Historical marker honors the life and death of Revolutionary War hero Alexander Ketcham

Roughly 246 years after an American Revolutionary War hero was killed by British loyalists near the swamplands of Nissequogue, historians and dignitaries unveiled a marker honoring his life and sacrifice near the spot where he died.

 Alexander Ketcham, of Huntington, was killed in 1780 in an ambush while on a mission to obtain gold to supply troops for the war effort. 

He was honored Friday by Nissequogue Mayor and Town of Smithtown Historian Richard Smith; members of the Long Island chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution; and other dignitaries from Smithtown, Nissequogue and Huntington. They gathered near the North Swamp off Short Beach Road and lifted the covering off a blue sign at the wooded area. 

Ketcham was a lieutenant in the Continental Army, according to Smith and Wayne Haddock, a member of the nonprofit Sons of the American Revolution, who researched his history. 

In 1780, New York Gov. George Clinton commissioned Jesse Brush, an American Revolution patriot, to go to Long Island on a secret mission to raise money to supply the Continental Army troops. Brush, a major in the 1st Suffolk County New York Militia, and his men, including Ketcham, rowed in a whaleboat from Connecticut across Long Island Sound for their mission.

A fierce storm during the night left the company unable to complete their journey back across the Sound to Connecticut, and the party was forced to return to Long Island's North Shore. While there on Oct. 7, 1780, a party of Tories surprised them, and Ketcham was shot and killed during the skirmish.

The surviving members of the company managed to escape with the gold to fund the war effort.

Two towns researched together 

Haddock said the research started this winter, with Smith and Huntington Town Historian Robert C. Hughes, and lasted about six months. They reviewed historic calendars, newspaper articles and other documents to piece together the story of Ketcham's mission and his death. 

"Everything fell together and it was great, and to take the Town of Huntington and Smithtown to work together on a project like this was great; to be able to find this location of where the incident took place and where he was killed," Haddock said.

Hughes said the research they dug up on Ketcham over those months unveiled details of his struggles during the mission, such as his hiding in the swamp overnight with his party.

"It added a lot of detail and flavor to his story that otherwise would have been undiscovered," Hughes said. "And it's great that this is something that happened, but nobody ever knew about it, nobody ever commemorated it, and now we have the historic marker so people will always be able to know about him and look up more information about it."

Family roots

Smith, a descendant of Smithtown town founder Richard "Bull" Smith, also helped pinpoint the location of where Ketcham was killed from examining his own family's early documents and local maps. He said there were many patriots and loyalists around the area during that time, which made it "essentially a civil war." 

Smith said he hopes people will remember Ketcham's sacrifice as an example of what it means to fight for freedom.

"His personal sacrifice meant something," Smith said. "It meant the formation of our country, which guarantees us freedom … but it comes at a cost. And the cost is involvement. You can't just sit back and let other people do things for you. You've got to be engaged."