When Robert Jamison and his wife, Elizabeth,
left Ireland to come to America in the 1700s, they looked for a place to
settle as they raised their family in the promising new world.
When war broke out, Jamison quickly picked up his musket and joined the local militia to fight in the American Revolution.
On Saturday, ancestors of Jamison, local
veterans and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and
Sons of the American Revolution took part in the dedication of a grave
marker for the soldier, who has been buried in the Middle Presbyterian
Church cemetery just north of Mt. Pleasant.
“We didn't have a lot of information on his
grave, but we knew it was in Westmoreland County,” ancestor Carl Gaffin
said of his great-great-great-great-grandfather. “My aunt Betty Dumm had
kept records, and we were able to get more information from there.”
With the help of local DAR and SAR groups,
the Gaffin family located the grave site of Jamison, who fought with the
1st Battalion, 1st Company of the Westmoreland County Militia, which
was part of the Westmoreland Volunteers.
“In the honoring of Pvt. Robert Jamison, we
also pay tribute to all men and women who have served our country with
integrity and devotion,” Middle Presbyterian Church Elder David Lemmon
said at the dedication. “We dedicate ourselves anew in a faithful
stewardship of the blessings we enjoy today.”
The ceremony included a presentation of the
colors by the Joint Revolutionary Color Guard of the Pittsburgh, Beaver
and Greensburg chapters.
“I thought this was really nice,” Jamison's
great-great-great-great-grandson Lance Gaffin said of the ceremony. “I
really didn't know what to expect, and this was much more than I would
have ever thought. It was really nice.”
“How many of us would have the courage and
the fortitude to endure the hardships that our ancestors did?” asked
Kathleen Roebuck, Braddock Trail Chapter of the DAR incoming regent. “We
are proud to be here for him and our other ancestors.”
Gaffin gave the crowd a brief history of his
ancestor, a frontier ranger who took up arms against both the Indians
and the British.
“We are here to honor the sacrifice he made for his country,” Gaffin said.
