Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Captain Michael Rader’s Company of Virginia Militia
Article of December 13, 2001
Many Page County descendants have genealogical ties to
members of Rader’s company and are aware of the little
data that survived to document the service of the
company. While there is no definite date of
enlistment for the company, it was likely among the
large number of units recruited in the summer of 1775.
In the wake of Lexington and Concord, Congress had
begun the enlistment of troops in New England, but had
also encouraged the middle and southern states to do
the same for their own defense.
By the summer of 1775, Virginia had been thrown into a
frenzy, as the royal governor of Virginia, John
Murray, Lord of Dunmore, lost control of the province
and abandoned Williamsburg for a British ship anchored
off of Yorktown. Sending out a call for loyal
followers, Dunmore, obviously, hoped to return to the
Governor’s Palace in short order. In the end, he
would be unsuccessful.
While the bulk of concerns seemed to rest on the coast
in 1775, the western frontier was inevitably concerned
about the potential for another series of attacks by
Native Americans – but as opposed to years past, this
time encouraged by the English. The fears would prove
to be well founded at various places along the
frontier, but not in the Shenandoah Valley.
This may have been the reason for Rader’s Company
being in Fort Pitt by October 1775. According to the
only known morning report for Rader’s Company, the
company was near Fort Pitt at that time.
Once known as Fort Duquesne, the fort was a highly
sought prize during the French and Indian War. At the
time of the American Revolution, it continued to hold
strong importance for the defense of people on the
western frontier.
It is likely that Rader's company did not remain to
long at Pitt and returned as a ready defense force for
the central Valley. According to the “Historical
Register of Virginians in the Revolution,” Rader was
still in command of Virginia Militia as a captain in
1777. John Wayland found Rader’s career extended into
1778, when he was listed as a major.
While the war progressed from 1775, there appears to
have been a small number of men from the company that
went on to serve with various regiments of the
Virginia Continental Line. Some may have remained
with the militia, but terms of enlistment usually ran
for short periods of time – never have I seen one to
run for the term of the war. It is likely that most,
after having served their terms, returned to their
farms and provided to the Patriotic cause with
portions of their crops and livestock.
As for Rader himself, he was likely born in Augusta or
Rockingham County, or even Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on
March 8, 1750. The son of Adam and Margaret Maria
Zimmerman Rader, Michael was descended from
German-Swiss ancestry. Hans Adam Roder, Sr. was born
in Bern, Switzerland about 1645. His namesake son was
also born about 1668, also in Switzerland, but had
moved to Mutterstadt, Germany where he died in 1720.
His son, also with the same name, was born in 1706 and
was the immigrant. Marrying Anna Barbara Bender (the
daughter of Matthiaus), Captain Rader, through this,
his grandmother. Captain Rader’s father, Adam, was
born in Bethlehem, Pa. in 1727.
Michael Rader married Catherina Long prior to the
Revolutionary War, on December 25, 1769. Living in
the area between New Market and Timberville through,
at least, the 1790s, Rader and his family later moved
to Mason, Virginia where he died in 1830.
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