Commission of Soldier of Pennsylvania Militia Found at McVeytown

Special to the Telegraph. Lewistwon, Pa., Oct. 16. - There has been ressurrected from the musty archives of a garret at McVeytown, the commission of William Bratton, of Bratton township, Mifflin county, as "Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventy-Fourth Regiment of Militia of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the First Brigade of the Tenth Divsion, composed of the Militia of Mifflin, Huntington and Centre counties, to have and to hold this commission for the term of seven years from data hereof, if you shall so long behave yourself." The paper is dated at Lancaster, on the second day of August, 1800. Lancaster at that time was the capitol of the State. It bears the seal of State and the signature of Thomas McKean, Governor, in a clear and legible handwriting. William Bratton, who received the commission, was a son of Andrew Bratton, who settled in Bratton township in 1775, and built a log house on the farm owned of late years by Joseph W. Kyle. William was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was elected first lieutenant in Captain Robert Adams' company January 9, 1776, and after the war was mustered out as a colonel. He took part in the battles of Paoli and Germantown, and was wounded in the latter battle. He married Hester Hamilton of Newtown Hamilton, this county, who was captured by the Indians when a young woman, bound and taken along the river and afterward escaped by hiding in a hollow log. Colonel Bratton died on the old homestead in Bratton township at the age of 80 years, and is buried with many of the early settlers on the Kyle farm. This commission, which has historical value, will be sent to J. A. Anderson Ross, of Philadelphia, a great-grandson of Colonel Bratton.1

• 1. harrisburg Telegraph, 10/18/1914