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LAST MINUTE MUSINGS: Patriotism on display at local Revolutionary soldier’s ceremony
CLOVERDALE – Patriot: It’s a term that’s used so much as to almost lose its meaning.
But Jacob Piercy was, indeed, a patriot.
Born in 1759 in Pennsylvania, he enlisted to fight the tyranny of King George in that fabled year of 1776.
He was a fifer and drummer in the Pennsylvania Line and was present at the Valley Forge winter encampment in 1777-78.
Piercy remained in the 2nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Continental Line until 1779, serving his fledgling nation at a time when its survival was not at all ensured.
Later, Jacob married Abby McDowell on Nov. 4, 1794 in Virginia before moving to Kentucky soon thereafter.
He located to Cloverdale here in what would become Putnam County in 1822 and died here in 1831 at age 72. Jacob Piercy is buried in the very oldest part of Cloverdale Cemetery west of town.
Make no mistake, Jacob Piercy was a patriot.
On Sunday, a crowd gathered in Jacob’s honor at the cemetery, some 200 years after he first set foot in the area, all in the name of paying tribute to him.
Piercy’s grave, weathered by 189 years of the prevailing west wind and all it carries, now bears a new marker. The occasion was for the John Martin Chapter of the Indiana Society Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) to mark Piercy’s grave with a Patriot Marker and a Valley Forge Medallion.
Through the presentation of colors — most of the flags from the revolutionary era — as well as a series of floral tributes and a flag folding ceremony, honoring Piercy and his legacy were front and center on Sunday afternoon.
And what is that legacy? In part, it’s the descendants who were in attendance, which included Steve Scully, a retired police officer from Arroyo Grande, Calif., who flew in on Saturday.
Scully said that even arriving on the scene, with multiple flags whipping on the breezy afternoon and a number of wreaths in Jacob’s honor, was moving for him.
“Driving up here took my breath away, it really did,” Scully said. “I did not expect to see this pomp and circumstance like they put on here. It almost brought a tear to my eye that they would come out here on their own time to honor this man.”
For Scully, though, it was the culmination of several years of anticipating such a moment.
He retired in 2002 with very little knowledge of his family history, but he set about to change that.
Scully’s late mother, whom he refers to, somewhat ironically, as the family historian, only told him that she thought they were related to Buffalo Bill Cody.
“Unfortunately, it turned out to be George Armstrong Custer,” Scully said.
“I knew so little growing up,” he added. “I knew one grandmother who was still alive when I was born, and nothing else.”
So, starting from almost nothing, Scully has now identified some 3,000 ancestors, cousins and distant cousins.
Among these, Piercy was one of the more intriguing, what with his Revolutionary War heritage.
In 2020, Scully reached out to the Indiana SAR to ask if they had any information on Piercy. He learned that not only did the SAR have information, but was planning to honor him after the pandemic.
He described the last three months as an “email frenzy” with local SAR officials, as they planned Sunday’s ceremony and Scully and his wife planned their trip to Indiana.
“The pandemic was over, so let’s go do something,” Scully said.
It did not disappoint. Besides being moved by the ceremony itself, Scully was also able to connect to a few other descendants who were in attendance, including local Daughters of the American Revolution Regent Diana Brumfield; SAR member Brent Denny, who took part in the ceremony; and siblings Anne Michael and John Michael.
“All my family unfortunately have gone, so it’s great to meet a couple of descendants and say we have a common background,” Scully said. “We know of some of the same people.”
In his visit, Scully also made connections with the idea of staying in contact.
“Everybody’s got a little piece of information that’s different from what you have,” Scully said. “So when you come together, you find those things out, or a piece of information you thought was reliable was not. It’s a great way of sharing that.”
The lifelong Californian also had high praise for Hoosier Hospitality.
“I’ve never been to Indiana. It’s a beautiful state,” Scully said. “The people I’ve met here are outstanding, generous and can’t do enough for you. I’ll take that back to California with me.”
Perhaps most importantly, Scully spoke of the importance of understanding the era of the American Revolution.
“It’s who we are today,” Scully said. “I don’t know if you can really know about this country without knowing about its origins and the people who fought for it.”
Fighting for the nation and honoring those who did.
Perhaps that’s what patriotism is all about.
