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Wednesday,
October 29, 2003
By Judy Kroeger A monument for Jacob Buttermore will take its place among the Revolutionary War veteran's 72 named descendents in Hillgrove Cemetery on Route 711. According to Buttermore's great-great-great grandson Don Buttermore of Uniontown, the stone is sponsored by the Veterans Administration and will be placed in the cemetery today. According to Don Buttermore, Jacob was born around 1758 and emigrated from the Alsace-Lorraine region of Germany, near the Rhine River. He fought as a private in the Revolutionary War for four years. He was wounded at the battle of Trenton and left the service. He and his wife, Anna, moved to southwestern Pennsylvania and started a farm near what is now Buttermore Boulevard in Bullskin Township. Anna and Jacob had six or seven children and he died in 1818. His grave site is unknown. The veteran's line remains strong. Don Buttermore says that more than 90 people will attend the ceremony, most of them direct descendents of the man who spelled his last name "Bottomer" and whose children changed it to the current spelling. Most are from out of state: Florida, Utah, Maryland, New Jersey and as far as California, but some of Jacob's descendents also live in Perryopolis. In the late 1990s, the Buttermore Club started through Internet contacts, with 30 members who discovered a common ancestor in this wounded veteran. More members join yearly, Don Buttermore says. The stone, which reads: "In Memory of Jacob Bottomer, Pvt. 2 Continental Pa. Line, German Bn. (Battalion), Revolutionary War, 1758-1818, Buttermore Descendents" will be placed next to son's grave at Hillgrove Cemetery during a ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m. The Rev. Elmer Reamer of Otterbein United Methodist Church will lead an invocation, bless the stone and offer a benediction. Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution will speak and the VFW Post 42, Uniontown, will be present with its color guard, fire a 21-gun salute and play "Taps." The Millers, two Revolutionary War re-enactors, will be present in colonial garb. Following the ceremony, those who have made reservations will gather at Miedel's Restaurant on Buttermore Boulevard to meet their relatives and talk about their common ancestor. The Buttermore Club will soon present a booklet to the Connellsville Historical Society. "The Five Generations of Jacob Buttermore" will list current descendants' names and contact numbers. |