Richard Keele
Richard Keele was born about 1758. He gave his age as about 74 when he applied for a pension in 1832. Where he was born is not certain. His memorial gives 10 January 1757 in Henry County, Virginia, and a granddaughter of his daughter Sarah wrote down the family story that he "was born on the voyage to America." His own parents are given two ways: as William Keel and Amelia Robert on his memorial, and as Arthur Keele in the same family letter.
In the spring of 1776, as the Revolution began, he enlisted in Henry County, Virginia, in a company of rangers raised to guard the Virginia frontier. His captain was James Lyon. When Lyon resigned, Peter Harston took the command, and on 19 July 1777 Harston signed a small discharge certifying that "Richard Keel Served As a Good Soldier in my Company." He kept that slip of paper for fifty five years and sent it to Washington with his pension claim.
After his discharge he moved west over the mountains to the Nolichucky River, on the North Carolina frontier in what is now East Tennessee. In the fall of 1780 a British and Tory force under Major Patrick Ferguson pushed into the western Carolinas and threatened the settlements beyond the mountains. Richard joined a volunteer company under Samuel Williams of Washington County. It marched with the riflemen of Col. John Sevier, and on 7 October 1780 he was in the battle of King's Mountain, where Ferguson was killed and his whole force taken.
He married Lydia Richmond, a Virginian of about his own age. Their son John was born in 1777, while Richard was in the Henry County rangers, and their son William was born in January 1781 in Washington County, in the Nolichucky country, three months after King's Mountain. Other children were Richard Richmond, Sarah, Jacob, Thomas and David, and a daughter who married a Moreland and died young. Sarah married Rev. John Rushing, a Baptist preacher.
The family moved on into Middle Tennessee, to the Duck River country where Bedford, Rutherford and Coffee Counties now meet. Richard lived in Bedford County for sixteen or seventeen years. He and Lydia belonged to the Garrison Fork Baptist Church at Beech Grove, which his son William served as minister for many years, and the church minutes name the old couple with their children and grandchildren as they joined.
In 1832, under the new pension act for Revolutionary veterans, he went before the Bedford County court and swore to his service. He could not write his name and signed with his mark. His son-in-law, the Rev. John Rushing, and Theo. F. Bradford swore to his good character. The pension office wanted more, and on 11 February 1833 he made a second statement before William Galbreath, a justice of the peace. By then he had moved just over the line into Rutherford County. He said he was "poor & lives with one of his sons whose house is not more than half mile from the Bedford County line." He was allowed forty dollars a year, back to March 1831, for twelve months' service as a private.
He died on 8 July 1849, aged about 91, and Lydia died the same month. Both were buried in the Keele Cemetery, the burying ground of the Garrison Fork church on Jake's Branch in Bedford County, in graves marked only with fieldstones. In 2023 descendants set stones for them, and the Sons of the American Revolution dedicated his grave.
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Cite: Heirology, "Richard Keele (1758-1849)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/richard-keele-1758-1849-f09f16.