My Earliest Ancestor In America Honored.

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My first ancestor to arrive on American soil as an indentured servant is to be honored on 8-20-11 for his service in the revolutionary war. He moved West after the war, ahead of most of the settlers and finally was stopped by old age in Indiana. My aunt endowed the maintainance of the cemetery where he and part of his family are buried. The site had been vandalized over the years and his head stone was beyond repair. The county where he is buried is to declare the cemetery a historic site. Veterans affairs has provided a replica revolutionary war head stone and we were able to locate a blacksmith who replicated the wrought iron fence around the little cemetery. Also a stone with a plaque noting his service is to be placed inside the fence at our expense.

I hope to have most of my grandchildren and their parents there also.

I have been aware of his service but would never have guessed that he would attract this much attention.

Slainte,

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The ceremony went off without a hitch. A number of politicians took the opportunity to speak which lengthened things considerably. I would guess about 200 people were present. Quite a few for a small cemetery. The SAR were represented in full Revolutionary war uniform. The DAR were represented in period garb also. Since his assignment was to an artillery company we discussed over lunch the possibility of purchasing a replica revolutionary artillery piece and placing it at the site. It would have to be theft proof though due to the remoteness of the location.

A number of pictures were taken though video would have been better.

Slainte,

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