Marietta Register Article November 14, 2007
| Mound Cemetery to see improvements for 2008 ceremony |
| Wednesday, 14 November 2007 | |
| By Tom LotshawThe Marietta Register
Representatives from several groups met at Mound Cemetery Friday afternoon to announce the future undertaking of several projects at the historic Marietta cemetery surrounding the prehistoric Conus mound on Fifth Street. The Sons of the American Revolution say they will install lighting and run electricity to the flag pole just inside the cemetery’s gate. “We kept noticing the flag wasn’t flying there,” said SAR Vice President Dick McAllister, whose fifth great grandfather is buried in the cemetery. “Getting this done will allow us to fly a flag there 24 hours a day.” Electricity will be run to the flag pole underground from a distribution pole in front of the cemetery near the Fifth Street sidewalk. The City of Marietta will install a new walkway and repair the sidewalk in front of the gateway while the electrical project is being done. “This is a nice collaborative project,” said Mayor Michael Mullen. The sidewalk and lighting project is expected to commence soon, he said. Once those two projects are finished, the Daughters of the American Revolution will fund a renovation of the large iron gateway to Mound Cemetery. The $2,000 renovation project will include sandblasting, repairing, and painting the somewhat deteriorated gateway. The projects are preparation for a July 4, 2008 ceremony at Mound Cemetery being planned by American Union Lodge #1. The ceremony will center around the installation of a plaque at Rufus Putnam’s tombstone, honoring the 200th anniversary of his being named the first Grand Master of the Ohio Masonic Lodge. It is expected to be more than a city event, drawing in people from all over the Mid-Ohio Valley, the state, and even the country, Mullen said. “It’s such an under-appreciated site, a truly unique cemetery in the country,” Mullen said. The cemetery is reported to hold more Revolutionary War officers than anywhere else in the U.S. - a claim the Sons of the American Revolution are investigating, said Scott Britton, the group’s historian and former president of the Washington County Historical Society. “This whole area, with the mound and the buried war officers, is great. All the different wars are represented here,” he said. |