In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
Mitchel Fleming was born in April of 1761, in Kent County, Delaware, to George and Margaret (Killen) Fleming. The Fleming family moved south to Rowan County, North Carolina, near the Coddle Creek Church.
In 1777, he enlisted in Captain Craig’s Company, of Col. Francis Locke's Regiment at the age of 16. The Company was involved in one skirmish at Coney Island on the Savannah River. In 1782, Fleming became a private in Captain James Stevenson's Company of Col. Isaac's North Carolina Regiment. In his Pension application, Fleming states “he marched with the company above mentioned, in a Regiment of horse and foot under the command of Colonel Isaacs, to meet the British at Wilmington North Carolina, but before reaching Wilmington was ordered to stop on Deep River about 50 miles above Fayetteville, having been informed that the British had evacuated Wilmington, that the horse company to which he was attached was employed in reconnoitering the Country about Deep River, suppressing the Tories, disaffected. He served with the troops above mentioned two months during which time they took about 20 Tories were disaffected persons and conveyed them to Salisbury Rowan County North Carolina where he received a written discharge.”
After the war, Fleming married Agnes Kennedy on June 27, 1784, in Rowan County and established a farm in Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus) County on land he inherited from his father, George Fleming. In 1819, the Flemings joined a group of families that left North Carolina and traveled by wagon train to Cape Girardeau County. Fleming bought land in the Shawnee and Apple Creek Townships and was a charter member of the Apple Creek Presbyterian Church. He was the first ruling elder of the church and remained in that position until the year before his death. It is reported that when the church was raising money to pay for their new building, he pledged his entire pension from the Revolution until the building was paid for.
The Flemings had one son and five daughters: Jane Fleming married James Stevenson; Sadah (Sarah) married Zenas Ross; Hiram Fleming; Elizabeth married James R Little; Agnes Fleming married Robert McFarland and Polly Fleming married Benjamin Franklin Brown. Fleming’s wife Agnes died on September 21, 1821, and in 1824, Fleming was remarried to Jane Stevenson in Perry County, Missouri. There were no children from the second marriage. Mitchel Fleming died at his home on April 16, 1837, aged 76 years and seven days. His wife Jane died on May 2, 1837. The Fleming family plot (on a hill in the Fleming family farm near New Wells) contains the graves of Mitchel Fleming, his two wives, his daughter Margaret, and a son, Hiram, and his two wives and a daughter.
Like many families, four other sons can be found linked to this family, but they did not move with them to Missouri and were not mentioned in the estate papers.
Sources:
The John Guild Chapter DAR rededicated the marker at the Fleming gravesite on July 4, 2014.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66156553/mitchel-fleming
FamilySearch Mitchell Fleming Tree
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/KPH5-X4H
U.S., Revolutionary War Burial Index 1775-1875 https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/63156/
U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files 1800-1900 https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1995/
Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Application and Rosters https://revwarapps.org/s16810.pdf