Our Fathers

By David L. Kelly
29 May 2010

Most of us have heard and know the names and stories associated with our Founding Fathers: George Washington, Patrick Henry, Ben Franklin, Samuel Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, to name a few. All these men risked their lives and fortunes to birth a new nation and help secure the freedom and liberty which we enjoy today. Recent events driven by a government bent on rewriting history have caused a renewed interest in our Founding Fathers and their impact on our nation and its history. We know their stories quite well. However, our founders were not alone in their efforts. There were thousands of patriots who weaved themselves into many facets of the American Revolution.

Many fought in battles such as Bunker Hill, Brandywine, Camden and Yorktown, spilling their blood and giving their all. They kept trade open with fellow patriots, supplying Washington’s Army; they manned the river ferries, donated their food supplies and livestock while risking their lives and family’s safety in order to gain their freedom from King George’s England and the right to self government.

In honor of Father’s Day, I’d like to share with you the story of a few patriots who participated in our nation’s founding, but whose contributions never made top billing in our history books. They are the ancestral father’s of thousands of Americans living today. Eleazer Callender of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was a merchant and captain of merchant vessels. He was the grandson of Ellis Callender, founder of Boston’s first Baptist Church and a native of Boston.

Eleazar left home and took to the sea to make his own way in life, eventually settling in Virginia and establishing a profitable coastal trade and mercantile business. Shortly after the Revolutionary War began, Eleazer was commissioned into the Virginia State Navy. He captained the Defiance as well as supervised the building of the Dragon. Callender was the Captain of both ships at various times during the war. He and his crew plied the waters of the Chesapeake and Virginian coast to fend off British Privateers, protecting trade in the tidewater region of Virginia. After the war he partnered with the clerk of his ship and future son-in-law, David Henderson, building a prosperous business in Fredericksburg.
On April 7, 1777, at the age of 15, George Johnson ran away from home and enlisted in the Revolutionary Army at Shepherdstown, Virginia. He served as a fifer for three years in the 8th and 11th Virginia Continental Line. Johnson spent his first winter at Valley Forge with Gen. George Washington’s troops. I’m sure his tunes helped keep spirits up while they tried to keep their minds off of the harsh conditions they all suffered through.
After his service to our new country, George Johnson settled in Berlin, Pennsylvania, in 1782 and started the Berlin Fife and Drum Corps. This group is still active today, consisting of military veteran musicians and local recruits, and is the oldest such organization in America.

Isham Burks of Wilkes County, Georgia, volunteered in 1778 to help protect the frontier settlers from Cherokee and Creek Indian attacks and to fight the British. He moved up the ranks quickly to a unit of mounted Georgia Volunteers. Burks participated in the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779, which was one of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War in Georgia. The Patriots, who were out-numbered, attacked a loyalist camp and routed them after three hours of desperate fighting. It was said after the battle that this was the severest check and chastisement the Tories ever received in South Carolina or Georgia.

After the war, Isham fathered over a dozen children and lived throughout the South, finally ending his life’s journey in McNairy, Tennessee.

By sharing these brief glimpses of history on these common everyday patriots, it is my intention to allow the reader to honor and respect their ancestral fathers’ love and commitment to their family and country. All of us have a father. Some fathers have made marks that will live in history for all time. Some fathers will live in the minds and hearts who knew them. But they all made an impact in our world, and that’s why we honor them.
This month as we celebrate Father’s day, I ask you not only to honor our own fathers, but to honor this nation’s Founding Fathers as well as your ancestral fathers.

 

David Lee Kelly is a political science major, family historian, and an honourable gentleman. He enjoys history, lively conversation, and debate.With ancestors who arrived in the American Colonies in the early 1620s, David descends from a family tree that is a story in itself. He is cousin to William L. Yancey (Fire Eater), William T. Sherman (yes it's true), descended from three signers of the Declaration of Independence, and lawyers, doctors, and ministers. David, like most Americans whose families migrated west and settled on the frontier, also descends from several Indian Nations, including the Powhatan, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. David is proud of his heritage, fighting to keep the original ideas and intentions of America's founding fathers alive and in the front lines of political debate. He is an active member of the National Genealogical Society, and a card-carrying Fire Eater. David was born in sleepy Hermosa Beach, California. He now resides in central Colorado, making his home near the majestic beauty of America's mountain, Pikes Peak.

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