I got the idea when my friend Barbara told me that she is
descended from William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere to warn the
Concord and Lexington militias that the British were coming.
I got the idea when my friend Barbara told me that she is descended from William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere to warn the Concord and Lexington militias that the British were coming. Their midnight call to arms on the night of April 18, 1775, came just in time for the colonials to win the first open battle of the Revolutionary War.
Kathy McNutt told me that she has a Paul Revere connection as well. She serves as the new regent of our local Gabilan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), which meets in the community room at the Gilroy Police Station. She and her sister Maureen McManus are descended from Joseph Bailey, who volunteered that very first night when Paul Revere gave the call to arms and “the shot heard ’round the world” was fired.
I began to wonder how many other South County residents are descended from the early colonists who fought as patriots against the British in the American Revolution. When I put out the word that I was looking for local descendants of our Revolutionary ancestors, I was overwhelmed by the response that came pouring in from people in Hollister, Morgan Hill and Gilroy.
It shocked me to learn that my patriot ancestor, Peter Babb, enlisted in Maine to fight in the Revolution when he was just 17 years and 1-month-old.
But Marnie Mehuron Paterson’s Revolutionary War ancestor, Robert Bean, was even younger: a 16-year-old rifleman from the “overmountain men” of eastern Tennessee. Today, we would call him a sniper, but his sharpshooting helped win a decisive battle at King’s Mountain in the Carolinas.
Feather Tippetts of Morgan Hill put the age of these young soldiers into perspective when she told of her ancestor, Michael Durham, Sr: “He was 15 years old when he served as a private in the American war against the British. Considering that the average age at death in the 1700s was 45, a 15-year-old would have already lived approximately 1/3 of his life.”
“He provided beef and pork to the Continental Army, but also signed several petitions ultimately resulting in Thomas Jefferson writing a law for the State of Virginia which eventually became the religion portion of the First Amendment,” Morgan Hill’s Mike Moore said when I got the chance to ask about his patriot, Jeremiah MacAshan.
Gaylis Ghaderi helps South County desendants with lineage research. She says that many women helped in the American Revolution as well, but the nature of record-keeping in the past makes it harder to document.
“The first patriot I found in my family was Capt. John Leftwich of Bedford County, Va.,” Martha Slater said, past regent for the local DAR. “He was in the Continental Line for three years and was with George Washington at Valley Forge. In the past 10 years, I have found many more ancestors to add to my DAR list including one woman – a special find – who, after her husband died, donated beef and grain to help feed the army.”
More than one local has a George Washington connection. Retired family counselor Rev. Charles Krahenbuhl is descended from Duncan McVicar, who served as the official paymaster to George Washington’s troops at Valley Forge.
Many patriot families were related to each other, since the early colonists married into each other’s families over multiple generations. Not only are many descendants related to multiple patriots, but there are many strange connections between descendants of the same patriots. Terri Freedman, a descendant of Sgt. Thomas Newman had this experience.
“Small world, too: I went to the funeral of one of our local DAR members, and was startled to spot my Aunt Vera (who lived in San Diego) sitting a few rows in front of me,” he said. “My aunt’s ‘clone’ turned out to be Lenore Hailstone, also a Sgt. Thomas Newman descendant, who became a Gabilan member. Two hundred years and many generations of DNA-mingling with different families separated Lenore from my aunt – yet the resemblance was eerie!”
Verona Flint’s family goes back 12 generations to the earliest colonists in 1635. Her patriot ancestor Thomas Flint armed and sailed in his private ship on the Atlantic seaboard, donating his services as a surgeon without pay.
Kathy McNutt’s sixth great-grandfather, William Campbell, fought under Col. John Sevier at the Battle of King’s Mountain in North Carolina on Oct. 7, 1780. This battle is considered to be the pivotal battle that turned the tide in favor of the upstart colonists.
Although too old to fight, Terri Freedman’s ancestor was aiding the effort at King’s Mountain in which McNutt’s ancestor fought.
“My first Revolutionary War ancestor, Thomas Barlow of Virginia, had a farm in Lynchburg on the Staunton River. He provided supplies for General Nathaniel Greene’s army on its march to the Battle of King’s Mountain.
“I was the first person to prove Thomas Barlow as a Revolutionary War patriot in 1985. At that time, the DAR estimated that some 20,000 patriots remained ‘unclaimed’ by descendants; as many as a third of these were African American.”
Of all the patriot descendants I found in South County, Muriel Brem’s ancestor, Mary Jane Spurgeon, has the most fascinating story. She was the wife of Col. William Spurgeon who was fighting for the British, but she was a patriot who helped American troops every chance she got, sewing their tattered clothing and supplying them with food. Legend has it that when American Gen. Greene was camped near her home in North Carolina, she learned that Gen. Cornwallis and his British troops were near, so she sent her sons to inform him, thereby giving him the heads-up on their movement. Gen. Greene would win two of the most decisive battles which brought the war to an end. Once the war ended, Mary’s husband left her.
“We, as her family, are very proud of her and her stick-to-it-iveness,” Brem said. “Especially as her Tory husband lived the rest of his life with their neighbor lady, who ran off to Canada with him, due to his British inclinations. He left Mary Jane Spurgeon with 12 children to raise and care for – she deserves any adulation we can summon.”
Learning about these Revolutionary patriot ancestors brought home the legacy I owe to those who came before me and the life I need to live to show my respect for their hardships. This Fourth of July, we salute all the patriot men and women who have made us the people we are today in this nation that still stands for liberty after 234 years.
