Likens knew there were Heeters in the area, so searched Find-a-Grave and located his grave in Brookville, just a few miles from her mother’s house, the family farm in Preble County.
To make the relationship official and accessible to future generations, Likens approached the London Chapter of NSDAR (National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution), and, with the registrar’s help, filled out all the paperwork to document the lineage and join DAR, along with her mother and daughter.
Ironically, during the same time frame, Judy Hoover, former regent of Oakwood’s Daniel Cooper DAR Chapter, received a call from a member stating that a name had been misspelled in the annual members’ booklet. “It was Sebastian Heeter, but the caller said the correct spelling was Heter,” Hoover recalls.
A Brookville resident, Hoover likes to check out local cemeteries for Patriots, “and although I’d driven by Providence Presbyterian Church and its cemetery, I hadn’t stopped before.”
She located Sebastian’s tombstone, and the name was clearly spelled with two ee’s, “but it wasn’t unusual to spell names by sound back then, so there could be several spellings,” she noted.
Daniel Cooper chapter members decided to have a new, additional marker made for the tombstone that spelled the name both ways, and have a dedication ceremony, but they had to get permission from a descendant. “Our registrar searched the DAR database, and fortunately, she found Anita and her family members since they had joined so recently,” said Karin Krause, who coordinated the marker and dedication ceremony project.
“I contacted Anita and we met to discuss what my chapter wanted to do. She was ecstatic to have their Patriot recognized.”
Krause also had to get permission from the church, since the cemetery’s on church property, and the church contacted Lee Behnken, another Sebastian descendant.
“I attended that church as a child,” Behnken said. “I’m known as a local historian – at 64, the keeper of the story.
“Sebastian volunteered when Capt. William Phillips formed the Bedford Pennsylvania Militia to protect farmers … in the spring and summer of 1780. That summer, a month after he’d mustered out, many of Sebastian’s friends and family perished in the raid on the militia.”
According to Behnken, Sebastian came to Ohio in 1814 along the Ohio River, bought and cleared wooded land, settling in Montgomery County. “The family worshipped at the creek until 1825, when they built the church and graveyard.
“Sebastian had four children by his first wife who died, and at least another dozen by his second wife, Eliza, my ancestor.”
Behnken noted that, with such large families, the descendants now number in the thousands, many still in the Miami Valley. Sebastian remained in Montgomery County until his death at 86 in 1846.
“The DAR marker being attached to PVT Heeter’s gravestone in Providence Cemetery is in honor of his service in the Revolutionary War.”
Members of the Daniel Cooper chapter donated funds for the marker. Local descendants and DAR members will be attending the dedication ceremony on April 30, and Brookville’s mayor will read a proclamation.
“This has been a blessing,” said Likens, 68. “Mom turned 90 on April 4, and she was astonished. I think she was even more happy for her dad, Hanford Wysong, than for us. He was a hard-working farmer and tractor mechanic who was well-known and respected in the community, and would have been so proud of our family legacy.
“I learned so much in this process, and the research kept my mind off of my cancer and chemo.”
Contact this writer at virgburroughs@gmail.com.
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