New headstone set for Revolutionary War vet in Clarendon
Photos courtesy of Melissa Ierlan
CLARENDON – Thomas Brintal, who served in the Revolutionary War, has a new headstone in Maplewood Cemetery on Route 237 in Clarendon.
Brintal was a sergeant with Doolittle’s Regiment in the Massachusetts Line. He lived to be 86, dying on Aug. 18, 1830.
His original headstone was lying on the ground in two pieces.
“It was so degraded, and dark and stained,” said Town Historian Melissa Ierlan.
She set the new headstone on Sunday. She wrote to the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., requesting the new headstone for Brintal. The VA shipped the new stone to the Town Hall.
Ierlan made the request to the VA after one of Brintal’s descendants, a veteran who currently lives in Colorado, asked the VA for the new headstone for Brintal but was unsuccessful.
Ierlan sent the VA a photo of the original headstone, and the VA agreed to a new one.
Brintal isn’t the only Revolutionary War soldier buried at the pioneer cemetery. Augustus Sturges also is buried there.
Clarendon is also home to Lemuel Cook, a veteran of American Revolution. Cook was the last living pensioner from that war. He died on May 20, 1866, at the age of 107. Cook saw action at the Battle of Brandywine and Yorktown and met General George Washington. He is buried at Cook Cemetery on Munger Road.
