May 28, 2012

Honoring Civil War Veterans at The Ridges


On a pastoral hillside in Athens, Ohio, is one of the most poignant cemeteries I’ve ever seen. Called simply “The Ridges” by locals, it’s the burial grounds for the old Athens State Psychiatric Hospital (originally called the Athens Lunatic Asylum). If their bodies were not claimed by their families, patients who died at the hospital from the 1870’s until 1944 were buried in sloping rows with small, numbered headstones as their only markers.

For decades, the list of names of those buried at The Ridges was considered restricted information. Over the years, a few families breached the red tape necessary to find their loved ones and install traditional markers with names and dates. The cemetery fell into sad disrepair for many years, but has been restored today through the efforts of dedicated volunteers. The Athens council National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Athens) spearheaded The Ridges Cemeteries Project, and in 2005 the state legislature finally passed a bill making the names of those buried public. Terry Gilkey has created a downloadable directory to the graves.

On my last visit, I was struck by the number of Civil War veterans buried at The Ridges. Some are still identified only by their number.
Grave No. 265
Other families have replaced the anonymous stones with personalized markers. John C. Bocock served in Company B of the 91st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the same company as my great-great-great-grandfather, Newel King, and his brother Wesley King. They had to have known one another. Were they friends?


Here are some other Civil War veterans who rest at The Ridges:

John Curry
John R. Gillespie
Adam Kern, Co. D, 17th Ohio Infantry
Nathan C. Littler, Sergeant Major, 73rd Ohio Infantry
William M. Riley, Co. A, 3rd Ohio Infantry

On this Memorial Day, it seems fitting to pay tribute to these soldiers whose final months or years, perhaps, were difficult ones. It's good to know they have not been forgotten.

May they rest in peace. 

10 comments:

  1. Thank you for this lovely tribute! I have ancestors from Athens County, Ohio so this was very interesting.

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    1. Jana, it's a peaceful cemetery in a beautiful setting, and if you ever get the chance I'm sure you'd enjoy visiting it. I have ancestors who lived in Athens County, too, from the 1830s-1870s, and two kids who recently went to college there. Where did your folks live? We should compare notes!

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  2. Shelley, it is quite sobering to consider the location where these Civil War vets were buried: a state Psychiatric Hospital cemetery. I take that as a tell-tale sign of what war can do to a person. It reminds me of a press release just passed along on DearMYRTLE of a documentary discussing those same ravages of war after World War II. Even then, it was something that was not spoken of much. If the war was too traumatic, then people assigned the blame to the person, not to the experience. Saddening.

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    1. I agree, Jacqi. As I understand it, many times veterans were admitted for what would now be considered post-traumatic stress syndrome. Yet at the time the Ridges was considered a progressive facility. One can only hope they found a measure of peace and understanding there. It's good they're finally being publicly remembered for their service to our country.

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  3. What a touching post....thanks to those veterans who served their country!

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    1. Thanks, Dorene--and I second your thanks to those veterans and their families!

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  4. I had a similar incident here in Cincinnati. My gg-grandfather died at Longview (our insane asylum) and was unceremoniously buried at beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery without a headstone. He, too, was a Civil War veteran. I had to go to the Ohio Historical Society, fill out forms, and wait for months to get the information they had on him. In the end, it was very worthwhile.

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    1. Kathy, I'm glad your quest to get the information on your gg-grandfather was finally successful. But what a shame. If even their burials were secretive, can you imagine the stigma these veterans and their families felt while they were alive?

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  5. A perfect Memorial Day post, Shelley. I fear though, that a similar post may be written 150 years from now.

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    1. Oh Susan, I hope time will prove you wrong about that, but I admit I share your fear. Hopefully public understanding of mental illness and the toll that war takes on the psyche will both be better in the future, for the sake of our current soldiers and veterans.

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