On the surface, the America-250 Ohio Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project is about recording and preserving Revolutionary War gravestones across Ohio. Below the surface, however, this project represents something deeper. It is a commitment to the ideals of duty and remembrance that these veterans themselves embodied. Individual graves serve as physical places within a larger cultural and historical landscape.

Through this project, we honor their sacrifice and affirm the idea that these physical places should be preserved.

In Marietta, Ohio, the Ohio Company of Associates established one of the earliest preservation efforts in the United States. When they arrived in 1788, they were confronted by precontact earthworks associated with the Late Adena and Hopewell cultures¹.

Recognizing their significance, the Company’s leaders surveyed, named, and reserved these features within the new town plan, representing one of the earliest recorded acts of intentional preservation in the country^1,2,3.

This intentional preservation effort is evident in the 1837 map of Marietta, Ohio, which shows the town plan incorporated mounds as public features, including one adapted as Mound Cemetery, suggesting preservation was prioritized over destruction^1,4.

Cemeteries serve a near-universal role in human societies as thresholds between the living and the dead, places of identity and cultural continuity, and means for communities to remember those who came before.

The incorporation of the Conus mound as the focal point of Mound Cemetery in 1801 exemplifies this enduring significance.

The integration of Indigenous ceremonial heritage with the commemorative practices of the early settlers reflects a form of cultural syncretism in which differing traditions coexisted rather than competed, expressing a shared recognition of the sacred nature of burial grounds. The resulting cemetery unified the new American culture with precontact Indigenous ones, transforming the Conus mound and its surroundings into a dual memorial honoring both the ancient mound builders and the settlers of Marietta.

Today, Mound Cemetery serves as the final resting place for 37 Revolutionary War veterans and has been claimed by some as containing the highest concentration of Revolutionary War officer graves in the country⁵.

Burial grounds span across cultures, reinforcing universal values of respect for ancestors, belief in continuity, and collective identity.

Unfortunately, gravestones deteriorate.

Without intervention, markers fade, inscriptions vanish, and memories are lost. This project seeks to interrupt that process.

Despite the early recognition of their importance and the attempts made to preserve them, many portions of the Marietta earthworks have been destroyed. Some sections, located on private property, were never protected, while other portions were intentionally destroyed for material use^1,6.

Whether it is intentional destruction like land use changes or natural processes like erosion, the cultural resources of our nation are under constant threat. With that in mind, the America-250 Ohio Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project seeks a holistic approach built on collaboration among heritage professionals, local government, and the public.

Working together to document these sites will create a new type of digital record that is enhanced by spatial data. It is our hope that this new dataset will function as a tribute to the past, offer new avenues for research, and serve as a blueprint for future preservation efforts in Ohio and beyond.

References Cited

¹Levy, J. 2023. Of Note: Mapping Stories and Native Earthworks in Marietta, Ohio. In Unfolding History, Manuscripts at the Library of Congress. https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2023/11/of-note-mapping-stories-and-native-earthworks-in-marietta-ohio/, accessed October 20. 2025.

²Open Virtual Worlds. The Moundbuilders' Art: A Confluence of 'Ingenuity, Industry, and Elegance'. https://openvirtualworlds.org/omeka/exhibits/show/moundbuildersart/moundbuilders/middlewoodland/marietta, accessed October 20, 2025.

³Martinko, W. 2009. “So Majestic a Monument of Antiquity”: Landscape, Knowledge, and Authority in the Early National West. Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 16(1), 29-61. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/bdl.0.0017.

⁴Squier, E. and E. Davis. 1848. Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Bartlett & Welford, New York.

⁵Fry, M. and F. Parlin. 2004. Mound Cemetery and its Soldiers. https://www.mariettasar.com/mound-cemetery-soldiers, accessed October 20. 2025.

⁶Marietta Ohio. 2016. Marietta Earthworks. https://mariettaohio.org/marietta-earthworks/, accessed October 20, 2025.