John Booher Jr in the War of 1812

Over the weekend, my review of the Booher family records included a dive through the extensive legacy of my 7th-great-grandfather, John Booher Sr. From his will and the story of his youngest daughter, Elizabeth Booher Parragin, we learned the names of his children and their own large families. Since John had eight sons, I was hopeful that I might learn more about them and the Booher family in military records. At least two of the sons served in the War of 1812 - John Jr. and Isaac. These are unique records and once again I am thankful of the effort to digitize the War of 1812 pension files.

John Booher Jr was a brother of my 6th-great-grandfather Jacob Booher. He ended up in Darlington, Montgomery County, Indiana, not far from my undergraduate institution, Wabash College. Booher's pension application, along with his wife Margaret's widow's pension application, were sent from Montgomery County. Seeing this connection to the place where I spent four years provides some extra incentive to look a little closer at the file.

John served in Captain James Landen's Company, 4th Regiment of the East Tennessee Militia. The auditor recorded his name in the file as John Booker, and several of the documents continue this misspelling. He was drafted in Blountsville, Tennessee on 6 November 1814, and served until he was honorably discharged at Kingston, Tennessee on 21 December 1814 for disability. The service record showed that he was paid from 13-27 November. Even though he only served 14 days, Booher applied for bounty land.

Source: Fold3.com, War of 1812 pension file

Source: Fold3.com, War of 1812 pension file

According to the file, John Booher Jr married Margaret Zimmerlie on 29 June 1813 in Washington County, Virginia. Margaret was the daughter of Jacob Zimmerlie (also spelled Zimmerle and Zimmerly), who helped put up the bond for John Booher Sr's estate in 1820. When John Jr was drafted in November 1814, he had one infant son at home (Benjamin, born in April 1814). Perhaps he did not want to be gone from home long, but his time in the 4th Regiment was short. Upon his return from service, Margaret became pregnant with their second son, Jacob Booher, who was born in September 1815. As noted in Elizabeth Parragin's story, John Jr and Margaret had 13 children, and they eventually moved to Indiana following John's brother Jacob to the fertile lands of Montgomery County.

John Booher Junior died on 19 February 1873 in Montgomery County. The file continues with the widow's pension of Margaret Booher, and contains a detailed family history in an affidavit from her son, Jonathan A. Booher. I will describe that history in the next post.