Daniel F. Bakeman

{{short description|Last surviving American Revolutionary War soldier}}

{{Infobox military person

| name = Daniel Frederick Bakeman

| image = Daniel Frederick Bakeman portrait with text.jpg

| caption = Bakeman in 1868

| birth_date = {{birth date|1759|10|9}}

| birth_place = Schoharie County, New York, British America

| death_date = {{death date and age|1869|4|5|1759|10|9}}

| death_place = Freedom, New York, United States

| placeofburial = Sandusky Cemetery, Freedom, New York

| allegiance = {{flag|United States of America|1777}}

{{flag|New York|1778}}

| branch = Tryon County Militia

| battles =

American Revolutionary War

Battle of Johnstown (allegedly)

| serviceyears = 1777–1781 (allegedly)

| spouse = {{marriage|Susan Brewer|August 29, 1782|September 10, 1863|end=died}}

| children = 8

| laterwork = Farmer

}}

Daniel Frederick Bakeman (October 9, 1759 – April 5, 1869) was the last survivor receiving a veteran's pension for service in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

Early life

Bakeman claimed that he was born on October 9, 1759, in Schoharie County, New York.{{cite book |last=Gilmore |first=George Clinton |date=1898 |title=Manchester Men: Soldiers and Sailors in the Civil War, 1861-'66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxRAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14 |location=Concord, NH |publisher=Rumford Press |page=16 |ref={{sfnRef|Manchester Men}}}} Other sources indicate that he may have been born in northern New Jersey, near the Delaware River, and that his parents moved to the Schoharie County area when he was a boy.{{cite book |last=Daughters of the American Revolution |date=1916 |title=Annual Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution |volume=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pTIwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA67 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |page=67 |ref={{sfnRef|Daughters of the American Revolution}}}} His parents were Dutch immigrants Andreas Phillip Bakeman and Catarien Miller, and his name sometimes appears in written records as "Bochman".{{sfn|Manchester Men|page=16}}{{cite book |last=Ripstein-Hayes |first=Anita |date=2007 |title=Revolutionary Soldiers and Widows of Wyoming County, New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1cYpAQAAMAAJ&q=%22bakeman%22+%221869%22+%22sandusky+cemetery%22 |location=Attica, NY |publisher=A. Ripstein-Hayes |page=36 |quote=Parents: Andreas Phillip Bakeman & Catarien Miller. |ref={{sfnRef|Revolutionary Soldiers and Widows of Wyoming County, New York}}}} He was baptized in Schenectady on November 27, 1773.{{sfn|Revolutionary Soldiers and Widows of Wyoming County, New York|page=36}}

American Revolution

According to Bakeman's later testimony, during the American Revolution, he served as a private in the Tryon County militia for the last four years of the war, and was a member of the company commanded by a captain named Van Arnum during the period when the county militia was commanded by Marinus Willett.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}}[https://the110club.com/daniel-f-bakeman-1759-1869-t14579.html Daniel Bakeman reports according to family records he served in 1st Tyron County Militia Regiment] According to an obituary, Bakeman took part in the 1781 Battle of Johnstown, and served as a teamster for the militia following his time in the ranks.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}}

Though no captain named Van Arnum (possibly Van Aernam,[https://www.altamontfreelibrary.org/local-business/local-history-resources/captain-jacob-van-aernam A Captain Jacob Ven Aernam did serve in the New York Militia] a prominent family in Cattaraugus County in Bakeman's later life) or anything approximating it appears in the rolls of the Tryon County militia, and though no soldier named Bakeman or Bochman appears in the roll; the descriptions Bakeman provided of his Revolutionary service in the pension application he submitted later in life were judged to be credible.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} The US Department of the Interior had one listing of "Bakeman": "Bakeman, Henry of Granbry, Oswego" [County] with the following remarks: "Suspended for evidence of identity of the service credited to a soldier of the same name of Colonel Willett's regiment, Captain Peter B. Teare's company."[https://books.google.com/books?id=p7gptsYR-xEC&q=Bakeman&pg=PP2 Rejected Or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions US Department of the Interior 1852]

His [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/53866147 Pension File] is available online, containing 132 pages of details of his life and service.

