Montgomery’s Memorial of 1776

Saint Paul’s Chapel, New York City, New York

General Richard MONTGOMERY was the first American officer to die in the Revolutionary War. He fell at the Battle of Quebec on New Year’s Eve of 1775. Immediately following, on 25 January 1776, the Continental Congress commissioned the first American war memorial - a monument to the fallen General MONTGOMERY. The General’s remains were eventually interred at Saint Paul’s Chapel, New York City, where his memorial was installed by a grateful nation.

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Berkeley Plantation

Opechancanough’s men rose up and attempted to massacre all the whites in Virginia, and they almost suceeded. Giles Bland was an early owner of Berkeley Hundred, and after he was executed for complicity in Bacon’s Rebellion, the Harrisons assumed ownership. This hallowed ground, situated above the historic James River, is a treasure for all Americans, as it has witnessed and participated in the entire history of our nation.The original brick mansion, which still stands, was built in 1726, of brick fired right on the plantation. Here was born Benjamin Harrison, son of the first owner and builder of Berkeley, who signed the Declaration of Independence and was a three-time Governor of Virginia. His son, William Henry Harrison, also born at Berkeley, was governor of the Indiana Territory and became the ninth President of the United States. His grandson, Benjamin Harrison, became the 23rd President and was the husband of Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, a founder of the Daughters of the American Revolution and its first President General. George Washington, and the nine succeeding Presidents of the United States, all visited at Berkeley, and dined in the same dining room that still overlooks the James River today. The British troops of the traitorous Benedict Arnold plundered the plantation during the American Revolution, although no serious harm was done to the mansion. During the Civil War, Union troops of the Army of the Potomac occupied Berkeley Plantation, and President Abraham Lincoln twice traveled via water from Washington to review them. It was here that General George B. McClellan was relieved of command by Lincoln. There are ten acres of terraced boxwood gardens and lawn extending a quarter-mile from the front door to the James River. This wonderful Virginia shrine has been owned and maintained privately.

Berkeley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia

If Only Walls Could Talk - what amazing tales our ears would hear inside the lovely plantation home of Berkeley. In 1619, early English settlers came ashore at Berkeley Hundred, naming it in honor of their home seats. On December 4th of that same year, the colonists observed the first official Thanksgiving in America, before the Mayflower Pilgrims had even left England. On Good Friday of 1622, while celebrating with their Indian friends,

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James Monroe’s 250th Birthday

This year marks the 250th anniversary of President James Monroe’s birth in Westmoreland County, Virginia on 28 April 1758. President James Monroe attended William and Mary College, but when war broke out, he left college to join the rebels. He and George Washington were the only Presidents to have served as officers during the American Revolutionary War. James Monroe participated in six major battles, wintering at Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware with General George Washington, and being seriously wounded at Trenton, New Jersey. He was cited for conspicuous bravery. After the war, he worked as a lawyer in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He died  July 4th, 1831, the third president to die on Independence Day.

One of the events scheduled in honor of his 250th birthday is the placing of a memorial tablet at the Monroe family farm by the Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution. The farm is located between Colonial Beach and Route 205. This special ceremony will occur on Saturday, April 26th, 2008, at 11 a.m.

On Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 11 a.m. there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of America’s fifth President, James Monroe, at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Wreaths will be presented on behalf of President George W. Bush, the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, and various lineage societies.

That same day, April 28th, at 4 p.m., the Garrison Commander of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia will hold a special Retreat Ceremony at the Flagstaff Bastion. Military personnel are requested to wear duty uniforms, and civilians are asked to wear business attire. To attend this special event, an RSVP must be made by April 22nd, 2008. 

For more information on any of these events, see www.MonroeFoundation.org.

This portrait of James Monroe is from Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, at the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

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DAR Patriot Index 2000

STIMPSON, STIMSON, STINSON Patriots of the American Revolution. The next edition of the DAR Patriot Index will include my two ancestors from Virginia, Alexander STINSON Senior, father of the listed Alexander (c1733-a1813), and his son David STINSON, both of Buckingham County, Virginia.

Father Alexander STINSON was an old man during the war, however he did contribute supplies to the rebels. It is impossible to know what other support these men may have given to the Patriot Cause, as all the records at Buckingham County Courthouse were burned in 1869 - not by the Yankees, but by arsonist Virginians! We do know that the people of Buckingham County were in the forefront of the movement for liberty, and that many of the county’s citizens must have formed Committees of Safety and more.

