Union County honors Revolutionary War patriot Col. John Kelly

Union County Commissioner Jeff Reber and County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania President Joe Kantz joined a Sons of the American Revolution grave-marking ceremony in Lewisburg on July 25 for Col. John Kelly, whose gravesite sits in Lewisburg Cemetery on South 7th Street. A Color Guard paid tribute at the site during the 11 a.m. ceremony.

Kelly, also identified in some records as John Kelly Jr., was born Feb. 11, 1744, and died Feb. 18, 1832. FamilySearch lists him as buried in Lewisburg Cemetery in Lewisburg, Union County, and a Pennsylvania historical marker associated with Kelly keeps his name visible in the borough’s public landscape.

His wartime record still anchors much of the local memory around him. Historical accounts say Kelly served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War and destroyed the Stony Brook bridge during the Battle of Princeton, an action that later earned him descriptions as Lancaster County’s “Horatius at the bridge.” A local history account published in 2021 called him the Revolutionary War hero who “shot the last buffalo in Lewisburg,” adding another layer of place-based legend to his name.

Kelly’s footprint in the region also includes the land bounty he received for military service. One background source says he built a modest weatherboarded log house in 1775 on that land, a reminder that Revolutionary War service shaped not only battlefield history but also the pattern of settlement in Pennsylvania.

The Sons of the American Revolution uses grave-marking ceremonies as part of its preservation work, and the group is also planning broader 250th-anniversary programming for 2026. In Lewisburg, the Kelly ceremony linked that larger Revolutionary War remembrance effort to a specific grave, a specific street and a specific man whose legacy remains tied to the borough’s map and memory.