The United States is gearing up for a milestone birthday next year- our 250th! To mark the occasion, the Daughters of the American Revolution has joined forces with America250, the nationwide commemoration of our country’s semiquincentennial, to pay tribute to Revolutionary War Patriots. As part of the celebration, I’ll be sharing the stories of veterans laid to rest in Delaware County for the next twenty Fridays or so.

For many of us, the Revolutionary War might seem like it belongs to another world. For me, it sometimes feels distant, hazy, and slotted away in the pages of history books. Still, all of that changes the moment you stand in front of the grave of a Patriot who actually bore the weight of that struggle. Suddenly, it isn’t abstract: their sacrifice bridges the centuries and reminds us that our daily lives were built on their efforts. Remembering these Patriots is one way of honoring the price they paid to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.

The DAR is doing just that. I’d heard of the Daughters of the American Revolution, but I’m ashamed to reveal that I never really knew who they were or what they did. As it turns out, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 during a time of renewed patriotic pride. Women who wanted to honor their Revolutionary War ancestors found themselves excluded from men’s organizations, so a determined group in Washington, D.C., formed their own society. Today, any woman eighteen or older who can prove direct descent from someone who helped secure American independence is eligible to join the DAR.

It doesn’t take much to connect my family’s history to the DAR. My great-great aunt, Cornelia Earhart Anson, could trace her lineage all the way back! I wondered about the metal marker at her grave when I visited back in May, but now I know: Auntie Dee, as we called her, descended from Jacob Greutz, a Patriot who lived from 1759 to 1820. That means I did too! I haven’t been able to find much information about Jacob Greutz, but I’ve been studying Delaware County’s Patriots ever since Kathi HIrons Kesterson, the regent of the Paul Revere Chapter of Muncie’s DAR, reached out to me. 

With Kathi’s help, I’ll be retelling the lives of Delaware County’s Revolutionary War Patriots in a way that hasn’t been attempted in more than a century. My goal is to uncover more than the names etched on gravestones or in family trees. These were real men who plowed fields, established towns, raised families, and carried the weight of a fledgling nation on their shoulders when American freedom was still an untested idea. They lived ordinary lives until history called them to extraordinary action.

I hope readers will see these Patriots as neighbors from another time instead of distant figures locked away in stale history books or newspaper articles. They’re people who walked the same ground we do, who endured sacrifice so that we could inherit liberty. By sharing their stories, I want to bridge that gap between the past and the present, and to try and remind us that the freedoms we frequently take for granted were hard-won.

Some of these Patriots were buried in large cemeteries. Some rest in long-forgotten burial grounds. There are even those whose remains are lost altogether! In those cases, solemn markers remember their service even though no bodies rest beneath the stones. Each circumstance tells us something about the fragile way memory is preserved. 

Whatever the case may be, I’m eager to bring these stories back into the light- especially since I have a Revolutionary War ancestor of my own. That personal connection makes it clear to me that Delaware County’s forgotten Patriots are far more than headstones in a cemetery or entries in a DAR database. Unfortunately, pieces of their legacy slip further from reach with each passing generation. With America preparing to celebrate 250 years of independence and the DAR ready to help, I can’t think of a more meaningful way to mark the occasion than by remembering the men who helped secure it right here in my own county.