When you think about the Revolutionary War and American cities, Boston and Philadelphia probably come to mind.
But as we mark the country’s 250th birthday this year, let’s explore the connection to Indianapolis.
Some of the men who fought in the war eventually made their way west to Indiana, a state founded 40 years after the war began, and to Indianapolis. They remain here today.
We’ve found a few of them, each with different stories and backgrounds. Some were crucial to developing Indiana and others were Whiskey Rebellion fugitives. More on what that means later.
Here are their stories.
The militiamen at Floral Park Cemetery
Two Revolutionary War soldiers with disparate backgrounds are buried next to each other at Floral Park Cemetery in Wayne Township: Lt. John Hanna and Sgt. Isaac Cool.
Lt. John Hanna
John Hanna is one of four sons of Robert Hanna, who was appointed Surveyor General of South Carolina by King George III before the war, according to the 1909 account of the family’s history, The House of Hanna, written by his descendent, Sarah Hanna.
According to the history, the elder Hanna was inspired to renounce his allegiance to the king after he read an essay by John Adams written years earlier that argued that informed citizens should be a check on the government that rules them.
The British government then put a price on his head. He joined various militias soon after the revolution started and fought in battles against the British from South Carolina to Vermont.
His son John joined him in 1777 when he turned 14 and fought in the Battle of Bennington.
After the war, the family moved to Union County in eastern Indiana. John Hanna moved to Brookville in southeast Indiana, where he became a judge. He was one of Indianapolis’ first settlers when he moved to the city after it was named the state capital in 1825. He died in 1839 and was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Sgt. Isaac Cool
Isaac Cool was born in 1755 in Monmouth County, New Jersey, just across the Raritan Bay from New York City.
He fought in the Revolutionary War as a sergeant in the Somerset County, New Jersey Militia.
Unlike today, when military enlistments are measured in years, in colonial times men could join the militia for days-long tours.
Cool served several days each year between 1777 and 1780 in the Somerset County Militia, including a stint guarding British prisoners in Princeton, New Jersey in 1778.
He was married after his service ended in 1780. He eventually moved to Indianapolis in 1821 and died in 1828 at the age of 73. He was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Reburied further west
Greenlawn Cemetery is where some of Indianapolis’ earliest settlers were buried. In 1923, the city sold four acres of the cemetery to a private company for use as a freight terminal.
As part of the deal, the graves of veterans buried there were moved to Floral Park Cemetery and Holy Cross Cemetery, in the Garfield Park neighborhood. Hanna and Cool are buried in Floral Park Cemetery next to several Civil War veterans.
Many more graves were left in place at Greenlawn and have only recently been rediscovered. As part of construction on the Henry Street Bridge, archaeologists uncovered more than 1,700 grave shafts, a vast majority of which contained human remains.
The ‘associator’ in Mars Hill
On the corner of Mooresville Road and Foltz Street in Mars Hill on the southwest side, across the street from Stephen Decatur Elementary School, is a small historic cemetery established in 1828 known by many names through the years.
It’s been called the Maywood Cemetery, Mooresville Cemetery, Mars Hill Cemetery and the Liberty Cemetery.
One toppled weathered limestone headstone with the names of two early Americans: Philburd and Elizabeth Wright.
Philburd Wright was born in 1750 in Frederick County, Maryland and served in the local militia during the Revolutionary War.
In the lead-up to the war, many people from colonies who wanted independence from Great Britain began disregarding local governments set up by the British and began their own.
In 1774, the revolutionary government of Maryland, called the Maryland Convention, called for all men in the colony between the ages of 16 and 50 to form militias.
In December 1775, when Philburd Wright was 25, the local revolutionary government, called the Committee of Observation of the Middle District of Frederick County, Maryland, called for the creation of a jail that would house “enemies to the rights and liberties of America” and about 1,500 guards called “associators.”
Wright is listed as one of those associators. According to one of Wright’s descendants, Philburd had a scar on his face that was made by a British officer, but the story of how that happened is lost to history.
After the war, Wright served as a justice of the peace — essentially a judge — in Randolph County, North Carolina for several decades. He and his family moved to Union County in eastern Indiana in 1813. His wife Elizabeth died in 1830, and he died in 1833. The couple had 10 children.
While it’s unclear, the Wrights may have been buried in the Mars Hill Cemetery because one of his sons, Noah Wright, had recently settled across the White River in Perry Township. Wright was previously sheriff and state representative in Washington County near Louisville and moved north when he purchased land here.
From patriot to Whiskey Rebellion fugitive
And now for the Whiskey Rebellion.
William Miller was born in Pennsylvania in 1757 to Irish immigrants Oliver and Mary Tidball Miller. He was one of 10 children.
In 1772, the family moved to the Pennsylvania wilderness and built a two-story log house.
The family would face attacks from nearby Native American tribes and would have to seek shelter in nearby militia forts. William and his older brother, John, joined the Pennsylvania militia to fight the tribes.
After the American Revolution began, the two enlisted in the colony’s 8th Pennsylvania Regiment as full-time soldiers. According to their family history, the brothers briefly were attached to Daniel Morgan’s Provisional Rifle Corps, where they served as sharpshooters at the Battle of Saratoga.
