In his youth, John was shuffled around until he finally landed withGeo rge Zumwalt:
Jewell at Ancestry.com posted:
"But the reason that John went to live with his uncle John Link wastha t John Zinn was indentured to a rope maker and he was abusive soJohn Z inn ran away . So he went to his Uncle and that his father wasnot a ve ry nice person.
John Link was killed by Indians so it was actually John Link Jr thatto ok him to Kentucky (in 1775 to George Zumwalt)."
Jax Zumwalt posted at GenForum:
"1775, John Zinn, born 3 Sep. 1763, Berks Co. Pa. lived at home withpa rents until about age 12 when he went with uncle John Link (thought to b e husb. of Anna Elizabeth ZumWald) to Augusta Co. Va.(Now Pendleton Co . W. Va.) In September 1779 John Zinn and uncle JohnLink went to Rudde ll’s Station (arrived Jan. 1780) in Kentucky .Capt. Isaac Ruddell, his b rother James, wife, Elizabeth Bowman(sister of Col. John Bowman whom C hris Zumwalt served under in Rev.War) children, Geo, Stephan, Abram, E liz, John, Isaac, Cornelius andunnamed infant killed at time of captur e, helper John Burger. JohnTodd & John Ruddell (not captured), Casper C asner, Michael Leonard,Elizabeth Frank, George Lail. Pension Applicati on Declaration of JohnZinn, 12 May 1734. Hist. of Shenandoah Co by Way land pg. 636. Recordsof Augusta Co. vol. 3 pg. 543"
Again from Alexandra:
The John Zinn who was taken by his uncle to live with George Zumwaltin K entucky was captured by British & Indians in their attack onRuddell's F ort (Ruddell's Station, Bourbon Co, KY) in 1780, when Johnwas age 17. G eorge Zumwalt had been conscripted to help build theStation.
Acc. to the publication Kentucky Ancestors, Winter 1990, Vol 25, No 3,p p 153-156, "Kentucky Ancestors in Pioneer Days - The Taking ofRuddle's S tation, 1780, by John Zinn (contributed by Dr Roseann RHogan of Lexing ton, KY), John Zinn was forced to Detroit and heldthere as a prisoner o f war until 1783. In 1784 he made his way toLexington, KY, and in 1785 b ack to Bourbon Co. He lived there until1789, when he moved to Pendleto n Co (now Grant Co).
Says Dr Hogan, "Born June 21, 1763, in Berks County, Pennsylvania,John Z inn came to Kentucky and married Elizabeth Kiser (1765-1844) inPendlet on County on August 10, 1795. He died in Grant County,Kentucky, on Apr il 17, 1847. In his will, John named his sons Joseph,William and Hiram Z inn (married Zerelda Conyers); his daughtersRebecca (married James Tay lor) and Sarah (married William Hazelwood);his grandson, John P Harris on (child of Mary Zinn, who predeceasedher father); and his granddaugh ters Elizabeth Taylor and Harriett andLouisianna Hazelwood (will dated 2 1 June 1841; proved 10 May 1847;recorded 5 July 1847, Grant Co. Will B ook C, pp 53-54)."
Kentucky Census, 1810-90
Name: John Zinn
State: KY
County: Bourbon County
Township: No Township Listed
Year: 1791
Record Type: Tax list
Database: KY Early Census Index
Kentucky, Tax Lists, 1799-1801
about John Zinn Name: John Zinn
Residence County: Pendleton
Residence Year: 1800
1810 The only John Zinn in the census that year lived in Harrisburg,D auphin Co, PA with a family of 11 but no female his age so probablywas n ot him.
8/7/1820 Grant Co, KY. At census time "Master" John Zinn had afamily o f 8( (per the index but then listed 9). The householdconsisted of 1 m ale age 10-15, 1 at 16-18, 2 were 16-25, John wasover 45, 1 female age 1 0-15, 1 age 16-25, 1 was 26-44, and 1 alsoover 45. One person was in a griculture.
1830 Same place. By census time that year, the family had shrunk to4 w hich appears to be a daughter and grandson: 1 male under 5, Johnwas 6 0-69, 1 female at 30-39, and 1 also 60-69.
In his biography posted at frontierfolk.net is his pensionapplication:
State of Kentucky
County of Grant
On this 12th day of may 1834, personally appeared in open court beforet he Justice of the County Court of Grant now sitting, John Zinn areside nt of the county of Grant and State of Kentucky aged aboutseventy-one y ears, who being duly sworn according to law, doth on hisoath make the f ollowing declaration in order to obtain the benefit ofthe Act of Congr ess, passed June 1832.
