During a tribute to Revolutionary War veteran William Wallace in Northwood Saturday, no one knew why family members in the 19th century had chosen to leave him behind, under a sad grave marker – a big, blank, boring rock – while reinterring the rest of the family to an alternate site.
That’s because town historian Steve Bailey was sick that morning and couldn’t make the ceremony. He’s related to Wallace, guessing that the man who died in 1812 was his great grandfather times eight. Or maybe 10.
He knew the truth. He knew his distant relative enjoyed the outdoors.
“Everyone except for William was moved to the east end, into the public cemetery,” Bailey said. “He asked that they don’t move him. He wanted to stay on the mountain and enjoy the view, so they left him there.”
The view at the Knowlton Cemetery has hills and trees and grassy fields. Last weekend it included 50 people, there to honor a man who, like so many veterans born in the 18th century, was buried with no mention of anything connected to his background.
No name, no dates, no Army Rank, nothing.
Now there’s a marker with a deep, black inscription on a pristine granite headstone. It reads, “William Wallace, 1st Lieut, Drew’s Company, 2 NH Regt, 1740-1812.”
“The least we could do is ensure that their final resting place was properly marked,” Richard Doucet, a member of VFW Post 7217 in Northwood, said in his speech to those who gathered on a sunny, but windy fall morning. “We will not rest until all Northwood veterans have their final resting place, places are properly marked and their memory honored.”
That’s a tall task, of course. But people like Bailey, Doucet, Daniel Barnhart, the commander of Post 7217, and Sherman Elliott, who’s been the superintendent of Northwood’s cemeteries for 40 years, made it happen,
They were and remain determined to work through an intimidating process, researching paperwork in Northwood’s Town Hall and the archives in Washington, D.C., to properly honor those who served during Revolutionary War.
The buzz began in 2014.
“After the memorial Day Parade, some of the members were making comments that some of the grave sites are in pretty bad shape,” Doucet said. “We tried to mark the unmarked graves and were told the (Veterans’ Affairs) will give you a marker if you can prove they were in the service.”
Post 7217’s members are proud of their efforts to do the right thing and give those who died during the war for independence their due.
“We’re not one of the bigger posts in the state,” said Shannan Brown, the state Veterans of Foreign Wars commander and the first woman to hold that post in its 116-year history. “But we were the first ones to do this and now we’ll keep doing this and we’re trying to promote others to do the same thing.”
In 2016, VFW Post 7217 was asked to locate John Bickford, who fought in the Revolutionary War. Pay records from the town hall were uncovered and sent to the VA in D.C. That’s mandatory.
“We have to prove to the Veterans Affairs that the person actually served and was a paid member of the military,” Barnhart said.
Those pay records, stored locally, lead to the veteran’s identity in Washington, in a process that took just 90 days for the Bickford stone to be sent here. That went up in Canterbury.
Saturday’s commemoration was a three-year process before Wallace’s stone was sent to Northwood.
“For Wallace, it was constant writing back, writing back; write to these people, write to those people,” Doucet said. “Some of it was delayed by COVID. Finally, it was confirmed that Wallace was registered on the roles of the Continental Army, which is the basic information that the VA requires.”
According to Bailey, the mass exodus, from a cemetery that had only rocks as markers, occurred in the mid-1800s. Local records listed the names of the dead buried there, but exact locations were not available.
The lonely headstone, up a steep incline in a family’s backyard, now stands near a rock wall, five layers tall. Records indicate that he was buried there, in that cemetery, but the stone does not necessarily mean he was buried in that exact spot.
It’s more of a symbol, an acknowledgment that Wallace is buried somewhere in this small family gravesite, and it’s time to recognize that fact.
Erica and Dave Lee bought their house 22 years ago. The land where those rocks once sat is part of their backyard property.
They welcomed everyone.
“It’s great for all the veterans to be recognized,” David Lee said. “We’re happy to host this event, and we’d love to see more of this happening.”