From Patriot to Pauper: The Erratic Fortunes of David Poe Sr.

Abstract Despite the historical significance of Edgar Allan Poe’s paternal grandfather, no coherent biography of him exists. This article fills that historiographical gap. It presents David Poe Sr.’s rise from wheelwright to Revolutionary War quartermaster, postbellum merchant, and elected official followed by his financial collapse and imprisonments for debt. As a child, David Poe emigrated with his parents from Ulster Province, Ireland, to colonial America. By 1775, he was a Baltimore wheelwright and avid patriot. Extensive surviving documentation of Poe’s Revolutionary War service as a quartermaster remains largely untapped by his grandson Edgar’s biographers. Those documents reveal that Poe provided crucial logistical support to the American and French allies’ Yorktown campaign that ended the Revolutionary War. Similarly overlooked are archival primary sources concerning Poe’s time as a Baltimore City councilman and, later, his dismissal as the municipality’s inspector of fish. Indicia of his financial ruin have also remained unexplored. Relying extensively on primary source material, this article offers a narrative account of David Poe Sr.’s life. It focuses on his Revolutionary War activities, postbellum political offices, insolvency, and service as a septuagenarian soldier at the Battle of North Point during the War of 1812.