Wikipedia doesn't have an entry on Aaron Sturges, but there is an article from the Mobile News Tribune for June 26, 2010: DAR group moves to protect headstone
TISKILWA — The safe removal of the 1865 headstone of Lydia Sturges from a hill north of Tiskilwa to a sheltered location recently was completed. Members of the Princeton-Illinois chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and members of the Tiskilwa Historical Society are working on the project.
The headstone of Lydia Sturges, daughter of Revolutionary War soldier Aaron Sturges, states “Died June 2 1865 Aged 74 years, 3 months, 4 days.” With the approval of land owner Delmar Beams, the fragile limestone marker was carefully relocated by Ed Waca, Tiskilwa Historical Society volunteer. The stone had been moved from the original gravesite prior to Beams’ ownership of the land. The headstone has been leaning against a tree for decades. Delmar and Eleanor Beams are members of Tiskilwa Historical Society.
Aaron Sturges is known to have been buried in Bureau County, but no gravesite has been located. In the 1940s, one account states that stones near Lydia’s marker may have outlined a family burial plot.
Aaron Sturges began his Revolutionary War service with the Connecticut Men of the Revolution as a private, enlisting in May 1775, a month after Concord and Lexington. He was 14. He spent three months of that enlistment guarding the Connecticut tidewater shores from British landing craft.
He then enlisted in the Connecticut militia and helped rout the British laying siege to Fort Independence near New York. At 15, he enlisted as a fifer for a three-year tour of duty. On his service record is the 1777-78 Valley Forge winter and participation in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.
Following the war Sturges married, and later the family left Connecticut. and relocated to Saratoga County, N.Y. After the death of his wife, Sturges joined Lydia who had earlier moved to Bureau County. By September 1841, he was receiving his Revolutionary War pension money ($80 a year) in Bureau County. According to printed sources, Aaron Sturges died in October 1842.
In Tiskilwa, Lydia Sturges was affiliated with the C.A. Dean family. The sale of her estate goods was July 12, 1865, on the lawn of the Dean residence. Her personal goods garnered $174.95.
The cooperation of local, state and national groups will result in the eventual placement of Lydia’s headstone and a memorial marker for Aaron. Appropriate recognition for Aaron as a Revolutionary War patriot and his daughter as a DAR Daughter of a Patriot will be given with cast bronze markers.
Aaron Sturges is the second Revolutionary War soldier noted in Bureau County. Edward Hall served with forces from North Carolina. Hall, his wife and daughter are buried in Miller Cemetery near Spring Valley. Their graves were honored with ceremonies and DAR bronze markers in May 2005 by the Princeton-chapter.
