JOHN AMES: NAMES2

I wasn’t able to find much about the other soldiers listed
in John Ames’ petition. It’s possible that David and John
Hazen were cousins of the Ames family through their mother
who was Betty Nutting. John's mother was Sarah Nutting.


But I was more successful with his witness, Obadiah Wetherell.


In History of the Old Towns, Norridgewock and Canaan:
Comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks ... by John Wesley
Hanson I learned:


Obadiah Wetherell did indeed continue as a soldier in the
Continental Army for three years and eight months. He was
present at the Battles of White Plains and Monmouth and
the surrender of General Burgoyne. Like many others from the
Groton area he eventually migrated to Norridgewock, Maine.
He and his half brother Charles (another veteran of the
Revolution) were prominent citizens in the new town. The
earliest town record is an warrant to Obadiah to assemble the
free men of the area to elect a government in 1788. At that
meeting Obadiah was one of several men appointed as a town
surveyor. He also owned a farm.


In 1794 Obadiah served on the committee to finish the building
of the town meetinghouse.

A further reference was found on a website with the Journal of
the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 that on
2 Feb 1832 a petition was presented to the U.S. Senate by a Mr.
Sprague on behalf of Obadiah Wetherell asking that he be
restored to the roll of Revolutionary War pensioners. But in June
of the same year Sprague asked that Wetherell be allowed to
withdraw his petition and it was so ordered. Sprague was Senator
Peleg Sprague of Maine. Why Obadiah was removed as a
pensioner in the first place and why he later withdrew his petition
I have yet to discover.

He was 99 when he died in 1847

The final part will deal with John Ames' heirs.