That he entered the service of the United States under the followingna med officers and served as herein stated that is to say: He arrivedin t he month of January 1780 at a station called Ruddle's Stationwhich is s ituated at or near the junction of Hin[k]ston and Stonerwhich forms wh at is called the south fork of Lickin[g] River, theplace of the statio n being now in the county of Bourbon and state ofKentucky but then the d istrict of Kentucky and State of Virginia. Andwas immediately enrolled a s a minute man in the militia of the stateof Virginia under the comman d of Captain Isaac Ruddle, L[i]eutenantCasper Casner and an ensign who se name is not now distinctlyrecollected but he thinks his name was Da vid Patton.
He does not know to what regiment he belonged nor who was the fieldoff icer of the same as during his service there was not any fieldofficer a t the said station nor was there any other company theresave the one t o which he belonged but he has understood that ColonelBenjamin Logan w as the Colonel of the Regiment but he can not saywhether he ever under stood this before his return from captivity.
Some time in the latter part of the month of February 1780 inconsequen ce of a suspicion of being attacked by the Indians theaforesaid Captai n Ruddle called on this declarant to enter uponmilitary duty and this d eclarant did immediately in a regular mannerenter upon the same and se rved under the said Ruddle with theaforesaid L[i]eutenant and Ensign i n the aforesaid Ruddle's Station(he at the time residing in said stati on) and continued so to serveduntil, as well as this declarant now rec ollects, until the 24th dayof June 1780 or near that time.
His service consisted in guarding the station and hunting for thesuppo rt of the station. Says he guard[ed] his turns and hunted histurns. Th ere was however some times during the aforesaid period thatthe guardin g was very slack, rather a guarding in name than aguarding in fact. Bu t this declarant considered himself as regularlyin the service all of t he aforesaid time and actually under orders ofhis officers.
On or about the day of 11th day of March 1780, as well as thisdeclaran t can now recollect, the Indians attacked the said station ator near d ay break and continued to operate against station until latein the nig ht and succeeded in wounding one man only named AndrewBeard who was sh ot in the right side of the breast and the balllodged inside the skin o n the back and Captain Ruddle cut it out andhe recovered. The Indians, a lthough they did not succeed in killingany person in the station, did s ucceed in killing a number of cattle,sheep and a few dogs and carried o ff a number of horses.
On or about (as well as this declarant can now recollect) the 24th dayo f June 1780, Captain Byrd of the British Service accompanied byabout 1 50 or 200 British regulars, [illegible] pieces of cannon andnear about 5 00 Indians arrived and attacked the said Ruddle's StationBeginning the a ttack about sunrise and ending about three o'clockwhen the forces in t he station surrendered. There was no one in thestation either killed o r wounded before the surrender but as thisdeclarant was informed by ot hers there was some 3 or 4 who was oldand sick killed by the Indians a fterward.
On the second day after the surrender aforesaid, the British and apart o f the Indians marched for Martin's Station which they succeedin taking a s this declarant afterwards learned from prisoners whosaid they were t aken in said Martin's Station, and also from theBritish soldiers he le arned the same fact. At the time that theBritish set out for Martin's S tation, the prisoners taken at Ruddle'sStation (say about fifty or six ty effective men bound to militaryduty and between one hundred and one h undred and fifty othersconsisting of old men, women and children) was a pportioned out insmall parties among the Indians who was to proceed in s mall partiesto Detroit.
This declarant and one other prisoner (soldier was given in charge oft hree Indians who tied us and proceed down the south fork of LickingRiv er to the mouth of Raven Creek (by land) where we took bark canoesand d escended the River to its mouth and crossed the Ohio River andlanded a bout where Cincinnati, Ohio, now stands. Then we passed overby land to D etroit where we arrived near the first. Although we weretied when we f irst set out, we were tied only about five or six days.The balance of t he way, we were guarded without being tied. Afterthis, declarant had a rrived at Detroit. The other which had beentaken at Ruddle's Station c ontinued to come in detached parties forseveral weeks. (This declarant d oes not think that all ever arrived.)
When the British Captain (Bird) [Byrd] and his company altogether withs ome Indians arrived with the prisoners which they had taken atMartin's S tation (say about near the same number which had been takenat Ruddle's s tation) when all was kept guarded in a ring of apicketed fort for a co nsiderable time (time not recollected) whensomething like half was sen t off to work for their support but waswatched in such a manner as tot ally to put it out of their power,situated as we were, to make our esc ape. And if there was any whowould not work for their support, it was u nderstood that they wouldbe still confined but all who was left did wo rk for their support sofar as this declarant was informed.
