Atlas Twp.- On Sunday afternoon Horton Cemetery, a century and half old fixture etched in theplacid township countryside, echoed with a distant drum and fife corp.
With a 21 gun salute, taps and invocation more than 100 gathered at the cemetery to honor revolutionary war Patriot John Britton. The grave rededication was sponsored by the Genesee Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Born on Long Island, NY in 1755, Patriot John Britton battled the British as a private in the New Jersey Continental line and later joined the Second Regiment of the Somerset County militia in New Jersey.
Britton married Lydia Pitts Harris following the death of his first wife, Isabel Rice, in 1809. Rice had at least six children with Britton. During his lifetime, Britton lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and various parts of New York before moving to the township nearer his son. Britton farmed in the township before his death on May 20, 1846.
A proclamation was issued by Amanda Sova, a representative of State Senator Deborah Cherry, followed by a biography of Britton’s life given by Lawrence Miller, Britton’s grandson four times removed.
Gerald Burkland, state president of the Michigan chapter of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, estimates there are 1,400 revolutionary war soldiers buried in Michigan. Only approximately 380 of those graves have been identified.