Revolutionary soldiers honored

There are still 40 more veterans that need grave markers.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- It took 169 years, but Elisha Phillips grave finally has recognition that he served in the American Revolution.
Phillips, who died in 1837 in Taylor Township, Lawrence County, was honored May 20 with a ceremony and a grave marker denoting his service in this country's first war.
Phillips is one of about 39 soldiers honored over the last 20 years by the New Castle Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
"We do it at least once a year. We sometimes do it two or three times a year. It depends on circumstances," said Bob Leslie of New Castle, one of the SAR members involved in honoring the soldiers.
According to Leslie, they started the project in the early 1980s and garnered the names of 24 Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Lawrence County from a county history written in 1877.
More located
All of those soldiers' graves have been honored with the bronze markers and a service. But since then, they've found many more Revolutionary War veterans buried in the county.
Leslie said to date they have commemorated 39 and have about 40 more to go. Many came to the region because of land grants given to them after their service in the military.
The graves of these soldiers are scattered throughout large cemeteries and small country church graveyards and even some on private property, he said.
It's a painstaking process to first find them and then verify their war service, he said.
At each service they try to invite descendants and give some information about the soldier. The New Castle Honor Guard is usually there to help.
According to Leslie, Phillips, their most recent soldier, served as a private with the Connecticut Yankees 26th Regiment.
"We think this man did not live in Connecticut, but in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Connecticut claimed parts of Pennsylvania before the war and when men joined the regiment they fought for Connecticut," he said.
Gerald Perdue of Shenango Township, a SAR member, said they also believe that Phillips was born in 1755 in Delaware and came to Lawrence County only after the war in 1796. He lived to be 82 years old.
A labor of love
Perdue said the task of finding these soldiers and commemorating them has become a labor of love.
A retired science teacher, Perdue said he only became interested in history in his 30s after he started finding interesting artifacts with his metal detector.
He then started looking into his family history and discovered his great-great-great grandfather, William Curry, served with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He has other ancestors who served as well.
As does Leslie, who is a direct descendant Alexander Fullerton who was captured by the British. Family history contends that the British gave the prisoners contaminated flour and Fullerton was the only one of them to make it home after the war. But Fullerton died a short time later, he said.
The group, which is made up of direct descendants of Revolutionary War veterans, has 28 members, about half are from Mercer County where another SAR chapter closed recently.
Leslie said they have commemorated about three graves of Revolutionary War veterans in Mercer County since taking on Mercer County members.
Perdue said they will continue their quest to mark the graves. Their quest is funded by SAR dues and a series of dinners they hold each year at the Liberty Grange in Lawrence County.
Perdue says he enjoys researching the soldiers lives and making connections to his own family.
For Leslie, it's more about the military.
"I'm a World War II veteran and I am very much interested in the way the government has treated veterans over the years," he said. "It helps me to see what the government did for these people."
cioffi@vindy.com