Joseph Oak asks the Pension Office about his grandfather, 1895

On November 25, 1895, Joseph Oak wrote from Merrimac, Massachusetts, to the Commissioner of Pensions on a sheet printed "H. C. OAK, PHOTOGRAPHER," with the line "Special attention paid to carriage work" at the top: "I am seeking proof that I am a descendant of a revolutionary Soldier and as we have no records and as my Grandfather was a pensioner thought proof could be obtained through the Pension Bureau." He signed it "Joseph Oak, Merrimac, Mass, Essex Co." The Pension Office stamped it received on November 26, and it was filed as the last two pages of Nathaniel Oak's file, S.18534.

What he asked

He gave what he knew. "My Grandfather name was Nathaniel Oak and I think went from the State of Vermont. The last pension he drew was March 4 1840. an older Brother of mine recollects of going to Bangor Maine when he collected it." He added two things he was unsure of. "Had he lived until now would of been 133 yrs old," and "I have it in my mind that he was a Captain. but am not sure. Any information substaning the fact will highly prized as I wish to join the Sons of the Revolution."

What the pension file shows

The pension file supports much of Joseph's account. Nathaniel Oak, then living at Chelsea, Vermont, swore in 1832 that he was eighty-one and had marched to Cambridge in April 1775, and in March 1839 he applied at Bangor to have his pension paid in Maine, where he was going "to spend the remainder of his days with his son who resides in Exeter." The application was sworn at Bangor, which fits a brother's memory of going there when the pension was collected. The story of his years at Chelsea is on Captain Nathaniel Oak of Chelsea, Vermont.

The "133 years" is Joseph's own arithmetic. It points to a birth about 1762, while the declaration's age of eighty-one in 1832 gives about 1751, which would make Nathaniel 144 in 1895. The declaration governs. The Westborough boy born on May 16, 1751 fits the declaration and is probably the pensioner, as the Hastings story explains.

"Captain" is the one point the file does not support. It calls him a private and gives no commission. Chelsea's town vote of 1794, the town's centennial history and the stone at his grave in Exeter all call him "Capt.," so Joseph's memory matches how his grandfather was known, not a rank anyone has found on paper.

Who Joseph was

Records gathered for the photographer Herbert C. Oak name his father as Joseph Oak, a trader born at Exeter, Maine, whose parents' names on a Merrimac death return of August 10, 1905 are Nathaniel Oak, born at Winchester, New Hampshire, and Abigail Cartland, born at Lee, New Hampshire. The informant on that return was "H. C. Oak." The form does not say that the informant was a son. The 1906 family register places Joseph among the children of a Nathaniel Oak, born in 1780, and Abigail Cartland, and makes this Nathaniel the son of the Chelsea pensioner. No other record yet confirms that chain. The letter writer is probably this Joseph: the name, the town, the Exeter and Bangor connection and the grandfather all fit, and he wrote on his son's stationery. The photographer's own story is on Herbert C. Oak, photographer of Merrimac.

If the identification is right, the letter comes from a family that "had no records" of a man who had died fifty-five years earlier. The file does show a reply: a note in a later hand on the file's card reads "Jany 2, 1896 / Mld Hist[ory] to / Joseph Oak, Merrimac, Mass.," and the same card reads "Nathaniel Oak, Pri. Rev War" (a history of the service was mailed on January 2, 1896; what it said is not in the file). No record has been found that Joseph joined the Sons of the Revolution.

What is missing

These two pages are the only words of Joseph's yet found. Joseph's death return is reported here from the research file on Herbert; its image is not shown on this page. The "older Brother" is unnamed, and the text of the Pension Office's answer and any membership record remain unfound. The family register that would give the family its records appeared in 1906, the year after Joseph's death.

Sources

• Nathaniel Oak, Revolutionary War pension file S.18534, National Archives: declaration of August 21, 1832; transfer application of March 22, 1839; letter of Joseph Oak, November 25, 1895 (last two pages; page images from Fold3).
• Research on Herbert C. Oak, photographer of Merrimac, including his Amesbury birth entry of 1853 and the Merrimac death return of Joseph Oak, August 10, 1905 (research file).
• Chelsea Centennial (1884), pp. 45-47; H. L. Oak, Oak-Oaks-Oakes: Family Register (1906), nos. 20 and 72. Public domain; read the whole book: PDF, from the Internet Archive.

The searches made for the family are summarized on the research log.