COLUMBUS—America 250-Ohio, the official state commission responsible for spearheading Ohio’s celebrations and commemorations related to America’s semi-quincentennial in 2026, announces 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 has many Revolutionary War gravesites
Ohio is the final resting place for many Revolutionary War veterans’ graves 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 for the new database, which will be built and enhanced using the existing information.
The project hopes to empower communities to protect and preserve these burial sites by creating a public map and archive with detailed GPS data, photographs, and historical records.
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.
Knox Community Hospital proudly supports the vibrant pulse of our community by sponsoring the Life & Culture section on Knox Pages, celebrating the stories and experiences that make our region unique.