Joshua Stroud Fletcher, PA Volunteer/Regular Army

Joshua Stroud Fletcher, born circa 1785, died circa 1821-25, has been a brick wall for my cousins and I for the last few years.

We had this name as the husband of Eliza Fletcher, daughter of Rees and Esther(Hester) Stretcher Evans, 1785-1876 from a handed down family history. We could find Eliza on the census records with her mother, as her mother lived into the 1850s, and with her children, but we never found any record stating Joshua and Eliza were husband and wife.

We finally started to tear down this wall when I found the Rootsweb War of 1812 Forum and posted a query to find out anything I could about him. I was given this from the "Index to War of 1812 Pensions" transcribed by Virgil D. White:

fletcher, joshua wf. eliza (evans) wc-599 married 18 sept 1806 at phila. pa. soldier died 10 sept 1825 at new orleans or phila. widow died about 1876, srv. smith's co.. 32nd us. inf and pearl's co., pa. mil. lived in phila. pa.

From this information, we were able to confirm the maiden name of his wife, which we have since confirmed through her death notice, and Philadelphia city directories. We still have not found where they married, but we think at the time of her marriage, Eliza was Quaker. We believe that Joshua's mother, Elizabeth Stroud Fletcher was also a Quaker, but we are in the midst of trying to confirm that detail. We also cannot confirm where and when Joshua died yet. But we were able to confirm his service in Smith's and Pearl's companies from roster rolls on the PA Archives on Footnote and Google Books.

Unfortunately, we have not be able to find his pension file through the NARA, someday I will get to the archives myself and find it. :)