Plaque bearing names of Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Boyle rededicated

Published 4:00 pm Monday, July 5, 2021

Just in time for the Fourth of July Holiday, which celebrates the passage of the Declaration of Independence formalizing the separation of the 13 colonies from Great Britain in 1776 following the Revolutionary War, the plaque that bears the names of soldiers who fought in the war and are buried in Boyle County was rededicated on Tuesday by the St. Asaph Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and included three more names.

Through research, the names of Robert Gray, Humphrey May and Henry Sparrow were found to have fought in the Revolutionary War. Attending the ceremony was a descendant of Henry Sparrow, John T. Buckler and his wife Lorna Atwater Buckler from Berea. Others who attended the ceremony were representatives of the Boyle County Fiscal Court and Boyle County Genealogical and Historical Society.

DAR Regent Judy Sieweke said at the program, “Today we honor the men whose names are here and all the men and women who risked everything for a cause worth fighting for — a freedom in a country whose founding documents proclaim God’s standard that all men are created equal. We still embrace that founding’s promise, and remember it today.”

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In closing, Sieweke said, “We remember and honor these men, and the freedoms and country they fought to establish. It was a bold move then, and every generation since has had to be rededicated to those freedoms and values. Today we rededicate this plaque, and rededicate our allegiance to the freedoms and the belief in equality of all, ideals that we hold dear in these United States of America.”

Names on the bronze plaque, which was originally dedicated in 1963 are: John Spears, John Pipes, Samuel McDowell, Samuel McDowell Jr., John Reed, Willis Green, John Cowan, Joshua Fry Jr., James Harlan, George Harlan, William Fields, Jacob Crow, Robert Caldwell, John Barbee, Joshua Barbee, Thomas Barbee, Daniel Barbee, Michael Harmon, John Gray, Thomas Crawford, John Coulter, Matthew Coulter, Elias Fisher, Adam Fisher, James Speed, John Sneed, Robert Mitchell, Henry Hamner, Leonard Taylor, James Rains, William Adair, Samuel Dunn, James Hickman, James Kincaid, Hugh Shiell, William Warren, Thomas Ball, John Durham, Isaac Alexander, Stephen Fisher, Frederick Ripperdan, Robert Gray, Humphrey May and Henry Sparrow.