Revolutionary War soldier honored at local cemetery
MARY ALFORD The News-Enterprise
Caption: Dozens attend a joint grave-marking service Sunday at Vine Grove Cemetery to recognize Revolutionary War veteran Cpl. James Crutcher. The ceremony was held by the Captain Jacob Van Meter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Col. John Hardin and Gov. Isaac Shelby chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution.
In 1775, the war for America’s independence from Britain began and among the soldiers fighting for freedom was Cpl. James Crutcher.
Crutcher, who settled in Hardin County following the Revolutionary War, was recognized for his patriotism and service at a joint grave-marking service Sunday at Vine Grove Cemetery.
Crutcher was born in 1755 in Virginia. He served as a corporal in Company 8, 2nd Virginia Regiment from June 1, 1777, to January 1778. He fought in the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown and wintered at Valley Forge in 1777-78 in his 2nd Virgina Regiment service.
“Back then, you had to sign your allegiance to the United States and that could be dangerous. He was a brave person,” said John Humphries of the Col. John Hardin Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Crutcher was in Lincoln County by 1785 and married Nancy Ann Poor.
He moved to Hardin County by 1816 and owned 2,193 acres of land. He died in 1823 and was buried in Crutcher Family Cemetery. Crutcher and his wife had nine children, and many of the desendants live in the Hardin County area today, said Joyce Miller, regent of the Captain Jacob Van Meter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Many of his relatives were at Sunday’s ceremony, including Dianne Crutcher Hummel of Rineyville. Crutcher is Hummel’s fourth-great-grandfather.
“This is pretty awesome,” She said of Sunday’s event. “We had a descendant that came to my father, Frank Crutcher, several years back and he had done the ancestry and that is how I found out about him being our ancestor. … We’ve traced the Crutchers back to our seventh-great-grandfather, who came over from England. That was pretty neat. So, when they contacted me, I was all for this.”
Hummel said the turnout was amazing for the event. She was one of more than a dozen descendants present. She said she met some of them for the first time at the ceremony.
“That is pretty neat,” Hummel said. “I always like meeting relatives. We’re big on family.”
There is quite the Crutcher family legacy in Vine Grove Cemetery, which once was the family farm, Miller said.
“This [ceremony] is an effort to educate the local people about the local Revolutionary War veterans in their midst and to mark it so it won’t be lost for the future,” Humphries said, noting roughly 140 Revolutionary War veterans settled in Hardin County in the 1800s.
Miller said she wonders if Crutcher – who attended a Fourth of July celebration in 1794 hosted by Col. William Price in Jessamine County for 40 Revolutionary veterans – could have imagined his descendants would meet at his grave 224 years later “to honor him for his service that was so instrumental in the liberty and freedom that Americans enjoy today.”
The joint grave-marking service was held by the Capt. Jacob Van Meter Chapter of DAR and the Col. John Hardin and Gov. Isaac Shelby Chapters of SAR. The ceremony included a musical tribute, floral tributes and more.
Mary Alford can be reached at 270-505-1741 or malford@thenewsenterprise.com.