benefit of said Warrantee or minor child & report his proceeding in the premises to said court for its approval.