Greenwood Cemetery in Tuscaloosa is the final resting place of five verified patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War. The Osher Lifelong Learning Center near the University of Alabama staged a weekend event at the cemetery where re-enactors told stories of some of the people buried here. The five verified Revolutionary War patriots interred at Greenwood include Richard Cunningham, Reuben Jones, Richardson Owen, Samuel Morrow, and Richard Inge. Reenactor Richard Rhone donned a period costume to relate the story of Inge, who fought alongside the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War. Here what he had to say…
“I'm so glad that you've come by to see me in my final resting place. My name is Richard Inge. I was born 1754, in King and Queen County, Virginia, still part of the British Empire. I do not know my parents, because they both died when I was a baby. So, strangers took me in and raised me and did me quite well. They educated me, and I prospered, and as adult, became a very successful tobacco planner. When the war for the revolution broke out, I joined and I was fortunate. I served under General Lafayette and was with Lafayette at that final victory in Yorktown, and was able to see when the British General Cornwallis had to surrender there, I was always proud of my military service.
Later on, I was offered a pension for my military service, and I turned it down because, as I said, I don't want to be paid for serving my country. I was fortunate to fall in love. I met a young lady named Sara Johnson. We married. I called her Sally, and we lived together for two decades, and she bore me seven children during that time, unfortunately, 1805, she died. But the next year, I found another woman, one who could help me raise my children, and I married Mary, a wonderful woman, and she bore me another seven children, but Mary and our children in 1820 moved here, and I built one of the first homes in what was called Newtown, right over there.
It was the rival town to Tuscaloosa, and at one time, was a bigger town than Tuscaloosa, was even the county seat of Tuscaloosa County. But eventually Tuscaloosa overcame it, and now it's just absorbed within I built one of the first homes in Newtown, and I built it on the site of black warriors town, a creek Indian town that had been burned. And I built my home, and later on built a larger, two story home for my family that was called the grove. I was always, then interested in education. 1825, only living here five years I was elected to the state legislature, but my interest was still education. My interest was my children. I wanted them. I would spare no expense for them to get the kind of education they need. And I'm proud to say that there are hundreds of Inges, from Mobile to Huntsville, all across the state of Alabama, serving in prominent positions today, as judges, as Congressmen, as lawyers, as teachers, all useful citizens at that time.
Oh, I'm proud of all of them. I guess I'm particularly proud of a grandson, Zebulon Pike Inge, who went to West Point and then as an officer, fought the Seminole Wars and then went to Mexico to fight in the Mexican War. Unfortunately, there he was killed in a battle. Obviously, the family wanted his body sent home, and the army sent it home across the Gulf, and when it reached mobile, it was put on a steamboat to come to Tuscaloosa. The name of the steamboat was the Tuscaloosa. Unfortunately, on the Tombigbee River River, the boiler exploded, and 30 people were killed, and my grandson's coffin was lost, and he was never, never found, and thus was never buried in the Family Plot.
I have another proud moment that you will like particularly, and that is in 1831, the call went out from the state legislature for contributions to build a University of Alabama and my son, a physician in Greene County, Dr Richard Inge stepped forth and said, I'll give my son and he paid the tuition to the University of Alabama. A bale of Cotton was the tuition and William Inge, my grandson, became the first student at the University of Alabama. That's all my family legacy. But as I always say, your legacy is not, really what you leave ‘for’ people. Your legacy is what you leave ‘in’ people, and I hope that's what I have done with everyone. So, there are many good stories here in our final resting place.”