We were scattered about among the inhabitants, just in proportion asth ey could make our labour profitable to themselves. Thus those of uswho w as left remained until about Mat 1781 when there was aconsiderable num ber of those who were left last fall taken on boardof the shiping and w as, or was intended to be, conveyed to Quebeck.
The balance still remaining as before, still working for their supporta t Detroit and neighborhood, but so arranged among the inhabitants asto m ake it impossible for them to leave and return home so that thisdeclar ant and those who remained was kept as prisoners of war untilthe close o f the Revolutionary war and until the news of peacereached Detroit whi ch this declarant now thinks was some time in theyear 1783. The period o f the year not now recollected but when thenews of peace did reach Det roit in an official manner, this declarantas well as all of the other p risoners that remained were informedthat they were at liberty to retur n home or remain at their pleasureand many did return so soon as they c ould obtain the means and someremained.
This declarant and seventeen others after having obtained the meansand p rovided themselves in such a manner as they thought they couldwith saf ety encounter the wilderness did on the 28th day of June 1784set out f or the United States (the names of all of the seventeen notnow recolle cted) and traveled to the head waters of the Alegany[Allegheny] and th en down that stream until it could be naviaged withcanoes when we made b ark canoes and then descended in the canoes toPittsburgh where we sepa rated and went in different directions.
This declarant and four others descended the Ohio River to a placethen c alled Lime Stone, now Maysville, and then went by land toLexington, St ate of Kentucky, where we arrived on the 14th day ofAugust 1784. The f our who accompanied him was Richard Rue, Benj.Cottingkon, Ransom Tinsl ey and Thomas McGuire.
.... [Text deleted here is concerned with calculations by Zinn of thet ime which he served.] This declarant will say.... That in all he wasin t he said service two years and eight months leaving out the year1783... .It will be perceived that the declarant cannot give all ofthe dates b ut this cannot be expected as many years have passed sinceand this dec larant, not knowing that it would ever be of anyadvantage to him, did n ot chargehis memory with any of the eventsexcept such as was of such i mportance to him as to make a lastingimpression on his mind. He has no r ecord evidence of his servicehaving received no discharge from his off icers nor does he know ofany person now living by whom he can prove al l or any of his serviceexcept Michael Leonard and Elizabeth Franks nei ther of whom can Iwith any convenience have at court nor do I know whe ther (from theirage and circumstances) they will be able to recollect t he servicecircumstantially but I will procure their depositions at a f utureday.
He has no record of his age nor has he any other data by which he cana scertain his age except that his uncle John Link told him inFebruary 1 780 that he was over the age of sixteen. Therefore, he musthave been b orn in the year 1763, but the time of the year was notever known to th is declarant which is the reason that he says that heis about seventy- one years.
He was born in the County of Berks and State of Pennsylvania and livedi n said county and state with his father until he was about twelveyears o ld when his uncle John Links took him to the county ofAugusta, State o f Virginia, and he has not seen his father sinceabout September 1779 w hen he moved with his said uncle to Ruddle'sStation then in the Distri ct of Kentucky, now in Bourbon County,Kentucky, where he resided in th e month of January 1780 and where heentered the service and was taken p risoner as before stated anddetained. And he arrived at Lexington, Ken tucky, from his captivityas before stated on the 14th day of August 17 84, where he remaineduntil May 1785 when he removed to what is now Bou rbon County,Kentucky, where he remained until the month of May or Apri l 1789 whenhe removed to what was then Pendleton County, now Grant Cou nty, andState of Kentucky, where he now ever since resided and does no wreside say forty five years.
His services was in the militia of Virginia. He never served with anyo ther troops than the company to which he belonged and consequentlyas h e was taken a prisoner and remained until the war was over. Henever kn ew any of the regular officers or continental troops. For thereputatio n in his neighborhood of his having been a revolutionarysoldier here r efers to the certificates which follows thisdeclaration of James How a nd James Winnans of the County of Grant,there being in my neighborhood n o clergyman whose attendance he canprocure. He hereby relinquishes eve ry claim whatever to a pension orannuity except the present and declar es that his name is not on thepension Role of the agency of any State o r Territory whatever. Swornto and subscribed the day and year aforesai d,
John Zinn
John's will was dated 6/21/1841 and proved 5/10/1847, recorded7/5/1847 G rant Co, KY
In it he named:
sons Joseph, William and Hiram Zinn (married Zerelda Conyers);
daughters Rebecca (married James Tayler) and Sarah (married WilliamHaz elwood);
grandson, John P. Harrison (child of Mary Zinn, who predeceased herfat her);
granddaughters Elizbeth Taylor and Harriett and Louisianna Hazelwood
