America 250: Honoring Our Nation’s Founding Generation
The primary focus right now is to find and mark the graves of all of our Revolutionary War Soldiers as we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
We celebrated Arbor Day at a ceremony in Tawawa Park last April. I don’t normally think of Arbor Day as either a patriotic or nostalgic holiday, but it carried extra meaning this year. Arbor Day fell within a few days of the 250thanniversary of Paul Revere’s ride, marking the start of the Revolutionary War. Something similar will be true of every day that passes for the rest of this year and much of the next.
Every day that goes by, we know that 250 years earlier our ancestors were fighting for independence from Britain. Our Founding Fathers were having the debates and making the decisions that ultimately led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Every day that goes by this year, we can wonder what life must have been like 250 years earlier, when we were in the early days of that war.
We planted a White Oak tree at our Arbor Day celebration in April, and the people who came 250 years before us were not far from our minds. The oldest known living tree in Ohio is also a White Oak that is estimated to be 585 years old. To put that into perspective, it would have been 335 years old when our Revolutionary War soldiers were fighting for our independence. There are still trees standing all over Ohio that may have given shade to soldiers and their families in the years that followed the war. Oh, if trees could talk!
Tilda Phlipot, from the Shelby County Historical Society, asked me to speak about the 21 Revolutionary War soldiers who are buried in Shelby County cemeteries at the Memorial Day Ceremony. Ohio didn’t become a state until 1803, so our most direct connection to the Revolutionary War is the soldiers who survived it, and then made their way to the “Ohio Territory” to help settle it and build a life for themselves and their families. Many war survivors were rewarded for their service with a plot of land, and that’s how Shelby County became home to many of them.
Arguably the most famous of our soldiers is Lewis Boyer. He was born the 3rd of July, 1756 near Hagerstown, Maryland. He enlisted on the 17th of February, 1776 and served in an elite company of 50 body guards protecting General George Washington. Lewis married Rosanna Kerns in 1789 and they had 10 children. They came to Ohio in 1810, receiving a war pension and 100 acres of land. He died on the 19th of September, 1843 at the age of 87 and is buried in Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Orange Township.
Other soldiers buried in the county are James Cannon, Ezra Carey Jr, Thomas Curts, Lawrence Curts, William (Billy) Davis, Reverend William Davis, Caleb Gobel, Peter Hall, John Hardin, Henry Jones, John Line, Joseph Line Jr, David Mellinger, Elijah Pixley, Thomas Shaw, Joshua Stephens, Timothy Wale, Thomas Wilkinson, Sr, and Samuel Woodward. Maybe you recognize a family name in the list and want to investigate further. If so, please check in with the Historical Society.
But this is where the story took a personal turn for me. One name I haven’t mentioned yet that was on the list that Tilda gave me was Zachariah Cecil. It turns out he is my great, great, great, great, great, grandfather and he is buried less than five miles from my house in the Carey Cemetery, just north of Hardin. I had no idea, until I started doing research for that Memorial Day speech.
Further research led me to Cecil Cemetery in Washington Township where I found even more of my long-departed family. Among them was Zachariah’s nephew, William Wirt Cecil, and many of his family. William served as a Justice of Peace for Washington Township, an Associate Judge in Hardin, and a Shelby County Commissioner at various times.
The sad news is that Cecil Cemetery has not been maintained for many decades, and nature reclaims what is not maintained. Few of the 40-plus stones are standing, and many are buried under shallow dirt and debris. Sadly, there are several cemeteries in the county that are in this condition. The Historical Society is leading an effort to eventually restore them all to a dignified state.
The primary focus right now is to find and mark the graves of all of our Revolutionary War Soldiers as we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However, we’re documenting the location of soldiers who fought in other centuries-old wars as we go. The goal is to honor the sacrifices of all of our war veterans. And as we do it, we’ll begin to reclaim the “lost” cemeteries where some of them are buried.
If this interests you, and you’d like to help, please contact the Shelby County Historical Society and let them know. And as you go about your life over the course of this next year, enjoying various holidays and celebrations, please remember that 250 years earlier, these people were laying the groundwork for the county, state, and nation we are all so blessed to call home.
The America 250-Ohio Commission is charged with leading Ohio’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. Visit their website to learn more at https://america250-ohio.org/
America 250: What An Amazing Opportunity to Honor Our Nation’s Founding Generation!
