Ohio needs help finding Revolutionary War heroes under the America 250 project
Ohioans needed to find Revolutionary War heroes
After the Revolutionary War, historians say that soldiers were given pieces of land in Ohio, as payment for fighting. 7,000 are believed to be buried in and around the region. The Ohio State Historic Preservation Office is tasked with locating these war heroes.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – As states across America prepare to celebrate their 250th anniversary as a nation, one country is trying to find war heroes to remember.
Historians believe that approximately 7,000 Revolutionary War soldiers are buried throughout Ohio. After the American Revolution, thousands of soldiers were paid plots of land for fighting in the war.
Millions of those acres were in what is now Ohio. As thousands of veterans move west to start anew, many settle there.
“These veterans are some of our first Ohioans to come to the state,” said Krista Horrocks, project manager, historian and cemetery curator for the Ohio History Connection. Horrocks oversees a state program, the Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project, in partnership with America250-Ohio.
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Ohio’s State Preservation Office is searching for Revolutionary War heroes through the app. (Chelsea Torres)
This project is seeking help from Ohio residents to locate the graves of Revolutionary War heroes.
“These guys, they survived, they moved on, they went on to settle here in Ohio with their families,” Horrocks said.
To date, the community has enrolled more than 4,100 soldiers throughout the state of Ohio. The deadline is Memorial Day.
Horrocks knows it won’t reach the 7,000 mark “because some of them have cemeteries that don’t exist,” but the Survey123 app can help get as close to that goal as possible.
Survey123 lists surveys related to the project and allows users to search local cemeteries, according to Horrocks. The app can be downloaded on any mobile device.
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America250-Ohio and Ohio’s State Preservation Office are starting a project to identify Revolutionary War heroes. (Chelsea Torres)
When they find veterans graves, people can also look for graves with Revolutionary War heroes engraved on them. If an unmarked grave is found in the application, users can answer a number of questions related to graves. This includes name, date of birth, date of death and photos.
Several cemeteries around the state also do their part.
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“We’ve had different lists sent to us over the years, ‘this could be a Revolutionary War Veterans list, or this could be a list’,” said Randy Rogers, Executive Director of Green Lawn Cemetery, which is the second largest cemetery in the state of Ohio.
When Green Lawn was established in 1848 — after the Revolutionary War — Rogers says many families brought their relatives from other cemeteries. He said some cemeteries were closed in the city as the city of Columbus grew.
Groups looking for undocumented Revolutionary War heroes (Chelsea Torres)
With the Memorial Day deadline approaching, Rogers said they have listed nine Revolutionary War heroes on the national project’s action plan. Although he has identified thirteen, he said the hunt for these veterans would be difficult.
“You know, families are very proud of their veterans and patriotic ancestors,” said Rogers. “They might have a marker on the family plot, even though they’re buried somewhere else, and they have a headstone somewhere else, but they just have a marker here.”
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The group plans to compile a list of Revolutionary War veterans’ graves and send it to the public. Horrocks hopes the end result will mean restored or new historical markers, or tombstones for these once forgotten heroes.
“The whole point of the project is to get good, accurate data to the community to do what’s best for veterans in their community,” Horrocks told Fox News.
