FARMINGTON – The elements had taken their toll on Ebenezer Butterfield Jr.’s marker in a cemetery named for his family.
Covered with lichen, cracked in pieces and lying on the ground near his grave, the marker commemorating the Revolutionary War veteran’s life and death was replaced by Wiles Funeral Homes and Memorial Service on Friday as members of the Colonial Daughters chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Post 28 of the American Legion paid their respects.
Butterfield, born Jan. 26, 1732, in Dunstable, Mass., may have served in the Army as long as the war was waged, according to information gathered by Theo Walker, regent of the DAR chapter.
Butterfield and his wife, Elizabeth Emery, and five children moved to Farmington around 1790, settling on the west side of the Sandy River – not far from his final resting place, Walker told the small gathering. He was one of the petitioners for the incorporation of the town on Dec. 24, 1793. He died April 2, 1821 at the age of 89.
About a dozen people gathered Friday to honor the veteran and to place the donated gravestone in the little cemetery tucked between an oil change shop and a shopping center on Wilton Road.
Organized by Marion Hutchinson, a member of the DAR who couldn’t attend, the short ceremony included a reading of Butterfield’s history and an invocation read by the group’s chaplain, Jan Stevens.
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