Autauga County honors Revolutionary War veteran at Pine Level grave

The Old Autauga Historical Society marked the lead-up to America 250 at a Pine Level grave, placing patriotic flowers and flags at the burial site of Revolutionary War veteran Jeremiah Chancellor. The June 29 ceremony focused attention on the churchyard at Pine Level Methodist Church, where memorial records place Chancellor’s grave and give his death as November 1831.

Chancellor’s life connects Autauga County to the founding era in unusually direct terms. Genealogical records say he was born in England and came to America as a teenager during the Revolutionary War period, then later settled in what became Pine Level. His grave gave the society a concrete place to honor that history as the nation moves toward its 250th anniversary.

The Pine Level stop was part of a broader day of remembrance. Before gathering at Chancellor’s grave, society members visited the resting places of three other Revolutionary War patriots buried in the area: Clement Billingsley, Lewis Cookson Davis and William Kirkland. Memorial records identify Billingsley as a Revolutionary War-era veteran buried in Autauga County, while pension application records document Kirkland’s military service. FamilySearch records place Lewis Cookson Davis’s birth on Aug. 17, 1756, in Hanover, Virginia, and say he registered for military service in 1834.

The ceremony also underscored how Pine Level is using public history to shape its own identity. Mayor Zachary Bigley has said the town takes pride in preserving its role in American history, a point that fits a community that was officially incorporated in December 2023. Pine Level’s first mayor and five at-large council members were sworn in on Dec. 11, 2023, making the Revolutionary War commemoration part of the town’s early civic life as well as its historical memory.

For the Old Autauga Historical Society, the graveside visits matched its stated mission to disseminate historical and genealogical information and promote local heritage. By marking named graves in Pine Level and elsewhere in Autauga County, the group turned a national milestone into something residents can locate, study and return to, rather than letting the 250th anniversary pass as a distant celebration.