Major John Hodges

A Patriot of the American Revolution for SOUTH CAROLINA with the rank of PRIVATE. DAR Ancestor # A056187

Most of the information about John Hodges comes from his Revolutionary War application, W10117.

John Hodges was born in 1765 in Essex Co., Virginia. He is probably the son of John Hodges of Culpeper, VA, born about 1725, and wife Elizabeth.

Apparently sometime before the Revolution, the John Hodges family moved to SC. At the age of 15, on April 1, 1780, John Hodges joined the military as a private and served about 21 months. He was widely known as "Major" John Hodges later in life, perhaps from a position in the state militia.

His Revolutionary War pension application contains the following, summarized in Annie Walker Burns' Revolutionary War Soldiers and Other Patriotic Records of Abbeville, County, SC (Washington, DC), pp. 17-18:

John Hodges, a resident of Abbeville District, S.C., age 67, states he entered service April 1, 1780 under command of Capt Samuel Rosamund, who commanded a beat or militia company in Ninety Six Direct, now Abbeville, S.C., and was marched to Beach Island, in this state near Augusta, GA, where he was taken sick and left by his company under care of Capt Tutt, a regular officer, under whose care he soon recovered and then returned home, and soon again rejoined Capt. Rosamond's company, - He reenlisted several times.

In the late 1780s, he married first Margaret Long, who died in 1790, leaving him with two children, Lucy and Reuben.

In the fall of 1790 he married second Frances Anderson. Together they reared a large family: Matilda, Druscilla, Elizabeth, Sarah, Margaret Long, Frances, Mary, Mahilda Chapman, Lucy Wardlaw, Benjamin, Robert Henry Wardlaw, John Anderson, Armstrong (or Armstead) Jones, James, and Absalom Turner.

An article on John Hodges is in Greenwood County Sketches: Old Roads and Early Families. Ed. Margaret Watson. (Greenwood, SC: Attic Press, rev. ed. 1982.), pp. 261-62:

A family legend is that the father of John Hodges was a Revolutionary soldier and while at home on furlough, his cabin was attacked by Indians, and he was killed. The legend continued that the Indians captured four Hodges daughters, bound them securely and put them inside the cabin which they prepared to burn. However, an Indian warrior was reported attracted to one daughter, Dorothy, released her and took her with him, while the others perished in the flames. (Another version has it that the mother and two daughters died in the fire.) Many years later, Dorothy Hodges and her Indian son returned for a visit on her promise, the story went, that she would return to her Indian husband in Alabama territory. She yielded to pleadings of relatives to remain and eventually married [ ] Rosamond. Her son attended the neighborhood school, but in his late teens went back to his father and was never heard from. Mr. and Mrs. Rosamond had children, lived for a time in Pickens, then went West, and South Carolina kin lost contact with them.

An article titled Hodges is in Abbeville County Family History, Ed. J. Greg Carroll (Abbeville, 1979):

John Hodges served as an enlisted soldier in the Revolutionary War in 1780 with Col. Picken's Regiment in South Carolina, 96th District (now Abbeville County).

He was born at Essex County Virginia and died at Abbeville in 1834; was married to Frances Anderson of Virginia in 1790.

Mary Anderson Hodges, their daughter, born at Abbeville in 1807, married Wm. Valentine Nash about 1828. Presumably, the Nashes and Hodges were friends in Virginia (perhaps related by marriage) before moving to South Carolina.

Other children of John Hodges by wife (1) Margaret Long and (2) Frances Anderson were: Lucy and Reuben Hodges; Matilda Hodges m. Sharpe; George Washington H. m. Rebecca Douglas; Gabriel H. m. Phoebe Douglas; Drusilla H. m. Douglas; Elizabeth H. m. Bowie; Sarah H. m. McGee; Margaret Long H. m. Leach; John Anderson H.; Samuel H. m. Mary Conner; Armstrong Jones H. m. Cecilia Moragne; Frances H. m. Weatherall; James H.; Mary Anderson H. m. Wm. Valentine Nash; Benjamin H.; Mahulda H. m. McKeller; Absalom Turner H.; Robert Henry Wardlaw H. m. Lizzie Cromer; Lucy Wardlow H. m. Flournoy Davis.

John Hodges died on December 24, 1834 at the age of 69 in Abbeville Co., SC, leaving behind his wife. He is buried at the Hodges family cemetery near Hodges, SC, a town named after a son, George Washington Hodges, a brigadier general in the state militia. His tombstone says "Maj. John Hodges--who departed this life--24th Dec. 1834--aged about 78."