Caddo District, NSDAR dedicates grave

In July 2014, when the call came to the Caddo District Daughters of the American Revolution to find the grave for Revolution soldier Lt. Wm. Jenkins, Regent Charlotte Jenkins, of the Arkadelphia Chapter NSDAR, took the challenge to not only find the grave, but to mark the grave with the NSDAR insignia marker. Before she moved to Texas to be near children, Cindy Keaton did most of the research necessary to rededicate the lieutenant’s grave in the Murfreesboro Cemetery, in Murfreesboro, Pike County.

Jenkins had a government grave stone and had, at one time, a NSDAR marker at his grave. The marker had been broken or taken since the previous dedication.

NSDAR President General Lynn Forney Young’s project is to encourage every generation of Americans to celebrate the spirit of the men and women who achieved this nation’s independence, to support history, education and patriotism, and to preserve historical sights. Marking graves of Revolutionary War soldiers and to tell their stories are ways DAR can celebrate the spirit of those women and women who helped to give America her freedoms.

Tony Kassos, a historian, gave the history of Jenkins, who joined the South Carolina militia at age 17. As a volunteer and at that young age, he didn’t have a gun or a uniform. Unlike most of the enlisted men, he stayed in the militia and rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant and later a captain, but that last promotion was not documented with the war office. He served under Gens. Thomas Sumter and William Bratton. After the war, he farmed in Tennessee; moved to Murfreesboro in 1837 with one of his sons; and died in 1842 in Murfreesboro.

The Arkadelphia Chapter NSDAR was joined in this rededication by the Mine Creek-Paraclifta Chapter NSDAR, Nashville. The regent is Velma Owens. Assisting regents Jeffers and Owens was Susan Page Veal, Caddo District director; Charles McLemore, president, and Jimmie Weber, DeSoto Trace Chapter SAR; the Arkadelphia High School JROTC Color Guard. Atending the dedication were the mayor of Murfreesboro; the Arkansas State Regent Mary H. Deere, of Benton; DAR members from Akansa Chapter NSDAR in Hot Springs Village; members from Maj. Jacob Gray Chapter NSDAR, in Jacksonville; SAR members from DeSoto Trace Chapter in Hot Springs Village; and members from the sponsoring chapters in Arkadelphia, Nashville, and DeQueen.