My forefather, David STINSON, contributed 400 pounds of beef to the American Revolutionary cause in Buckingham County, Virginia, which qualified him to be a DAR patriot. However, David STINSON did much more to show his true colors during a time of great danger. From some Virginia petitions stored at the Library of Congress I have discovered that my ancestor David STINSON was amongst Buckingham County’s staunchest patriots.  On 7 December 1780, he signed a petition that demanded the privileges of citizenship be withheld from all who refused to swear allegiance to the new American government. He demanded that these “non-jurors” not be allowed to practice law, medicine, and that “non-juror” clergy be silenced and deprived of their benefices. In addition, as a petitioner, he demanded that the non-patriots be double taxed. At that point in history, the South had become the war’s battlefield, and the army of Washington was not assured victory. The cities of Augusta and Savannah in Georgia had fallen to the British. If the American rebellion had been put down, David STINSON and the other petition signatories would have suffered grave consequences.

 As of December 2007, DAVID STINSON is NSDAR Patriot Ancestor #A204931.

After gathering together all the historical documents necessary to prove my STINSON lineage to NSDAR standards, no easy feat in a Virginia burnt county, I decided to write a book on the STINSON family of Buckingham County. It is SO OBSCURE A PERSON - The Story of Alexander STINSON and His Virginia Descendants.   ~~Edna Barney

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Father of the American Cavalry

“I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.”  

General Casimir Pulaski, a man born in a far off land, came to America to serve, and live or die for freedom. He became an American general under General George Washington, and he became the Father of the American Cavalry.

When he arrived in America, the first letter he sent to George Washington, stated “I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.”  And die he did, at the age of thirty-two, mortally wounded at the Battle of Savannah, Georgia in 1779. 

It is touching to think of how many mortal souls have fought and died for freedom. Sadness can overwhelm one with the realization that so many of the progeny of freedom fighters such as Pulaski, progeny who live every day of their mortal lives in the bosom of freedom, do not value freedom at all.

The Memorial to General Casimir Pulaski is at Wallington, New Jersey.

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Grave of a Daughter

Myrtle Grimm Ferris was the descendant of a Patriot of the American Revolution, and her gravesite has been marked by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she was a member.

Her obituary tells that she was living in Pennington, New Jersey when she died. She was the wife of Frederick L. Ferris, a distinguished newspaper man. She, herself was the Pennington correspondent for the Evening Times for more than 30 years. Mrs. Ferris had served as Regent of the Penelope Heart Chapter of Pennington. She further served the Society on the House Committee for NSDAR’s Continental Congress, as state chairman of Conferences for the New Jersey Society as state chairman for press relations for the New Jersey Society, state librarian, and state chairman of the Good Citizens Committee.

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Sail Fast In Harm’s Way

John Paul Jones - Father of the American Navy: “Sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.”

This monument of an American freedom fighter is at West Potomac Park, Washington, DC 20037 (Google Map). It is a short walk from Signers’ Island and DAR Constitution Hall. John Paul Jones is buried in the crypt below the chapel at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. For more information about this famous sailor see John Paul Jones .

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Patriot Haym Solomon

Haym Solomon (Salomon) was born in Poland about 1740. At the beginning of America’s Revolution, Mr. Solomon was operating a financial brokerage in New York City. He immediately sided with the Sons of Liberty, and in 1776, was arrested by the British as a spy, and was required to serve them as a German interpreter for Hessian soldiers. However, at the same time he was helping prisoners of the British to escape and encouraging German soldiers to desert. When this was discovered in 1778, the British sentenced him to death. He was able to escape to Philadelphia, which was controlled by the American rebels, and there he resumed his brokage enterprises.

Solomon was an influential member of the Mikveh Israel congregation, founded in 1740, in Philadelphia and he was a leader in the fight to overturn restrictive Pennsylvania laws barring non-Christians from holding public office. He married Rachel Franks in 1777, and they had four children together.

Haym Solomon performed patriotic service to his adopted land in both New York and Pennsylvania by helping to finance the war. He loaned and contributed large sums of money to the cause of liberty during the American Revolution. He lived at both New York City and Philadelphia and died in that latter city on 6 January 1785, penniless, probably as a result of his loans to the American government. His descendants were never successful in obtaining compensation from Congress for his financial sacrifices.

The remains of Haym Solomon now repose at Mikveh Israel Cemetery. From the photograph, it appears that his grave or place of burial was marked by the Haym Solomon Masonic Lodge in 1776. In the past 100+ years numerous of his female descendants have joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on his service.

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Soldier’s Quarters

Revolutionary War Soldier’s Cabin at Mount Vernon Museum, Mount Vernon, Virginia.

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December During the Revolution

December seems to have been an important month for most of the years of the Revolutionary War. The following is from the museum at Mount Vernon, Virginia:

• December 1776 - Washington crossed the Delaware River and captured Trenton, New Jersey.

• December 1777 - Washington’s troops entered Winter Camp and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

• December 1778 - Britain carried the war to the southern colonies by occupying Savannah, Georgia.

• December 1779 - British General Clinton sailed from New York harbor to Charleston, South Carolina with 50,000 troops.

• December 1783 - General Washington “voluntarily” stepped down as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

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