May 20, 2025, Press Release from America 250-Ohio:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — America 250-Ohio, the official state commission responsible for spearheading Ohio’s celebrations and commemorations relating to America’s semiquincentennial in 2026, announced today a major statewide effort to locate, verify and document the final resting places of Revolutionary War veterans buried in Ohio. With an estimated 7,000 such graves believed to exist statewide, the commission invites the public to help identify, photograph and record the sites in a publicly accessible database.
“We suspect that few Ohioans are aware of how many Revolutionary War veterans settled in the state after the war ended,” said Todd Kleismit, executive director of America 250-Ohio. “Creating this database will help crystalize this connection and enhance our understanding of just how important Ohio was to the establishment of the United States.”
Led by the Ohio History Connection and its State Historic Preservation Office with support from its partner firm Terracon Consultants, Inc., the project uses a new online portal and the mobile app Survey123. Historians, genealogists, local historical societies, students, scouting groups, and descendants are all encouraged to contribute.
The use of Survey123 forms created and monitored by Terracon allows the crowdsourcing of cemetery data including photos, GPS location, and other critical data. “The beauty of this approach is that it empowers anyone who owns a smartphone to contribute meaningful data to the project,” said Joseph Snider, archaeological geophysicist at Terracon.
Ohio is the final resting place for a large number of graves of Revolutionary War veterans, despite not being one of the original 13 colonies. Much of the land that became Ohio was granted to veterans as payment for their military service, leading many to settle here or sell their land to westward-moving pioneers.
“These are the very first veterans of the United States of America,” said Krista Horrocks, historian and cemetery preservationist with the Ohio History Connection. “This project is about reclaiming those stories and ensuring the stories of these Ohioans who directly contributed to the founding of our country are remembered for generations to come.”
To date, the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have gathered information to help identify roughly 6,800 veterans buried in Ohio. This important work is the basis by which the new database will be built and enhanced using the existing information. By creating a public map and archive with detailed GPS data, photographs and historical records, the project hopes to empower communities to protect and preserve these burial sites.
Horrocks notes that many graves have been lost to time, deterioration, or development — and stresses the urgency of documenting them now. “Gravestones won’t survive forever,” she said. “But if we can document their location and story today, that information will outlive all of us.”
A key goal is to establish a robust public record by July 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The public can visit ohiohistory.org/revwargraves to learn more, access the submission portal, and get involved.
