State of Kentucky

County of Kenton

On this thirteenth day of January 1853 personally appeared before the county court of Kenton County, Kentucky, held at Independence Kentucky, in and for the county aforesaid said court being a court of record Catherine Sellers, a resident of said county and state, aged 90 years, who being duly sworn according to law, doth, on her oath, make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the pensions made by the acts of Congress, passed July 7, 1838, March 3, 1843, June 17, 1844, and also to the benefits of the act of July 4, 1836, if she is entitled thereto.

That she is the widow of Michael Sellers, who was a soldier in Captain Cr..han’s Compnay of the Eighth Regiment of the Virginia Continental Line, under command of Col. Peter Muhlenberg. That her knowledge of his services is derived chiefly from statements made to her at various times, by her said husband himself. That she frequently heard him say that he belonged to said Company and Regiment. That he enlisted at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, or early in the spring of 1776, into said Company and Regiment for two years. That having served out the time for which he enlisted, he again enlisted into the same company and regiment for the remainder for the war, to the end of which he served, or for the term of 7 years. That her said husband was a native of Germany, and came to the United States when very young and settled with his parents, in Lancaster County, Pa. That at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War he was in Woodstock, in Shenandoah County, Va. at which place she thinks he enlisted into said company and regiment though she cannot say positively, but think if he did not enlist there, he returned to Lancaster County, Pa. and there immediately enlisted though her impression that he did enlist at Woodstock, Va. That she has frequently heard her husband say that he was in the battle of Brandywine, Monmouth, and Germantown and that he was also a participant in what he termed the Southern Campaigns.

That she was married to her said husband in Bracken County, Kentucky by Rev. I… Scott, a minister of the Gospel, on or about the 20^th day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty six. The her name previous to her said marriage was Catherine Dillman. That after their marriage they removed to Bracken County, Kentucky and settled on what was called Little Bracken Creek. That she has had ten children, seven of whom are still living, and whose names and place of residence are as follows, to wit; Phillip Sellers, Michael Sellers, and Catherine Perry in Covington, Kentucky. Sarah McDonald, Augusta, Kentucky, Polly Shane, Bracken County, Kentucky, Henry Sellers, Bracken County, Kentucky, and George Sellers in Ripley, Brown County, Ohio. That she and her said husband resided in the county of Bracken until the death of her said husband which took place on the 4^th day of June 1836, when she removed to her present place of residence and has lived with her son Phillip Sellers ever since the death of her said husband.

That some years before the death of her said husband, she cannot state positively how long a certain William Blackaby came to her said husband in Bracken County, and proposed to get for him a pension if her said husband would give him 25 dollars. That her said husband was poor and needy in the course of a month or two he succeeded in raising the sum of fifteen dollars which he gave to Blackaby. That Blackaby said he would attend to the matter, but kept putting him off from time to time until he got from her said husband at various times about fifty dollars, but that her said husband never received a cent in the way of pension money for his services, and never to her knowledge signed any papers nor made any application for a pension, though she did hear after the death of her husband that Blackaby had drawn his pension, but whether or not there was any truth in the statement or not she cannot say, but she is positively certain that her said husband never received from government a single cent as pension money, nor never many any regular applications for a pension, but that he did make an agreement with Blackaby as aforesaid, and that Blackaby got from her said husband money several times without ever accomplishing anything to her knowledge, and that Blackaby kept putting her husband off from time to time by telling him that he would obtain the pension for him by and by until her husband died without receiving anything.

That she has never before made any application for a pension nor received any that she was married to her said husband after the expiration of his last term of service and that she has never intermarried since his death, but still remains his widow.

That she claims the amount due her said husband as his widow under the act of 7^th of June 1832 and also under the act of the 15^th of May 1828, if he was entitled to any pension under said act.

That she also claims under the several acts before mentioned as the widow of her said husband for his services in the Revolutionary War, and depends mainly upon the evidence of her said husband’s services and of her marriage which she may be able to ……. and file with this her declaration.

Catherine Sellers