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Groups in Summit and Medina counties attempt to document, mark graves of Revolutionary War veterans to preserve history
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
TALLMADGE: Patriots are buried here.
In the old Tallmadge Cemetery, off Tallmadge Circle, are the graves of nine men who helped the American Colonies defeat the British during the Revolutionary War that is remembered today on Independence Day.
On most of the graves, there is no mention that a veteran of the war for independence is buried there.
That is why Kelly Coghan Holderbaum, president of the Summit County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, and nearly a dozen volunteers from her group have been walking county cemeteries this spring and summer.
Some chapters of the Ohio Genealogical Society are trying to document the graves of all Revolutionary War veterans in their counties, said Holderbaum, 28, of Norton, who works as a nanny and has a bumper sticker on her car that reads: ''I Break for Cemeteries.
She said volunteers are searching for graves and taking pictures of what they find to help put together an accurate account of the men who helped create the United States and are buried here.
At the Tallmadge Cemetery, volunteer Judy Davis, 68, of Stow, said she was looking at the toppled headstone of Capt. John Wright this spring when she saw something coming out of the ground.
It was an old Revolutionary War flag standard from the Sons of the American Revolution. Davis pulled it out of the dirt and placed it next to the headstone.
In another section of the cemetery lay the broken gravestone of David Preston.
''It is a sad one,'' Davis said. There was no mention on his headstone that he was a veteran.
''There is no family left to take care of it and look after it — or if there are family members, they don't realize it is here and he is related to them,'' she said.
Disintegrating stones|
Volunteers have been using genealogical information and government records to locate graves, Holderbaum said. Current records indicate there are 104 Revolutionary War veterans buried in Summit County.
Ohio Genealogical Society President E. Paul Morehouse, an Akron resident and part-time history teacher at the University of Akron, said there are probably thousands of Revolutionary War veterans buried across the state.
Most of the graves are 150 years old or more and ''many of those stones have disintegrated,'' Morehouse said. ''There are probably countless cemeteries around the state that no longer exist.''
A few Summit County veterans, brothers John Walker and Robert Walker Jr. of Hudson, and Nathaniel Hardy of the former Northampton Township, were buried in cemeteries that no longer exist, Davis said.
She said that according to legend, one county veteran, Conrad Boosinger, was buried under what became a portion of Interstate 76 in Tallmadge.
Act of patriotism|
In Medina County, Terry and Marcia Hart of Valley City have been documenting 64 graves throughout the county.
Terry Hart, 63, a National City Bank retiree and an Army Vietnam veteran, said searching for graves has become an act of patriotism for him and his wife.
''These people ought to be memorialized somehow,'' he said.
Hart said the Department of Veterans Affairs will pay for a headstone or a plaque for a veteran of the Revolutionary War if there is no marker on the grave already.
He said markers like the one found buried in Tallmadge, that used to be made of copper and now are made of zinc, cost about $100. The VA will not pay for those.
Marcia Hart, 56, a part-time Continental Airlines employee, said the work being done around the state that eventually will place clear markings on the graves is important.
''They need to be noted,'' she said.
At Reid Hill Cemetery in Granger Township rests a headstone for Deborah Goodwin, wife of Seth Goodwin, who served in the war.
But there is no headstone for Seth.
''We need to get something in here,'' Marcia Hart said.
The public needs to know where the patriots are buried, she said.
At Windfall Cemetery in Medina Township, she and her husband found the grave of Matilda Hickox and saw a flag near the grave.
The grave of her husband, Giles Hickox, was found in another part of the cemetery, but there was nothing on his stone that indicated he was a veteran.
''The headstone doesn't tell you who the person was,'' said Marcia Hart. ''It just tells you the person lived and died.''
Her husband said what is important is what happened during the lives of the men they are researching.
''We've got a birth date and a death date and there is a dash in between. That dash is the important part,'' Terry Hart said.
At the Tallmadge Cemetery, as Holderbaum and volunteers Davis and Julie Wilson, both 52, of Cuyahoga Falls, looked at the graves, Judy Davis said the passing of time makes it more difficult to locate the sites.
She looked at the headstone of one veteran. Lettering could still be read but as time goes on, the words on the stone will fade and no one will know who the deceased was, Holderbaum said.
''If nobody marks them now, nobody will know that they were here,'' she said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
TALLMADGE: Patriots are buried here.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 08:31 AM, 07/04/2009
How interesting; great photos.
I have a great grandfather's grave in PA that we have not been able to find-the office is never open. He was in the Civil War.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 10:14 AM, 07/04/2009
I remember as a youth, taking a short cut home from school, I stumbled on an old overgrown cemetery off of Tallmadge Ave in Akron.
This was the Bettis corners cemetery. It is the final resting place for Captain Nathaniel Bettis. I believe that only recently was this cemetery repaired and marked properly.
http://www.acorn.net/gen/bettescem.html
Posted 08:29 PM, 07/04/2009
How can one get involved in cemerery preservation... I can't offer money, but can offer labor.
