My sister Janice (she’s my cohort in genealogy hunting) discovered our ancestor Rice C Darnell’s War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files at Fold3.com. It’s a large 11 page file that answers several questions.

Rice enlisted  on the fourth Monday in July 1814 ( July 25th) at the Orange Courthouse as a private in Captain William Smith’s company of the Virginia Militia’s 1st Regiment, Crutchfield’s division. He was discharged on December 19, 1814 in Fredericksburg, VA without written documentation.    His brother, James F enlisted just days later in the same company.

But what about that mysterious connection to Anthony Wilkerson? On page five of the file, is a notation that Rice has become a substitute for the mysterious Anthony Wilkerson on October 10 1814. I’m not sure just how this might have worked at the time, but at least we now know the Rice was the substitute. Still no clue who Anthony is or why Rice became a substitute.

And as it always happens when doing research, discovering Rice’s file leads us to more questions. For instance, there is a document from 1855 involving one of the Ohio land bounty claims given to Rice. It’s witnessed by Archibald Darnell.  He appears no where in our family tree, well at least that we know of yet! Is he a relative? Did he just happen to be in the office when they needed a witness and isn’t connected at all?  Always something more….

One of the challenges to documenting my Darnold ancestors  in the 1800s and earlier is that everyone seems to have just spelled names however they heard them. So there are many variations, all for the same family group. Take my 4th great grandfather Rice, for instance. I’ve found him as Darnel, Darnal, Darnell, Donald and even Daniel. Even his siblings have variations within the same documents!  By the time the name reached me, it’s now Darnold for my direct line.  Having lived in as many places as I have, I can easily hear the pronunciations of Darnell with varied accents.

Anyway, however it’s spelled or transcribed, there are lots of Darnell’s in Orange County, Virginia in the 1800’s.   But back to Rice.

Rice C Darnell is a very tricky man to hunt down.  Rice is the son of Moses Darnell and Frances Clarkson, born in about 1784 in Orange County, VA.  He married Mary “Polly” Ahart on Dec 25, 1804.   I suspect his middle name is Clarkson, following the tradition of naming first sons with the mother’s maiden name, but that’s just my hunch at this point.

Today I found muster cards and a pension record for him! There is just something about finding images of the actual paper that makes my heart sing.

Rice C Darnel War of 1812 Pension Record

 But now there is another rabbit hole to explore.

Who the heck is Anthony Wilkerson?  Is Anthony is a hired substitute?