DAR #A023063

The Reverend Ebenezer Cleveland served as Chaplain in Colonel Jonathan Ward’s regiment. He was engaged 19 May 1775, and served until 1 August 1775, a total service of two months and eighteen days. On a roll dated Dorchester, 26 March 1776, he also served as Chaplain in Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent’s regiment. Length of service was not noted this time. Of note was the fact that Cleveland was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Prior to his service in the American Revolutionary War Cleveland served during the French and Indian War.

Ebenezer was the son of Josiah Cleveland Jr, who was born 7 October 1690, in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and who died 9 February 1750, in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. Josiah Jr, married Abigail Paine 7 August 1710 in Canterbury, Connecticut. They would have twelve children in nineteen years. He is buried in the Old Brooklyn Burying Ground (South Cemetery), Brooklyn, Connecticut. The father of Josiah Jr, was also Josiah Cleveland, who was born 26 February 1666, in Woburn, Middlesex County Massachusetts, and died on 26 April 1709 in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. The senior Josiah married Mary Bates circa 1689. Josiah senior’s father was Moses Cleveland who was born circa 1624, in probably Ipswich, Suffolk, England and died 9 January 1702 in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Moses married Ann Winn on 26 September 1648 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They would be the parents of eleven children.

Ebenezer Cleveland was born 25 December 1725, in Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut. As a young man Ebenezer attended Yale (founded in 1701) where alongside his brother John, he studied to become a minister. Both brothers were expelled from Yale in 1745, due to their conflict with the administration. The brothers had taken an interest in the Separatist Church and would not apologize for having attended a New Light meeting. In 1745 Yale would relent, granting degrees to both Ebenezer and John in 1749. Later in life Ebenezer would be involved in the establishment of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He acted as an emissary for Governor Wentworth in the selection and approval of the tract of land the college would be built on and communicated with the Mohawk Indians during the war in an attempt to protect the school. On 16 Oct 1745 in he married Abigail Stevens in Groton, New London County, Connecticut. Abigail was born in 1727. The two were the parents of at least a dozen or more children: Lydia 29 March 1747; Olive 17 February 1748; Abigail 16 March 1750; Filia Nata 1753; Ebenzer 12 October 1754; Alice 6 March 1757; Mary “Polly” 22 August 1759; Anna abt 1760; William Pitt Amherst 15 January 1762; John Voss 8 July 1764; Alice 12 December 1767; Hepzibah 3 October 1769; and Beulah 2 February 1772. Both Abigail and Ebenezer died in Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts. Abigail passed on 25 December 1804 and Ebenezer on 4 July 1805. They are buried in the Old First Parish Burying Ground, Rockport, Essex County.

Beulah Cleveland was the youngest daughter of Ebenezer and Abigail, born 2 February 1772, in Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts. In 1790, Massachusetts, she married John Burns. Born in Rockport, on 11 January 1766, John was a ship captain and owner of the brig Kosciusko. The couple immigrated to Payson, Adams County, Illinois, where Beulah died on 3 March 1835 and John of a fever, on 8 July 1835. They were laid together in the Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. According to the Quincy Register death notice for John, they had ‘removed to Quincy, Illinois, last October,”.

Beulah Cleveland Burns, daughter of Beulah Cleveland and John Burns, was born 5 May 1796 in Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts. She married Charles Brown on 4 September 1814 on Sandy Bay, near Gloucester, Essex County. He was born in 1790 in Gloucester, and served as a Private in the Massachusetts Militia, during the War of 1812. The two started the first bakery the city of Quincy and then turned to farming in Ellington Township. They retired back to Quincy. Charles would pass on 17 September 1868 and Beulah on 21 April 1882. They are both buried in the Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Adams County, Illinois.

Beulah and Charles would have six children, including daughter Beulah Cleveland Brown, born 5 November 1826, in Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts. On 25 December 1851, Beulah would marry Harmon Allison, Sr, in Adams County, Illinois. Harmon was born 17 February 1817, in Pennsylvania. Harmon would pass on 15 October 1865, Chalmers Township, McDonough County, Illinois, and Beulah on 7 January 1919, in Macomb, McDonough County. The two are buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, Macomb, McDonough County. Beulah and Harmon Allison, Sr, had seven children, Francis M, Sarah K, Beulah B, Isabelle H, Emma C, Harmon Jr and Charles B Harmon Allison, Jr, was born 1 December 1862, in Chalmers Township, McDonough County, and died there on 27 May 1943. Harmon Jr married Nancy “Nannie” Catherine Barclay on 27 May 1943, in Scotland Township, McDonough County, and both are buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Macomb. Harmon and Nancy were the parents of six children. Francis Manning Allison was born on 29 Sep 1887, in McDonough County. He married Ethel Margaret Provine on 8 February 1910 in McDonough County. They both died in Macomb, with Francis dying on 14 April 1968 and Ethel on 28 August 1980, both being buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Their third son was my father, William Harmon Allison, who was named after both of his grandfathers (William Provine and Harmon Allison). Harmon married Mary Louise Lefler on 5 April 1946, in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois. Harmon died on 18 October 1976 and Louise died on 27 February 2020.

Available resources:
-"United States Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1818-1872," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24Q-L6H6 : Archives and Records Administration, 1962), roll 7; FHL microfilm 1,319,387. -United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records, 1812-1815, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29K-2Q74 : 11 March 2016), Ezra Parker, 1812-1815; citing NARA microfilm publication M602 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); roll 159; FHL microfilm 882,677.
-"United States Census, 1840," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHYX-3Y8 : 24 August 2015), Ezra Parker, Royal Oak Township, Oakland, Michigan, United States; citing p. 90, NARA microfilm publication M704, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 209; FHL microfilm 14,797.
-"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVD-R67N : 13 December 2015), Ezra Parker, 1842; Burial, Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan, United States of America, Royal Oak Cemetery; citing record ID 15167043, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. -Ancestry.com. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.