Lost plaque returned to Middlebury Cemetery in Akron
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A lost historic plaque has been found.
Its return will be celebrated when Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan honors Revolutionary War veterans at a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Middlebury Cemetery at 1245 Newton St.
Middlebury Cemetery, also known as the Old Cemetery and the Newton Street Cemetery, is Akron’s original “burying ground,” and predates the city’s founding in 1825. Deacon Titus Chapman, a Revolutionary War soldier, donated the property in 1808 and died later that year. He may have been the first settler to be buried there.
The Akron City Council accepted responsibility for the cemetery’s maintenance in 1923, the same year that the Cuyahoga Portage Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a marker to six veterans of the Continental Army as well as “the pioneers who blazed the way for succeeding generations.” Mayor D.C. Rybolt accepted the marker on behalf of the city.
The metal plaque bears an inscription from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by Lord Byron: “But there are deeds which should not pass away, and names that must not wither, though the earth forgets her empires with a just decay.”
The marker disappeared in the late 1990s and had been missing for over 25 years before it was rediscovered this year in northwest Ohio. A woman contacted the Akron DAR Chapter after learning of the plaque. Stephanie Whims, treasurer of the Cuyahoga Portage Chapter, brought the marker back to Akron.
A city crew reinstalled it on a stanchion in October.
The six soldiers buried at Middlebury Cemetery are Titus Chapman, Lambert Clement, Isaac Dudley, William Neal, Thomas Sumner and Hosea Wilcox Jr. Absent from the list is Wilcox’s wife, Abigail Mills Wilcox, a Continental Army nurse who was not included on the 1923 plaque.
“Veterans Day requires us to pause and remember those who served their country in uniform and took up arms to defend our freedom and liberty,” Horrigan said in a prepared statement. “These soldiers are especially worthy of our attention on this Veterans Day weekend.”
Middlebury Cemetery was in use until 1853 when citizens incorporated East Akron Cemetery on East Market Street. After two centuries, many of the old gravestones are no longer legible. In 2008, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic presided over the dedication of an Ohio Historical Marker at the cemetery.
Monday’s ceremony will include remarks from Horrigan, Whims and Summit County Historical Society President and CEO Leianne Neff Heppner. Junior ROTC students and a color guard from East High CLC will participate in the event.
Parking is available on Newton Street as well as on Barder and Martha avenues.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Lost plaque returned to Middlebury Cemetery
