In a shady northern Plant City cemetery speckled with oaks, an intimate group of women gathered to bestow a special honor upon a 110-year-old grave. Even with the drizzling rain, the National Society United States Daughters of 1812 proceeded with its Nov. 22 ceremony at Mt. Enon Memorial Cemetery, marking the stoney grave of Nancy DeVane English.
The ceremony included a presentation of colors by Plant City High School’s JROTC students, reading of proclamations from the national and Florida state presidents of Daughters of 1812 and the placement of a special marker to indicate English’s status as a Real Daughter of 1812.
To be in the society, a woman must be able to show documentation proving she is a direct bloodline descendent of a soldier who fought in the war, or someone who gave material aid to the soldiers.
DeVane English was the daughter of Benjamin DeVane, who fought in the War of 1812 in North Carolina.
After the war, Benjamin moved to Plant City and raised his family there.
“They were farmers, and Benjamin was one of the pioneer settlers of the Plant City area,” said Kay McGee, chapter vice president.
Benjamin was born in North Carolina as the son of a Revolutionary War soldier. When Benjamin died in 1874, at age 85, he had been living in the Plant City household of his daughter and her husband. Benjamin was buried in Mt. Enon Memorial Cemetery, and when DeVane English died in 1904, she was buried there, as well.
None of DeVane English’s descendants lives in the Plant City area currently, but some of her descendants, from as close as Tampa and as far as Gainesville, came to attend the grave marking ceremony.
Dwight DeVane is a descendant who has explored his family tree in depth and knows the stories of many graves at Mt. Enon. Many of his ancestors went south after the Civil War and settled around what is now Plant City.
“They were pioneers,” Dwight said. “They had to deal with things that much of the nation had already dealt with. But here, it took a little longer. The family had such a deep sense of who they were … and a really close association with this place.”
And it’s those stories of historical figures that the Daughters of 1812 seek to protect.
“The purpose of our society is to promote patriotism, to preserve and increase the knowledge of the history of America, and to mark historic spots,” McGee said.
Grave markings are not commonplace ceremonies for the Daughters of 1812. There has not been a local grave marking since McGee, joined five years ago.
“The country has been doing all sorts of things to commemorate the war and to find places that need to be saved and thought of,” McGee said. “So this is our little salute to the bicentennial, to have this marking at this time.”
