Proving It Was an $80 Horse in 1817

National Archives of the United States

Record Group 217

Entry #625

Volume 3

Page 205--Rufus D. Stephens

There are wonderful materials in the United States National Archives. Many of these records exist only in their original format. The record that was used to create the image that is a part of this blog post is one such example. There is more to the National Archives that military and pension records. We've discussed Rufus several times before--this link is to the initial reference to this claim.

It may seem like this claim provides little detail about Rufus--that it true.

But this is a record from a claim for a horse in the War of 1812. This is an era when there are not large amounts of detailed records and researchers often have to "take when they can get" and maximize it for what it contains.

This claim indicates that at the time Rufus D. Stephens lived in Ontario County, New York. Some of the other records during this era will not even provide a residence at all. So I know that in June of 1817, Rufus D. Stephens lived in Ontario County, New York.

The page on which Rufus' claim was located contained two additional claims from Ontario County, New York residents.  Those names may be clues.

I've decided to ask the researcher who obtained these copies for me to look at other adjacent entries in the same ledger to see how many Ontario County residents there were. The name of comrades could be clues.