Although people have been admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution on the basis of the alleged military service of Rudolph Crecelius, I had doubts that the Crecelius who served in the Continental Army was our Otto Rudolph. For one thing, every military record I had been able to find refers to "Adolph," not "Rudolph." Records being what they were, an occasional erroneous reference to Rudolph as "Adolph" wouldn't be surprising, but I wouldn't expect an error like that in every single military record and in hardly any of the non-military records.
Additionally, if "Adolph" had been our Otto Rudolph, he would have been nearly fifty years old when he joined the army in March of 1777. That may be possible, but I don't think it was very common. And there are records of his acquiring land and having children in Virginia when "Adolph" would have been serving with Pennsylvania units. I thought we needed more research on the issue, and Eleanor Edmondson shared that opinion.
The data regarding "Adolph" Crecelius is in the Pennsylvania Archives, and shows that he served in Baron von Ottendorff's Corps until June of 1778, and then fought with Capt. Antoni Selin's Independent Corps. It is unknown exactly when, but following service under Capt. Selin, he became a trumpet major in Light Horse Harry Lee's Partisan Corps. And finally, from 10 Feb 1781 to 1 Jun 1782, he was a sergeant in Capt. Philip Schrawder's company of Pennsylvania Rangers raised and stationed in the County of Northampton. The State of Pennsylvania granted 250 acres of land for this service.
Some months ago, for no good reason, I happened to pick up the journal of the U. S. House of Representatives in the Dallas Library, and found that on April 25, 1794, several years after the death of our Otto Rudolph Crecelius, Adolph Crecelius filed a petition in the U. S. House of Representatives for compensation for his service in the Revolution. That proves that the Adolph Crecelius who was a soldier of the Revolution could not have been our Otto Rudolph Crecelius.
Eleanor Edmondson and I had been trading information and opinions about this line, and when I reported to her what I had found, with great determination and perseverance, she tracked down the custodian of the records of the Third Congress to see whether she could obtain a copy of the petition filed by Adolph Crecelius in 1794. The custodian of the records informed Eleanor that only four boxes of records of the Third Congress were still in existence, and she kindly searched all of them, but the petition filed by Adolph was not among them. We are indebted to Eleanor for going to the trouble of pursuing that evidentiary trail to its end, and we are indebted to the kindly custodian of the records for making the search. Check out the See the journal entry in question.
Sources: Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, Vol. III, pp. 891-899, 904. Pennsylvania Archives, Series 5, Vol. VIII, pp. 578-580, 610, 617.
Journal of the House of Representatives, Third Congress, pp. 131-132.
William Bradford, Brigadier General 2nd Virginia Battallion Isaac Anglin's Commanding General |
Adrian Anglin, another son of the William Anglin who settled in (West) Virginia after the Revolution, was only fourteen years old when served as a private under Capt. John Mosly for 170 days (from 14 Oct. 1776 to 12 April 1777). When his age was discovered, he was discharged.