Post-war

After the war, Bakeman farmed in the Mohawk Valley.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} In 1782, he married Susan Brewer, and they were the parents of eight children: Philip, Richard, Christopher, Betsey, Margaret, Susan, Mary, and Christine.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} Records show that in 1825 the Bakeman family settled in Arcade, New York, where they owned a home on the north side of the County Line Road.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} In 1845 they moved to Freedom, New York, and they later moved to Stark.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} Bakeman appeared in the 1860 United States census as "Frederick Bakeman" living in Freedom with his wife, his daughter Susan, and a grandchild, Jacob N. Bakeman (born 1838).{{cite web |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Frederick_Bakeman_in_the_1860_census_in_Freedom,_New_York.jpg |title=Bakeman in the 1860 United States Census |year=1860 |accessdate=2015-02-23 |quote= |publisher= |location= }} His wife died on September 10, 1863, at the age of 105, after 81 years of marriage.{{Cite web|url=https://genealogytrails.com/main/bakemanbio.html|title=Revolutionary War Last Veterans bio and obit|website=genealogytrails.com|access-date=3 July 2025}}

In Bakeman's later years, he was often called upon by local leaders to take part in important ceremonies, and on Independence Day he was known to march around Freedom firing salutes with his musket.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}}

Later life

Bakeman was the victim of house fires at least three times during his lifetime, including once while on a four-day trip from central New York to Albany to buy wheat and other farm supplies.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}} In the mid-1860s, he applied for a pension, and stated that the records of his service burned in one of his house fires.{{cite book |last1=Berry |first1=AJ |last2=Morrison |first2=James F. |date=2011 |title=Don't Shoot Until You See The Whites of Their Eyes |volume=Part 1: Pension Applications |url=http://revwarny.com/book1.pdf |location=Seattle, WA |publisher=CreateSpace |page=14 |isbn=978-1-4610-6032-1 |ref={{sfnRef|Don't Shoot}}}} As with many veterans who could not provide discharge certificates or other verifying documents, Bakeman's application included affidavits from friends and neighbors, who attested that he had a reputation for honesty, and that they had previously heard him describe his military service.{{sfn|Don't Shoot|pages=14-15}} The testimony of these individuals and Bakeman's own affidavit were judged to be credible, and on February 14, 1867, the United States Congress passed a special act which granted Bakeman a pension of $500 per year.{{sfn|Daughters of the American Revolution|page=68}}

At the time, the longest surviving veterans who were on the pension rolls were Lemuel Cook of Clarendon, New York (died May 20, 1866), and Samuel Downing of Edinburgh, New York (died February 19, 1867).Reverend E.B. Hillard, The Last Men of the Revolution (1864), republished 1968 with additional notes by Wendell Garrett. George Fruits (died August 6, 1876) also claimed to be the last surviving veteran of the Revolutionary War, but he was never on the pension rolls, and research by A. Ross Eckler Jr. in the 1970s indicated that Fruits was 17 years younger than he claimed, and was not a veteran of the Revolution.{{cite book |last=McWhirter |first=Norris |date=1978 |title=Guinness Book of World Records |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5a2AguFdd4C&q=%22George+Fruits%22 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Bantam Books |page=28 |isbn=9780553112559 |quote=George Fruits was reputedly a veteran of the American Revolution, born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 2, 1762, who died on August 6, 1876, at Alamo, Indiana, aged 114 years. However, new research, released by A. Ross Eckler in 1978, has shown him to be 17 years younger than the age shown on his gravestone.}}

Death and burial

Bakeman died in Freedom on April 5, 1869, and is buried in Freedom's Sandusky Cemetery.{{sfn|Revolutionary Soldiers and Widows of Wyoming County, New York|page=36}} The Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Pensions for 1874 noted that "With the death of Daniel T. Bakeman, of Freedom, Cattaraugus County, N.Y., April 5, 1869, the last of the pensioned soldiers of the Revolution passed away."{{cite book|author=Francis Bernard Heitman|title=Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziRbtlUkBh0C|year=1892|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com|isbn=978-0-8063-0176-1}}