The brothers continued serving until 1779. Their father, Oliver, died in 1782 and passed on his land and a small whiskey still to his sons.
The colonies accrued about $77 million in debt during the revolution, or about $2.4 billion in today’s dollars. To help pay it back, Congress instituted an excise tax on distilled spirits like whiskey.
For two years, many small distillers refused to pay the tax, including William Miller. Some distillers would tar and feather tax collectors and beat men who offered the collectors office space or housing.
In 1794, a U.S. marshall and a federal tax collector went to Miller’s home in Millville, Pennsylvania to serve a summons to appear in federal court and pay a $250 fine. That’s about $7,600 in today’s money. An armed group of neighbors ran them away.
The next day, Miller, some family members and other angry farmers went to the tax collector’s house to find the marshall and protest. But according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the tax collector and the enslaved people under his control fired on them. The crowd then fled. When they left, the tax collector asked federal troops from a local fort to guard his house.
The protestors came back to the tax collector’s house with about 500 militiamen at their side. They got into a shootout with the soldiers. Greatly outnumbered, the soldiers surrendered, and the protestors burned down the tax collector’s house.
The violence spread to other counties, and President George Washington led a force of 13,000 militiamen to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.
A pardon was issued to all but the 34 instigators of the rebellion. As an instigator, Miller was one of those ineligible for a pardon.
Miller was charged with treason, but he fled to Kentucky before federal agents could issue an arrest warrant. He was never tried, but the federal government punished him by denying him his veteran’s pension. Ultimately, Washington pardoned Miller and others left out in previous pardons.
And here’s the Indiana connection. In 1835, Miller and his wife Rachel moved to Pike Township to be closer to their children. Miller died in 1840 and is buried at Crown Point Cemetery northwest of what’s now Eagle Creek Reservoir.
The family’s homestead is still standing and is a historical site in South Park, Pennsylvania.
A soldier then a minister
John Morrow was born in 1760 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia in December 1776, a few days after his 16th birthday and served for three months.
He would reenlist for two more three-month periods in 1778 and 1779. Morrow was wounded during his service.
After the war, Morrow served as a Methodist minister known for his long sermons. He lived in Kentucky before moving to Indianapolis in 1832.
He died in 1835 and was buried in the Mount Jackson Cemetery in Wayne Township. In 1900, Morrow’s body was moved to the Crown Hill National Cemetery.
A veteran in a hidden cemetery
Robert Dickerson was born in Virginia in 1755 and later enlisted in the state’s militia in 1778.
He enlisted in the 2nd Virginia Regiment on the condition he would receive 160 acres of land and $10. He received the money but never received the land.
Dickerson’s unit fought various engagements, including the Battle of Monmouth, the Battle of Stony Point and the Battle of Yorktown, which led to peace negotiations that ended the war. In his pension application, he mentioned that he was stationed in Savannah, Georgia at the end of the war.
After the war, Dickerson eventually made his way to Marion County and died in 1829.
He was buried in Bacon Cemetery, on the southeast corner of North Keystone Avenue and Kessler Boulevard East Drive, across the street from IPS’ Merle Sidener Academy.
Two other cemeteries were also nearby.
According to the Genealogical Society of Marion County, the Culberson Farm Cemetery was located under Sidener Academy’s rear parking lot. The Dawson Farm Cemetery was located just east of the Kessler Boulevard East Drive crosswalk.
But don’t worry, it’s not a Poltergeist-like situation.
When the Crown Hill Cemetery was incorporated in 1864, many bodies were moved from the smaller cemeteries to the new cemetery.
Of course, it’s difficult to know if all the bodies were moved. But one Kokomo woman knew her husband was a descendent of one Revolutionary War veteran buried at Bacon Cemetery — Robert Dickerson.
According to the Indianapolis Star, Dorothea Woods Sargent embarked on a tireless letter‑writing campaign to get the property cleaned up and raised $3,400 from the Daughters of the American Revolution for a new marker for her husband’s ancestor.
The marker and two flagpoles can be seen at the former Bacon Cemetery today.
An Irishman helps defeat the British
Robert Carr was born in the Ulster District of what is now Northern Ireland in 1759. He made his way to the colonies and joined the Virginia militia in 1780.
Soon after volunteering, he and the 50 men of his company had to march 16 days across the Alleghany Mountains to reach a fort in what is now West Virginia. Carr’s company was stationed there for five months without any encounters with either British forces or allied Native Americans.
Carr’s company joined the army of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene in North Carolina in February 1781. The next month, the army fought the British at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
The Americans lost the battle, but their performance contributed to victory overall.
Greene’s forces, including Carr’s company, inflicted so many British casualties that the British commander had to shift his operations to Virginia. That decision ultimately led to the British defeat at the Battle of Yorktown.
After the war, Carr lived in South Carolina until 1810 when he moved to Franklin County in southeastern Indiana. In 1831, he moved to New Bethel in Franklin Township.
Carr died July 4, 1833 and is buried at Founder’s Cemetery in Wanamaker, although the exact location of his body is unknown.
In 2023, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a marker at the cemetery denoting Carr’s service.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
Published as part of a national effort by local newsrooms to reflect on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. See coverage from other newsrooms.
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