Daniel F. Bakeman

Daniel F. Bakeman (9 October 1759? – 5 April 1869) was an American longevity claimant who was the last survivor receiving a veteran's pension for service in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

Biography
Bakeman was allegedly born on 9 October 1759 in Schoharie County, New York, to Dutch immigrants. Records have shown that in 1825 the Bakemans settled in Arcade, New York, in a home on the north side of the County Line Road. In 1845 they moved to Freedom, New York. He appears in the 1860 United States Census as "Frederick Bakeman" living in Freedom with his wife and his daughter, Susan, and a grandchild, Jacob N. Bakeman (born 1838). He listed his birth year as 1759 and that of his wife as 1760.

Bakeman claimed to have served in a Tryon County militia unit commanded by Marinus Willett; he later stated that the records of his service burned in a house fire. Bakeman was victimized by fires at least three times, including once while on a four-day trip from central New York to Albany, New York for wheat and other supplies.[citation needed]

On 14 February 1867, the United States Congress passed a special act which granted a Revolutionary War pension to Bakeman. The act was required because Bakeman could not prove that he had served in New York.[citation needed] At the time, the longest surviving veterans who were on the pension rolls were Lemuel Cook of Clarendon, New York (died 20 May 1866), and Samuel Downing of Edinburgh, New York (died 19 February 19 1867). They resided for over 42 years in Herkimer County, New York, and part of the time in the town of Stark, New York where he owned a farm. George Fruits also claimed to be the last surviving veteran of the Revolutionary War (by the Daughters of the American Revolution), but was never on the pension rolls.

Bakeman died six months before his 110th birthday on 5 April 1869 and is buried in Sandusky Cemetery in Freedom, New York. The Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Pensions for 1874 said: "With the death of Daniel T. Bakeman, of Freedom, Cattaraugus County, N.Y., April 5, 1869, the last of the pensioned soldiers of the Revolution passed away."