Emrey, George

George Emery (listed as George Emrey in the Mason family manuscript account book) was born on 2 October 1752 in Frederick County, Virginia, to Stephen Emery and Elizabeth Cooper. Emery was married three times throughout his life. He married Elizabeth Campbell in 1788 in Loudoun County and had three children. Then, he married Margaret Welsh in 1794, also in Loudoun County, and had three more children.  Last, he married Isabella Smith in 1816 in Ohio and had one child with her.  

The most notable aspect of Emery’s life was his military service. Emery was an American Revolutionary War veteran. He served as an assistant quartermaster in the Revolutionary War for two years under Colonel Andrew Russell and General George Weedon (whose name he may have misremembered as Joseph Weeden in the pension application Emery filed in 1832). As a quartermaster, it was Emery’s duty to make sure that the encampments and forts where he was stationed were adequately supplied with food and resources. He was also charged with keeping order. He fought at the battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania in 1777 and spent most of his time in the army in Pennsylvania and Virginia.  

After the Revolution, Emery worked as a blacksmith and farmer in Leesburg. According to tax records, he owned cattle, horses, and a “2 wheeled chair” (a small carriage). Emery also owned more than fifteen enslaved people at one point, an indication of wealth. Deed records show that he freed at least three of his enslaved people in Virginia before 1816.  

Emery took part in the migration of Virginians to the frontiers of Indiana and Ohio in the first decades of the nineteenth century. While in Ohio, he ran for governor, but only received one vote of more than 23,000 cast. In 1832, he applied to receive a pension for his Revolutionary War service from the federal government after Congress passed a benefits law for American soldiers. Sufficient evidence of his service, however, was not presented until sixteen years after his death on 3 July 1841 at the age of eighty-eight. Emery’s heirs were eventually successful in their efforts to claim a pension, and they received $480 per month for ten years. George Emery is buried in Loofbourrow Cemetery in Geneva, Indiana. 

by Brant P. Morin