Editor’s Note: In the spirit of honoring our Veterans this week I wanted to share this essay from a very proud patriot.

John Kass

---

By Miss Cynthia Grace Kuhn

November 14^th, 2026

When I was first introduced to the prompt for a Veterans Day essay, I thought that I’d write about one of my grandparents who fought in World War II. However, when I asked my grandpa for the information he had, he introduced me to someone else in our family: Joseph Calvin Guess. This is my six-times-great-grandfather, and he served in the Revolutionary War. When we think of the Revolution, we imagine soldiers, battles, and sacrifices that helped shape the country into what we are now.

However, even while all of these are significant to that war, we tend to skip over the fact that behind all of these events are people with stories that are forgotten over time. Joseph Guess was only 17–the proper age, however young–when he served in the war.

Even though around two centuries have passed since his death, records of his military service, family, and personal belongings have allowed his story to thrive among these generations after him. Through these records, we not only know about his contributions to the war that gave us all the freedom we have today, but we can also learn about the family life he built before and afterward.

Joseph C. Guess was born around 1762 in Fairfax County, Virginia. Unfortunately, due to a family bible we used to have that contained the births, deaths, and marriages in the family being lost and destroyed in Tennessee, we don’t have the exact day he was born.

According to family history, a sister took the Bible to a school to read it, and it was left there overnight. After the schoolhouse had been broken into, the bible was never recovered. Joseph’s father was also named Joseph Guess, but the family knew him as “Pappy.” Pappy’s wife, or Joseph’s mother, is unknown. Joseph’s wife was named Constance Guess, with whom he had seven children: Jinny, James, Peggy, Polly, Frances, William, and Nancy. Even though we don’t know everything about his childhood, these facts help us give Joseph some kind of background before the war.

As previously mentioned, Joseph was drafted into the militia for six months when he was 17 during the Revolutionary War. His company served under Captain Jamison, with Abraham Allen as lieutenant, and was attached to General Rutherford’s forces under Colonel Lytle’s regiment.

During his service, the company traveled through several locations, such as Salisbury, Charlotte, Charleston, and Turkey Hill along the Savannah River. This service placed him in the region during the Battle of Briar Creek, which was also around the time he was captured by the British Loyalists, also known as the Tories. Also, around this time, Joseph had taken a sandwich from a Torie in the war and eaten it. An absolutely perfect way to protest, if you ask me.

After completing his six months in the militia, he was discharged at Stono. However, his military days had not ended there. He was drafted once more as a private to serve against the Tories along the Peedee River.

Under Colonel Thomas Taylor and Captain Davis Grisham, he participated in skirmishes, scouted the surrounding countryside, and helped protect local inhabitants. His service in this war was later testified to by his father and several other individuals, helping establish his eligibility for a military pension. Even though he was so young when he first entered the militia, his service became an important part of my family’s history.

After the Revolutionary War, Joseph eventually settled in Kentucky, where he continued his life with his family. This was where he died on January 14, 1835, leaving behind records that provide a glimpse into his late years.

One document I found especially interesting was his will, written on May 21, 1834 (which is only a day before my birthday, fun fact). The contents of it state arrangements he’d made for his wife, Constance, and their children. He left his wife horses, household furniture, farming equipment, and farmland she is to use as she likes, along with various other livestock.

Other family members had gotten other things too, such as his granddaughter, Obedience, whom he left a cow without horns and 30 dollars (which would now be $1,175 in today’s economy). Perhaps the most meaningful inheritance was what Joseph had given his son: the jacket and hat he wore during the war. These belongings connect his family to years of military experience.

Additionally, another document I have obtained is his inventory after he died. On that list, it says he had a feather bed, candles, firearms with ammunition, and other household items. He also had three sheets of paper, and it’s crazy to think that simple sheets of paper were meaningful enough to put down on an inventory back then.

Today, Joseph is believed to be buried at Garnel Pidock Farm Cemetery in Kentucky, but the exact location of his grave in that cemetery is unknown, and I can almost promise you would never be able to find it without a professional’s help to assist you. My grandpa himself needed someone else’s help to even find the cemetery, and we still have no idea where his grave is actually buried.

While Joseph Calvin Guess is an important figure in my maternal history, he is not the only person who has served in a war. On my mother’s side, multiple other relatives of mine have fought for this country, including William C. Guess during the Civil War, Henry C. Guess during World War I, Calvin A. Guess in World War II, Donald Sales in the Korean War, and, on my father’s side, my uncles Bill Hudock in Vietnam and Robert Hudock during the time of the war, along with Gary Kuhn, who served in the Air Force in the Cold War.

Additionally, Steven Taylor, my uncle on my mother’s side, was also in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. Their experiences span generations and prove how my family’s history connects to many different time periods of this country’s past.

I may never know every detail about Joseph’s life, but these documents help me come to a short understanding of someone who lived centuries before me. His story reminds me that even as time passes, stories do not die, and the lives of those who came before can continue to thrive in our minds and in our hearts.

-30-

Miss Kuhn is a proud patriot and a student at Jefferson Middle School, Valparaiso Indiana.