A ceremony is planned for May 12 to place a plaque on the grave of a Real Daughter of the American Revolution found to have lived here in southwest Michigan. Lynn Farmer with the Algonquin Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution tells us a Real Daughter is a daughter of someone who fought in the Revolutionary War. It was about a year ago that the local group discovered Lucretia Abigail Reed Wood buried at Thomas Cemetery in Bangor Township. Her father fought in the war for Massachusetts.
“I know that she lived to be 96 years old and she had 14 children,” Farmer said. “She came to Michigan when it was a wilderness with her husband, and they homesteaded here.”
Wood was born in 1812 and died in 1908. Farmer says there are only 767 Real Daughters of the American Revolution in the United States.
“It’s very exciting for us. We didn’t have any idea. Our previous regent, Debbie Robertson, was the one who found out from nationals that we had one, and of course because the group is from Berrien County, none of them had ever heard of Thomas Cemetery, but I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I know right where that is.’”
At a May 12 ceremony will be state Senator Aric Nesbitt, state Representative Pauline Wendzel, members of the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners, and descendants of Mrs. Wood. There will also be a 21 gun salute. The event is set for 11 a.m.
