New monument at Weston Village Cemetery memorializes Revolutionary War veterans

FAIRFIELD TWP. — A 6-foot tall, granite monument was dedicated to Revolutionary War veterans during a chilly ceremony Saturday morning in Weston Village Cemetery.

At least 20 people were in attendance for the dedication that unveiled the monument and remembered the sacrifices made by all veterans who have served in the United States armed forces in war and peace time since the Revolutionary War, in which the American patriot forces under George Washington’s command defeated the British, securing the United States’ independence.

Several hands were involved with bringing the monument to Weston’s cemetery, at the corner of Weston Road and Sand Creek Highway, but perhaps none were involved in the process more than Ruth Rickard, whose ancestor Joseph Tuttle, a Revolutionary War veteran, is buried in the cemetery alongside his youngest of eight children, Abner Tuttle, a Civil War veteran.

Rickard said she is a great-granddaughter of Tuttle, at least the fourth or fifth generation down in the family’s history. Her mother’s maiden was Tuttle, she said.

A history of the Tuttle family was provided during the dedication dating all the way back to 1482 when Humphrey Totehyll was born. In 1607, William Tuttle was born and he, according to family records, was the first Tuttle family member to come to America, having done so April 2, 1625. His mother did not survive the voyage.

Plenty of ancestry work and hours of research went into accomplishing the monument’s completion, Rickard said, noting she learned quite a lot about the Tuttle family name during the process.

“I started checking into our (ancestry) and I learned a lot,” she said.

The process of bringing the Revolutionary War monument to the cemetery started about 1 1/2 years ago, she said, and it is now completed, crediting the assistance provided by Wagley Funeral Home and Fairfield Township. The monument, at its height, is tall enough for everybody to see while walking the cemetery grounds and it can be clearly seen while traveling along Weston Road, she said.

“It will hopefully be here long after me,” she said. “And it was something I wanted to do. God let me live long enough to make sure this happened.”

Joseph Tuttle, buried with his wife, Sally, lived to be 90 years old, dying in 1848. He was born in Connecticut in 1758, Rickard said, and eventually moved west to settle in Michigan. Tuttle had six sons, one of them being Abner, and two daughters, Bertha and Sarah.

Abner, born 1799 and died 1864, is buried with his wife, Elizabeth. Rickard said he was listed as a farmer and lived in the Fairfield Township/Weston area at an unknown address, with records only bringing up a 1302 house address but no street name. His farming operation, she said, consisted of 80 acres of land, a number of livestock, and corn, oats and wheat.

American Legion Post 97 in Adrian, along with Post Commander Bill Sanderson, participated in Saturday’s ceremony providing a rifle salute and the playing of taps.

The Revolutionary War was a war unlike any other for it shaped the course of human events that continue to this day, the Rev. Larry Betz, minister at the First Church of Nazarene in Adrian, said during the dedication. With 165 principal engagements from 1775-83, the Revolutionary War was the catalyst for American independence, he said.

The Revolutionary War began April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The American victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781 was the last major battle, although some fighting took place through the fall of 1783.

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“The war was a global conflict with battles fought in the Bahamas, throughout the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, Europe and as far away as India,” Betz said.

Throughout the war, an estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 were wounded and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians, Betz said, believe at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000 to 12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

“This dedication ceremony is a time to set apart a particular place in order to honor and memorialize those veterans who served our country in the War of Independence and all those men and women who since that time have and are now serving in the armed forces of our nation,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: New monument at Weston Cemetery honors Revolutionary War veterans