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.
Peter Sitzes was born December 5, 1750, in North Carolina to Johann Heinrich and Dorothea Elizaabeth (Felsinger) Sitzes. Peter married Elizabeth Dolly Carpenter about 1769. Land records in Lincoln Co., North Carolina, show Peter purchasing 200 acres on Dutch Buffalo Creek.
In a protest of the British troops in Boston in 1775, a number of North Carolina colonial men met at the Tyron County Courthouse. On August 14, 1775, about four dozen men, including Peter Sitzes, signed a document called “An Association.” This was a written pledge to take up arms again British soldiers to defend what they believed to be their natural rights under the British constitution.
The document states the following:
“The unprecedented, barbarous & bloody actions Committed by the British Troops on our American Brethren near Boston, on the 19th of April & 20th of May last together with the Hostile operations & Traitorous Designs now Carrying on by the Tools of Ministerial Vengeance & Despotism for the Subjugating all British America, Suggest to us the painful Necessity of having recourse to Arms, for the preservation of those Rights & Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the Laws of God Nature & nations have made it our Duty to Defend.—
We therefore the Subscribers freeholders & Inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite Ourselves under the most Sacred ties of Religion Honor & love to Our Country, firmly to Resist force by force in defense of our Natural Freedom & Constitutional Rights against all Invasions, & at the same time do Solemnly Engage to take up Arms and Risque our lives and fortunes in Maintaining the Freedom of our Country whenever the Wisdom & Council of the Continental Congress or our provincial Convention shall Declare it necessary, & this Engagement we will Continue in & hold Sacred, till a Reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain & America on Constitutional principles, which we most ardently desire. And we do firmly agree to hold all such persons Inimical to the liberties of America, who shall refuse to Subscribe this Association.”
Peter registered for military service in 1776 and is listed as an Ensign with the 2nd Battalion of the Continental troops serving under Captain Hardin (both from Tyron Co, North Carolina). By September of 1779, he is recognized as a Captain of the North Carolina Brigade and receives the currency for his company in the North Carolina Revolutionary War Accounts.
Peter and Elizabeth had at least six sons and five daughters, most of which married and migrated to the Missouri Territory with their parents. Even though an exact date of migration is not known, Peter appears on the Missouri Tax List in 1817 in the Cape Girardeau Territory. He files for a land patent with the General Land Office of the United States that is granted on October 15, 1833.
The following are the sons of Peter and Elizabeth: Henry Sitze (married Susannah Bradshaw); Peter Sitze, Jr. (married Hannah Masters); John Benton Sitze (married Naamah Ann Sitze); Andrew Sitze (married Nancy Bess); David Sitze (married Drucille Clubb); and Eli Washington Sitze (married Louisa S. Sitze). Their daughters are as follows: Mary Sitze (married John Young); Dolly Sitze; Hannah Sitze (married John Dellinger); Elizabeth Sitze (married Joseph Dellinger) and Katherine Sitze (married a Bess). The last name has been spelled many different ways, including Seitz/Sitz/Sitzes/Sides, which can make tracking family challenging.
The Sitzes family settled along the Castor River, about five miles south of present-day Marquand. Peter died before 1842 at the age of 91 and is buried on what was known as the John B. Sitze farm, along with many other family members. This property is now known as Moore’s Chapel Cemetery.
In November 2020, the Captain Henry Whitener Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the Amer ican Revolution, placed a native stone with a marker honoring Captain Peter Sitzes services at the entrance of the Moore’s Chapel Cemetery. Many of his descendants continue to live in Missouri today.
Compiled by Pamela Johnson, John Guild Chapter NSDAR with the assistance of Teri Moss of the Captain Henry Whitener Chapter NSDAR.
Sources:
Lincoln Co. NC Land Records: Deed Book 2, pg. 100. 7 Sep 1774. Peter Seitz purchased 200 acres on Dutch Buffalo Creek, adjacent to Moses Moore.
Peter Sitzes Probate Records. February 28, 1842
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LC38-CB7/captain-peter-seitz-1750-1841
Peter Sitzes – Revolutionary War Soldier, Park Hills Daily Journal, Teri Moss Contributing Writer. https://www.dailyjournalonline.com/writers/teri-moss-contributing-writer
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Seitz-327
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LC38-CB7/captain-peter-seitz-1755-1842
Peter Sitze in U. S, General Land Office Records, 1776-2015
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1246
