O'KELLY CHAPEL - As a young man more than two centuries ago, James O'Kelley was an unbeatable street fighter and a talented fiddler.

But as colonists rose up to seek independence from the British king, O'Kelley turned to God, ministering to troops throughout the Revolutionary War and eventually helping to lead a revolt against the top-down hierarchy of the Methodist Church in the new nation that resulted.

Sons and daughters of the American Revolution gathered Sunday afternoon to honor O'Kelley and mark his grave in what is now Colvard Farms, an upscale Chatham County neighborhood just two miles south of The Streets at Southpoint mall.

The ceremony, marked with fife and drums, musket blasts and re-enactors, honored a man who, like other religious leaders at the time, valued independence, equality and revivalism and split from traditional denominations. His essay on slavery was one of the first anti-slavery tracts by an American clergyman.

"He was part of a really great wave of rebellious fervor that swept across the United States," said Ernest Dollar, executive director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill in his keynote address Sunday.

In 1854, 28 years after O'Kelley died after a painful illness at the age of 88, followers marked his grave with an obelisk that stands about 5 feet high.

O'Kelley's descendants and others knew of the gravesite, though it had fallen into disrepair over the years until the developer of Colvard Farms recently spruced it up with a new fence.

Jay Stobbs and his wife, Mary Jo Hall, stumbled onto the grave a couple of years ago as they wandered through their new neighborhood. The couple had moved to Colvard Farms from Virginia in 2005.

They came across a rock perimeter wall and periwinkle, a plant with a pale purple flower that is commonly found in old cemeteries. But what really stood out was the obelisk. The words were still legible.

"Erected by his Christian friends to the memory of James O'Kelley of N.C.," it says. "The southern champion of Christian freedom. 1738-1826."

The couple were curious. They had never heard of O'Kelley, but they knew how to find out who he was.

Hall has been a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for half a dozen years. Stobbs has been a member of the lesser known Sons of the American Revolution for about two years. He is president of the chapter that covers Orange, Durham and Chatham counties. The couple enjoys exploring old cemeteries.

They did some electronic digging, quickly finding Web sites about O'Kelley online with photographs of his grave. They checked the records at the Daughters of the American Revolution, which lists men and women whose service in the war has been established.

They found that O'Kelley had served in the war as a preacher, ministering to troops fighting for independence from the British in North Carolina and Virginia. When he was captured by the British in North Carolina, O'Kelley refused to change sides but agreed to minister to Tory troops, who were loyal to the British king. He later escaped.

His service in the war made him eligible to be honored with the gravemarking.

"He was a fiercely independent guy," Stobbs said. "The Tories tried to get him to swear allegiance to the king. He was famished and almost near death, but he wouldn't break."

At the end of the war, O'Kelley turned his attentions to the church. Frustrated with the strict rules of the Methodist Church, he split from the denomination and his mentor, the church's leader, Francis Asbury, in 1792 and helped create a sect that was prominent in parts of Virginia and North Carolina.

O'Kelley's sect emphasized exercising faith according to the Bible and not the dictates of church officials.

And it supported equality. The fiery, Irish-born O'Kelley also invited slaves into his churches and let them become members, which was against the church's philosophy at the time, Stobbs said.

Several of the churches O'Kelley helped found in the area remain, including the nearby O'Kelly Chapel, which dropped the second "e" in the name. The chapel is no longer in use as a church but was open Sunday after the ceremony.

Several of O'Kelley's descendants attended the ceremony, some meeting each other for the first time.

Meg Howe's father's first name is O'Kelley, after the rebellious pastor. O'Kelley the patriot is her grandfather six times removed. She was in the Triangle on business last week and drove by the chapel. She noticed the doors were open and learned about the ceremony Sunday.

"It's awesome," she said. "It's a thrill. It's nice to know that someone who lived so long ago could have such a lasting impact."

Those who honored O'Kelley on Sunday hope their efforts will mean he won't be forgotten.

On Sunday, a bronze plaque that marks O'Kelley as a patriot was unveiled at the foot of the obelisk.

"Hopefully it will be here for generations," said Stobbs, "to let people know a patriot lies here."