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Meet Samuel Gerock

Samuel Gerock was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 13, 1754. His parents, Johann Siegfried and Rosina Barbara Gerock, immigrated to the new world from Württemberg (present-day Germany) in 1752. Johann was a Lutheran minister. Moving his family to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1773, Johann became the pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in the city.

When the Revolutionary War began, Gerock joined a local company of artillerymen prepared to defend Baltimore’s harbor. In July 1776, Gerock gained a commission as a lieutenant in Captain George Keeports’s company of the newly raised German Regiment. The German Regiment was a Continental Army unit mostly composed of ethnically German men from Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Serving with the regiment during what historians call the “10 Crucial Days,” Gerock fought at the Second Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton (shown in the painting below). In the winter and spring of 1777, Gerock participated in skirmishing in northern New Jersey during what historians call the “Forage War” between the British and the Revolutionaries.

This image shows a painting of the Battle of Princeton done by Charles Willson Peale and William Mercer.

courtesy of the Philadelphia History Museum, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection

After resigning his commission in May 1777, Gerock returned to Baltimore, where he participated in the war as a member of the local militia. Gerock resigned his commission due in part to his poor health following the campaign in New Jersey. Going into the mercantile business in Baltimore, Gerock was accused of selling supplies to the British Army operating in Virginia in 1780 and 1781. After being imprisoned for a time in Frederick, Maryland, Gerock left Maryland and settled in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1784. There, he held various jobs including postmaster and clerk at the Bank of New Bern.

In 1788, Gerock married Sarah Wallace (1750s-ca. 1800). They had two children together, Ann Gerock (1793-1822) and Samuel Gerock Jr. (1800-1834). After Wallace’s death, Gerock married Sarah Roach (1750s-1808). They had one son together named Charles H. Gerock (1807-1891).

The United States Congress passed the first Revolutionary War veterans pension act in 1818. Veterans of the Continental Army, such as Gerock, had to prove their service. Gerock’s application was successful. In 1820, due to the high demand for pensions, Congress required pensioners to prove their “poverty.” They had to show that they needed the money to support themselves and their families. Since Gerock was relatively prosperous, he was removed from the pension rolls. In 1829, Gerock, then a 75-year-old widower, reapplied for a pension since he was struggling financially and two of his children were living with him. Between 1829 and 1831, Gerock returned to the courthouse in New Bern multiple times to plead his case for a pension (which was successful, see image below) or an increase to his pension payment. In 1833, for the final time before his death, Gerock stated his case for a pension under a new, broader pension act passed by Congress in 1832. His final application was successful.

This image shows Samuel Gerock's official pension document.

Samuel Gerock died while living with his son Charles in Craven County, North Carolina, on Sept. 8, 1833. He is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Bern, North Carolina.