Dear Martha et al, In the interest of pinning down some dates, I took a look at the history of the War of 1812. The war was declared on 1/18/1812. General William Hull took some poorly trained troops, mostly from Ohio across the Detroit River in July 1812. In August, the British showed up and Hull retreated. He than surrendered without firing a shot. The British then sent troops into Ohio, and at various times may have gone as far South as Dayton. The British stayed around until the Summer of 1813 when they lost control of Lake Eire, so the supply lines were cut. In the mean time there were several conscriptions to find troops to meet several threats. I think William was involved in one or more of these. Thanks for clarifying the "Freeman" issue. I suspected that it had more to do with the ability to carry a rifle than a trend to be a church usher. Also, I agree that the family legends must be viewed carefully. The letter that suggests that Abigail was given some money and a horse to go back to CT was written years later by William, one of Alonzo's sons. I didn't mean to infer that Abigail would have traveled to CT on her own. The trip would take at least 30 days and would only be done with other experienced travelers. There would have been plenty of people making the trip from time to time. The Connecticut land company was selling this property as quickly as the could. I don't think William necessarily have to accompany her. I do have a quite a lot of data on Abigail. I'll have to dig it out and put the story together in a single place. Also, I really need to do more research on Ira. He was around to sign a release to the deed to the Illinois Bounty property. I fear I haven't tried to pin down his birth date, but it shouldn't be too difficult to do. I'll work on it. In the small school of Deerfield, OH which is the next township to Atwater, there was a Harold Strong in my class up to the 11th grade. I had thought that he might be connected to Ira, but it turned out not to be true. He put together his genealogy for the SFAA update vol V, and our families do not mesh. If you will indulge me, I will also put information about the Durham, CT property on the forum. There may be some connections to the families involved which could be interesting to others. I visited Durham a few years ago, although we were only there on a Sunday morning. We went through the Old Cemetery, the New Cemetery and wandered around town. The houses are identified as to their owners in the early 1800's or earlier. A real neat town. I spent the day researching data on old airplanes at the Smithsonian. I am about worn out from hunting illusive data. Enough rambling for tonight. Ralph Strong