My Revolutionary War Patriots

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

-Katherine Lee Bates

On this day,  July 4th, 2016,  240 years from the  day the  colonists declared  their independence from Great Britain, I honor my seven ancestral Revolutionary War Patriots:

1 - 6th great-grandfather George Wisegarver, Private, Bedford County Militia. Buried on the Wisegarver Farm, moved to St. John Church, Cessna, Bedford County PA.

2 - 6th great-grandfather Johannes Frederick Reighard. Listed in Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol. 3. Buried in Mattas Farm Cemetery (now Hilltop Cemetery), Bedford County, PA.

Photo courtesy of findagrave.com, added by K. Love. 

3 - 6th great-grandfather George Reininger, 2nd Class, 4th Battalion, City of Philadelphia Militia. Burial location unknown.

4 - 6th great-grandfather Thomas Blackburn, despite strict Quaker principles against bearing arms, acknowledged in a Quaker meeting on 4 Apr 1778 as having served in the Revolutionary War, probably under compulsory means as ordered through the Military Service Act of 17 March 1777. Buried in an unmarked grave in the Friends Cemetery north of Fishertown  in Bedford County, PA.

5 - 5th great-grandfather Thomas Callihan, Private, 2nd New Jersey Regiment. Buried with his wife in a private burial ground located at the highest point of his former estate near Pleasantville, PA.

6 - 5th great-grandfather Conrad Haverstock, Lieutenant, York County Militia.  Buried in Mount Eaton Lutheran Cemetery, Mount Eaton, Wayne County, OH.

Photo courtesy of findagrave.com, added by Don Haverstock

7 - 5th great-grandfather John Ickes, Lieutanant, York County Militia. Buried in Old Union Cemetery, Osterburg, Bedford County, PA

Honorable Mention:

8 - 6th and 7th great-grandfather John Blackburn, Jr. joined York County military forces against Indian uprisings prior to the Revolution despite strict Quaker principles against bearing arms. Presumed buried at the Quaker Burying Grounds at the Warrington Meeting House in Menallen Township, York (now Adams) County, PA.  

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All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016.  All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.