KETCHAM (or KETCHUM), JR., SOLOMON (or SOLOMOND) (1757-1851). Privateersman, Sloop Montgomery (William Rogers, Captain). Solomon was born in Huntington, perhaps the third of at least nine children of Solomon Ketcham Sr. (see) and Hannah Platt Conklin, according to a family tree on Ancestry.com. Solomon’s father, who signed Huntington’s Declaration of Association in 1775, served as Huntington’s Town Clerk for approximately 30 years until his death in 1781, according to The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (Mather, 1913).
That same book lists Solomon Jr’s service as a privateersman (an enlisted sailor on a ship authorized to disrupt enemy shipping and supply routes) on the sloop Montgomery, captained by William Rogers, and also on the frigate Congress, possibly under the same captain. It also reports that Solomon “remained at home during the War, and was forced to work on the [British] Fort on Lloyd’s Neck.” As per the 1832 affidavit of Daniel Platt, who served with Solomon Ketcham, Ketcham “enlisted at Huntington aforesaid in the spring of 1776 as a mariner on board the sloop of war Montgomery fitted out by the Provincial Congress of New York commanded by Capt. William Roger and served on board of said vessel as such mariner until late in the fall or autumn of 1776.” Platt noted that Ketcham had served more than six months and had been discharged from the service at the Fire Island Inlet; Platt had continued to serve on that ship. A committee of the 24th Congress (1835-1837) concluded that Ketcham had served as detailed above, that he had not deserted his post, and that his pension for naval service, which had been cut off, should be restored. In 1935, the United States Pension Bureau reported that, in 1776, Solomon was serving on the armed sloop Montgomery. Its report continued:
The vessel cruised from Fire Island in the adjacent waters, and captured eleven British vessels, loaded with oil, provisions, tools, etc. Solomon Ketcham was placed on board one of the captured vessels as prize master, and served until after the capture of New York, and was taken prisoner in Huntington, New York, when that place and all of its inhabitants were captured. The Montgomery escaped capture by going up the Connecticut River and was eventually sold.
Solomon is listed in the online database of the Daughters of the American Revolution as “patriotic service, sailor.” New York in the Revolution (1898) lists him as Solomond Ketcham and notes that he was an enlisted man on a privateer. He is also listed in 1841 as a military pensioner.
Federal pension records also include this information concerning Solomon’s service in and around the time of the War of 1812:
Solomon Ketcham stated that in 1808, “during the embargo,” he fitted out a vessel which he owned, pursued and captured a British ship and took the cargo to the Collector of New York. He stated also that, in 1813, he was a member of a volunteer company composed of those beyond the age of militia service and continued through the war and that he had charge of the arms which were furnished by the state. In 1814, he assisted in capturing two ships which had taken refuge during a storm in Huntington Bay and were bound to sea contrary to law, and delivered them to the Collector of New York.
In March 1779, Solomon married Rebecca Platt, and their first son, Jonas, was born at the end of that year. Three more children had been added to the household by 1788.Federal census records track the Ketcham household’s size— in 1790, it consisted of Solomon and his wife, Rebecca; all four children; and two enslaved people—and location (Solomon spent his life in Huntington). According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, Rebecca was born in 1757 and died in 1834. By the time of the 1850 federal census, Solomon was living with his daughter, Hannah Ketcham Conklin; her husband, Isaac Conklin; Irena Conklin, age 29; and John Ketcham, age 55. Solomon’s occupation is listed as “farmer.” He was then 93 years old.
The next year, Solomon died in Huntington. Josephine C. Frost, in her Cemetery Inscriptions from Huntington, Long Island, New York, lists the carvings on his gravestone in the Old Burying Ground and also lists the inscription for Rebecca, Solomon’s wife, who died in 1874 at the age of 78 and is interred next to him.
