Women, whose forefathers founded the nation, work to carry on their legacy

Most motorists who zip along Riverside Drive between Hayden Run and West Dublin-Granville roads don’t know how much history is passed along the way.

But, it is the mission of the members of the Ann Simpson Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to change that.

On July 4, members are to place U.S. flags inside Davis Cemetery, on the east side of Riverside Drive, north of West Case Road and just south of Cranston Drive, in Dublin.

The private cemetery of the Davis Family was established in 1823, as indicated by the sign that identifies the cemetery.

The Davis Cemetery contains the remains of John Davis and Ann Simpson, both who, after marrying, settled in what is today Perry Township on land bestowed to them for their service in the American Revolutionary War, and their descendants.

While flags have been placed at Davis Cemetery in the past, this year for the first time, banners have been placed at the cemetery bearing the names of American Revolutionary War veterans interred elsewhere who are the direct descendants of the women who belong to the Ann Simpson Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“Our mission includes education, patriotism and historic preservation,” which includes the identification, preservation and restoration of Revolutionary War grave sites and headstones; contributing to public-school programming concerning the American Revolution and providing scholarships; and volunteering at veterans' hospitals and other facilities, said Kathy Waller, 58, of Hilliard.

Waller is president of the Ann Simpson Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and she is an eighth-generation descendant of an American Revolutionary War patriot.

Eligibility in a chapter requires that a ‘daughter’ prove direct lineage to a veteran of the Revolutionary War; men who meet the same qualification are eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.

For Waller, it is her six-time maternal great-grandfather, John Sells, a Revolutionary War patriot whose grandson, also named John Sells, is a co-founder of Dublin and the namesake of John Sells Middle School.

Sells served in the Revolutionary War and was killed in the Battle of Yorktown, according to Waller.

The Battle of Yorktown, in October 1781 in Virginia, proved the decisive engagement of the war that led to America’s independence.

“I knew since I was a child about (Sells),” but it wasn’t until she was about 30 years old that she joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, Waller said.

“I wanted to join with others who have the same cause.”

Other members of the Ann Simpson Davis Chapter said they were also aware from an early age of family ties to the American Revolution.

Jeannette MacConnell, 75, of Upper Arlington, said she developed a deep and continuing interest in history after learning about her five-time maternal great-grandfather, Elias Hatfield, who was a private from New Jersey in the Revolutionary War.

Barbara Murray, 80, of Hilliard, is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution through her five-time paternal great-grandfather, a private from New Jersey, Andrew Applegate.

Murray is working to find records to prove that earlier descendants of her family arrived as Pilgrims near what is today Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1620, from England on board the Mayflower.

Meanwhile, Murray, who is chairwoman of the chapter's semiquincentennial committee, said she and other members of the Ann Simpson Davis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution continue to carry out the chapter’s mission.

The chapter is planning a celebration in 2026 for the United States' 250th birthday, or semiquincentennial.

It has 104 members throughout central Ohio.

The namesake of the chapter, one of about 100 in Ohio, was born Dec. 29, 1764 in Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania, on the bank of the Delaware River, separating Pennsylvania from New York.

At the age of 16, Ann Simpson was handpicked by Gen. George Washington to carry messages from him to his field generals in eastern Pennsylvania, according to records provided by Waller and researched by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Simpson was never caught, often dressed as an “old woman” while smuggling messages in sacks of grain or her clothes to various mills in and around Philadelphia. She also occasionally had to dispose of messages by swallowing the missive on the few occasions she was searched, according to history accounts.

Davis was born Sept. 6, 1760 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and at the age of 16, enlisted and was among those under the command of Washington on Christmas 1776, at the crossing of the Delaware River, a secretive and surprise advance that allowed the Continental Army to defeat British forces in the Battle of Trenton.

Davis fought in the Battle of Yorktown and witnessed the subsequent surrender of Lord Charles Cornwallis in October 1781, according to history accounts.

John Davis and Ann Simpson, who knew each other as children, married in June 1783 at the home of Simpson’s parents.

Their first five children were born in Bucks County between 1784 and 1792; four more children were born between 1796 and 1805 after the family moved to Brookville, Maryland.

In 1816, John and Ann Davis moved to what is today Dublin to claim land received for service in the Revolutionary War.

John Davis died Jan. 2, 1832; Ann Davis-Simpson died June 6, 1851.

The brick residence in which they had lived on the east bank of the Scioto River, just south of Martin Drive, remained standing until it was demolished in 1977, according to the chapter’s records.

For further information about the Daughters of the American Revolution, visit dar.org.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekCorvo

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Women, whose forefathers won the nation, work to carry on their legacy