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REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER DAVID BEDELL



BURIAL SITE:

Old Salem Cemetery, 10 miles north of Springfield, on Fruitland Road, Greene County, Missouri

From the intersection of Glenstone (County Road H) and Valley Water Mill Road, go 6.1 miles north on H and stay to the right when the road forks at Crystal Cave.

Then turn west (left) on Farm Road 173 (Fruitland Road) and go 1.1 miles. There is a grove of trees and a house on the north (right) side of the highway and then immediately after this you will see a little gate that leads to the cemetery which is in the back part of a field on the north side of the highway.

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TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTION: DAVID BEDELL / 4 DRAGOONS / REV WAR

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On October 15, David enlisted under Captains George Gray and John Craig in what was called Gray's Troop, Col. Stephen Moylan's Regiment of the 4th Continental Light Dragoons of the Pennsylvania Line. David served throughout the war, first as a drummer boy and later as a dragoon.

After the war David Bedell married Ruth Fairchild whose father (Caleb Fairchild) and grandfather (Matthew Fairchild) had both fought in the Revolution. Ruth's sister Mary "Mollie" Fairchild married David's boyhood friend, Elisha Headlee, also a Revolutionary War veteran. They remained friends for the duration of their lives.

In 1798 David and Ruth Bedell and their small son, David Hudson Bedell, moved to Burke County, North Carolina where the Headlees had moved about 7 years previously. There four other Bedell sons were born.

On October 27, 1828, while living at Burke County, North Carolina, David Bedell applied for a Revolutionary War pension at the age of 69. Besides the pension, he also received a bounty land warrant.

In the summer of 1834 the oldest son, David Hudson Bedell, corresponded with his cousin, John Headlee (who lived north of Springfield), about moving to Southwest Missouri. Later that year the widowed David Bedell and his four sons all moved to Greene County. They came by covered wagon from Baird's Forge in Burke County, North Carolina and settled in the vicinity of Ebenezer, about 10 miles north of Springfield. Soon David Bedell's brother-in-law Elisha Headlee (also a widower) and several more of the Headlee children came to northern Greene County to live, followed by Samuel Steele, another Revolutionary veteran who is buried at nearby Mount Comfort Cemetery in Greene County.

David Bedell was laid to rest in the Old Salem Cemetery when he died in 1840, just short of his 80th birthday. Old Salem also became the final resting place for his long-time friend and his brother-in-law, Elisha Headlee, who died five years later in 1845.

The grave of David Bedell was marked with a government headstone by the Rachel Donelson Chapter DAR on June 21, 1914. The SAR bronze marker is believed to have been placed on his grave in the early 1970s by the Ozarks-Hougendobler Chapter SAR, a predecessor of the Ozark Mountain Chapter.

The Ozark Mountain Chapter SAR held a joint memorial service for David Bedell and Elisha Headlee (who were brothers-in-law and are buried almost side by side) on Armed Forces Day, May 16, 1992. Dr. M. Graham Clark, a former President General of the National Society SAR participated. Also members of the Bedell and Headlee families were present for the event. Dr. Katherine Lederer of SMSU, a noted historian on blacks in the Springfield area was a speaker as well as one of the descendants of slaves owned by David Bedell. Bette Nelson, regent, and other members of the Rachel Donelson Chapter DAR also participated. More than 50 people took part in this event.


(c) Copyright 1998-2005.

Last updated May 15, 2005.


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