Jonas Long: War of 1812 Bounty Land for His Widow

In the prior article, I mentioned that Elizabeth Merrill, widow of Jonas Long, filed an equipment claim for $50 in 1860 stemming from Jonas's service in the War of 1812.

In 1855, Elizabeth filed for 160 acres of bounty land based on Jonas's service as authorized under the "Act approved March 3, 1855."

I obtained copies of these papers in hopes of uncovering genealogical information. I used the company Civil War Records to retrieve the records from the National Archives.

Jones Long's service in the War of 1812 was through both New York and New Jersey. In her application, Elizabeth only mentioned three months of service from September 3, 1814 - December 4, 1814 with Captain Abraham Webb of the 2nd Regiment of New Jersey. She wrote that he was "draughted" at Perth Amboy on Sept 3, 1814 for the term of three months.

Declaration of the Widow of a deceased person who has not before had a Land Warrant.

These dates of service are consistent with the muster roll card.

Muster Roll. Captain Abraham Webb's Company,
2 Reg't New Jersey Detached Militia.
Card of Private Jonas Long.
Present in Hoboken [New Jersey] November 8, 1814 - November 24, 1814.

Company Pay Roll. Captain Abraham Webb's Company,
2 Reg't New Jersey Detached Militia.
Card of Private Jones Long.
Paid 24 dollars and 52 cents for service of 3 months and 2 days.

Jonas also served December 18, 1812 - March 2, 1813 and March 1, 1813 - May 22, 1813.

Muster Roll. Captain James Bruce's Company,
1 Regiment United States Artillery Volunteers.
Card of Private Jonas Long.
Present on Bedlow Island [New York] March 1, 1813.
[Now called Liberty Island]

Muster Roll. Captain Charles Lawton's Company,
1 Regiment United States Artillery Volunteers.
Card of Montross Jonas Long.
Present in New York May 22, 1813.

Note that Elizabeth provided Jonas' date of death as the 13th day of August 1835 (five overwrote another number) in Richmond County. I have not uncovered any contemporaneously created record of his death. The other date of death is from Elizabeth's application for Letters of Administration, which she filed in 1860. On this probate document, the year of death was 1837.

The correct date of death of Jonas Long has not been verified with contemporaneous records.

The date of marriage, October 13, 1816, matches the typed transcript I found for the church in Staten Island.

Elizabeth Owen, widow of Jonas Long, was granted 160 acres of land in Missouri for his service in the War of 1812.

Elizabeth did not relocate to Missouri. She assigned or sold the property, as was common practice. Through the Bureau of Land Management you can search these property records.

Online search
Bureau of Land Management
General Land Office Records