July 4th means more to Lonette Morley of Northport than enjoying barbecues or fireworks.

It’s a day to remember those who risked it all to stand up to the British so that we might have freedom.

As a Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR), she has her own specific “patriot” of whom she is a descendant. He is John Peter Krick, a school teacher with seven children at the time he took up arms.

“I was never really interested in genealogy until my kids came home from school with projects. They knew who their grandmother and grandfather were, but didn’t know much more,” said Morley, who is a past regent of the Piety Hill Chapter of the DAR in Birmingham.

“Then I spoke with a friend who told me that I really needed to find this out for my children.”

She set out to do just that. The first step: visit the Burton Genealogical section at Detroit Public Library, where hundreds and hundreds of volumes can be found.

“It only took about two hours,” said Morley, a Leelanau Township resident and a member of the Job Winslow Chapter of the DAR, based in Traverse City.

While looking in the card catalog, she identified one volume of particular interest: Prominent Families of Berk’s County, Pa.

“I pulled it from the shelf and found my father and his siblings and went from there,” Morley explained.

Krick enlisted as an ensign in Captain John Spohn’s 8th Co., 6th Battalion on May 10, 1780. According Biographies from History and the Biographical Annals of Morton Montgomery, Krick taught school near Sinking Spring, Pa. and was also teacher and “Forsinger” at the Muddy Creek Church, near Denver, Pa.
Others from Leelanau County have uncovered similar patriotic stories.

Mary Jane Dloughy of Maple City passed away this spring, but did so having established lineage to three ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War.

According to documents provided by her husband, John, Dloughy established DAR membership initially through the Marta Ibbetson Chapter in Chicago in 2003 by documenting her ancestry to John Fahrenstok, who fought with the Pennsylvania Military brigade.

After further research, Dloughy discovered a link to John Hood through her maternal grandmother Emma Jane Hood. Among documents uncovered in her search were Hood’s application for military pension made April 23, 1833. Hood testified he enlisted in May 1781 for a term of 10 months, but his actual term of service ended up being shorter.

He was wounded in the thigh by a “musket ball” on Sept. 9, 1781. at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, at Eutawville, S.C. Earlier in the summer, the Continental Army under General Nathaniel Greene had gained control of South Carolina. However, by early September, 2,300 well-equipped British camped along the springs of Eutaw.

Greene, hearing of Gen. George Washington’s plan to encircle and embarrass the British at Yorktown, was determined to prevent Southern aid from reaching Cornwallis. Although the British had fewer casualties and wounded, 436 in total compared to 451 for the Revolutionaries, they also lost the services of 430 men who were captured by the Continentals as prisoners of war. The Battle of Eutaw Springs was the last major battle in South Carolina. It broke the British hold in the South while denying needed aid to British forces in the North.

Only six weeks later, Cornwallis succumbed to Washington at Yorktown and Independence was won.

Lorraine Richardson of Cedar is the former regent of the Job Winslow Chapter.

She is a descendent of David Stebbins, who was commissioned a lieutenant on
May 3, 1776, in Captain Nathan Frary’s Company, 5th Hampshire Regiment.
Perhaps more interesting locally, the 87-year-old Leland native was the direct descendent of John LaRue, the first white settler in Leelanau County. According to 100 Years in Leelanau, LaRue was a trader who first saw the mainland from south Manitou Island. It was 1848 when he traveled north from Chicago and stopped on the island to begin trading with Indians.

After returning to Chicago, the pioneer returned north but instead went to the mainland. LaRue built a log cabin near the mouth of the Crystal River. Later in life he and his wife, Sophie, built the Hotel LaRue in Empire.

“My mother’s (parents) died when she was very young and she lived with her grandparents,” Richardson explained. “(Mother) would tell stories about coming home from school at lunch time to help her grandmother serve guests.”