Enlisted:
Unknown

Buried:
Plaque at West Liberty Cemetery, Mills County, Iowa.

Of Note:
Joel is my Revolutionary ancestor. He was born in 1752 in Virginia and died in 1834 in Ohio. He was buried in Meigs County, Ohio. He owned Buffington Island in the Ohio River near Ravenswood, W VA. He was a Quaker and thus was a pacifist and did not fight. However, he aided the Continental cause by hauling supplies. Ohio has a State Memorial at Buffington Island, the site of Morgan’s Raiders’ crossing into Ohio during the Civil War.

In 1964 Ferne Widows, my mother’s first cousin on the Buffington line and a DAR, was in Ohio and found Joel’s tombstone leaning up against a fence post near the above mentioned monument. She left it there. When she returned and told me about it, I asked why she didn’t bring it back with her. Two years later she was again in the area and did, indeed, bring the tombstone back with her to save it from permanent destruction or loss. She had it placed in the West Liberty Cemetery in Mills County, Iowa with a plaque telling where it came from. She placed it near Joel’s great grandson Francis Marion Buffington’s grave. Francis Marion Buffington was my great grandfather.

Volney Smith
Past President IASSAR

Pictures:
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