Unless the reader is a student of Cape May County history the following names might as well appear in a telephone directory:
John Grace
Lt. Richard Wickes
Capt. Aaron Bennett
James Schellinger
Matthew Whilden
Constantine Foster
All, and likely others not listed, whose names are chiseled in stone on gravestones around the county, served in the American Revolution.
Their lives are like bricks in a building’s foundation. Separately they didn’t amount to much, but together they helped pave the way to form the place we, unthinking, enjoy. We give no thought as to what they did for us.
Without these men and any others like them, the ideals they cherished and for which they fought, we would not celebrate the Fourth of July. We would likely be listening to the BBC for nightly news, sipping tea in the morning, and hearing what Her Majesty and family are doing today. Would Frank LoBiondo be our Member of Parliament? Would Cory Booker and Robert Menendez serve us in the House of Lords? The royal governor would be appointed erasing the need for an election. We could be certain that all those people would have sworn allegiance to the Anglican Church as well as to the Crown.
Think about that for a minute. Would that be better or worse than what we have today?
Those early Cape May County patriots knew the value of living free. They hated a government that was distant yet imposed taxes. They lived in a wooded county that was untouched, save for a solitary sea skirmish, by the war. They wanted to chart their own course, build ships, sail them, and live off the sea.
Grace’s and Foster’s remains rest in graves in Union Cemetery, South Dennis.
Wickes reposes in Cold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery, killed six days before the Declaration of Independence was signed. He died aboard the Brigantine Nancy in the Battle of Turtle Gut, roughly in Wildwood Crest, the only battle with the British that took place in this county.
According to various histories, Grace served in the New Jersey Continental Line (1777 to 1783) and fought in the Battle of Yorktown. He was a courier for Gen. George Washington.
The monument, placed as a tribute by the school children of the county and dedicated Memorial Day, 1904, is inscribed with the general’s and first president’s description of Grace’s character to Gen. Horatio Gates, “He is my trusted scout whom British gold can not buy.” No other Cape May County resident merited that honor.
The dedication of Grace’s monument was reportedly attended by 2,500 to 3,000, according to county school Superintendent Aaron W. Hand, at whose urging teachers collected money from students for the stone over the course of eight years on Washington’s Birthday.
Two of Grace’s descendants joined in its unveiling. A 13-gun salute was rendered to Grace by a Howitzer that was loaned through an arrangement by Gov. Franklin Murphy.
Foster’s tombstone is inscribed, “Revolutionary Patriot.” That’s because no records could be found proving he served in the Continental Army. He did, however, take an oath to the young nation rejecting allegiance to the British crown in 1778.
Grace, like some modern-day veterans, had a long wait for his government pension for serving in the military. He applied in 1818, but it was not until 1833 that he received what was due him, and even that took arm-twisting by Jeremiah Leaming of South Dennis, a member of the Legislative Council for Cape May County. Little has changed over the centuries for veterans it seems.
We cannot imagine what it must have been like for those patriot soldiers. Getting to and from this county must have been a grueling trek through mosquito-infested woods following trails that were mud or dust, ice or snow depending on the season.
Getting to the nation’s capital, Philadelphia, took at least a couple of days.
Without means of communicating with loved ones at home, except by letter via stagecoach or horseback from distant battlegrounds like Yorktown and even Monmouth, a soldier’s life must have been excruciating.
To leave one’s farm or business to fight for the patriot cause wasn’t just a “be back in a couple of weeks,” notion. It was a life-changing decision. Would the wife be able to hold the farm together while raising the children and keeping the house together? We don’t think of such things. We give no thought to the pains borne by those enlisted in the Continental Line in which Grace served.
Many of us have seen the Declaration of Independence in Washington that was the cause of the war in which those county men served.
Most have visited Independence Hall and seen the Liberty Bell, yet we cannot begin to put ourselves in the place of the men who signed the document, and in effect signed their death warrants by so doing. They put their lives on the line for an idea that had never been tested, that is severing ties with one’s mother country.
Many of us are going to enjoy the Fourth of July. We’ll eat, drink and be merry. Some may get a sunburn; others will go fishing; still others will spend a day or night on a boardwalk.
We’ll enjoy the fruits of freedom, thanks to men like Grace, Foster, Wickes, Bennett, Schellinger, and Whilden. Without their sacrifices where might we be today?