Revolutionary War Patriots
In 2024 the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution dedicated a granite monument in the St. John cemetery naming eight veterans of the American Revolution whose graves lie on these grounds. Their ranks span from private to captain; their services ranged from Continental regiments to the state militia. Four of the eight are marked by stones carved by Laurence Krone.
The Eight Patriots
Names, ranks, and vitals are reproduced as they appear on the 2024 monument. Each name links to that patriot’s entry in the cemetery record.
- Pvt. Christopher Brown, Sr. (1751–1816)
- Pvt. Nickolas Darter (1746–1821) Krone stone
- Pvt. Daniel Etter (1752–1805) Krone stone
- Pvt. Georg Daniel Flohr (1756–1826) Founding pastor Krone stone
- Cpt. John Harkrader (1750–1837)
- Pvt. John Casper Rader, Sr. (1731–1811)
- Pvt. Christopher Simmerman (1746–1813)
- Pvt. John Jacob Repass (1737–1814) Krone stone
Georg Daniel Flohr at Yorktown
Of the eight men named on the monument, the best-documented wartime service is that of Georg Daniel Flohr — the future founding pastor of this church. Flohr emigrated from the German Palatinate as a soldier in the Royal Deux-Ponts (the Zweibrücken regiment), a German unit in the service of France. He was present at the siege and surrender of Yorktown in October 1781, and later wrote a lengthy German-language journal of his American service that is now held in European archives and has been studied by scholars of the Franco-American alliance.
His grave, carved by Laurence Krone at the expense of the congregation, is detailed on the Laurence Krone page.
The Krone Connection
Four of the eight patriots — Darter, Etter, Flohr, and Repass — are explicitly named on the bronze memorial plaque honoring stonecutter Laurence Krone elsewhere in the cemetery. Krone’s carvings of their graves are among the finest examples of early German funerary art in western Virginia.
About the Dedication
The granite monument was dedicated in 2024 by the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia — one of a series of such markers placed at historic cemeteries across the state in the years leading up to America’s 250th anniversary. St. John’s designation as a Virginia 250 Place to Visit reflects the same anniversary observance.
A second marker, installed at the cemetery entrance by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in 2025, acknowledges the same patriot burials with an earlier start date — recording interments as early as ca. 1794 and at least seven Revolutionary War veterans interred 1805–1837. The Pomeroy marker is part of the foundation’s nationwide Patriot Burials program.
The SAR verifies each patriot’s service through enlistment rolls, pension applications, and related primary documents. Researchers interested in documenting additional Revolutionary-era burials here should contact the Virginia Society, SAR, directly.
Primary sources: on-site Revolutionary War Patriots monument (granite, 2024, dedicated by the Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution); National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form, St. John’s Lutheran Church and Cemetery, Wythe County, Virginia (Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, April 1977); Slough, Spenser David, Germans on the Western Waters: Artisans, Material Culture, and Hybridity in Virginia’s Backcountry, 1780–1830 (M.A. thesis, Virginia Tech, 2015); cemetery records compiled by the Kegley family.
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