Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

INGIHAM COUNTY NOTES

205

It is to the credit of the Ingham County Pioneer and Historical
Society that quite a number of those who served in the early wars
of our country have had their graves located. It has taken
over four years of quite strenuous research work to get the names
of these, also their history as far as possible, while there is every
reason to think that the list is till far from complete. An effort
was made to get the school children of the county to assist in this
work by searching the cemeteries and township records, and a few
schools responded, but the requests for help sent to the schools
throughout the county did not arouse the enthusiasm for the work
that it was hoped it would, for in addition to the help it would
have been to the county society, the pupils would have absorbed
considerable local history which would have been of value to them.
In a little rural cemetery in the township of Onondaga, called
the Lane Cemetery, one finds in the southeast corner a family lot
of considerable size, where are buried several members of the
"Champe" family. In the center of the well kept enclosure
stands a slender marble shaft, and on one side is found this inscription, beneath two crossed swords, carved in the marble:
"John Champe, An Officer in the Revolutionary War, Died 1798."
For some time it was thought the body of this patriot laid in
this lot, but through a correspondence with Miss Elizabeth
Champe, of Detroit, a great granddaughter of John Champe, the
following bit of interesting history was revealed.
John Champe was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1757
(one record says 1752, which corresponds better with his age at
time of death), just twenty-five years after the first settlers located there. The early records fail to tell of his early life, only
that he lived with his parents in their pioneer home near Waterford, on the road to Clark's Gap near Catocin church, and in 1910
the old house was said to be still standing.
The records in the War Department at Washington show that
John Champe enlisted in 1776, when nineteen years old, as a
private in company of First Light Dragoons Continental Troop,
commanded by Capt. Harry Lee, better known as Light Horse
Harry. He was promoted to the rank of corporal soon after, and
was later orderly sergeant, then sergeant major. His name
appears on a roll bearing date of August 25, 1783, at Council
Chamber Continental Congress as doorkeeper and sergeant-atarms.