By HERB STUFFLEBEAM
For The Weekly Post
FARMINGTON – The Farmington Historical Society and Museum, in cooperation with the Farmington American Legion, has started a project to place a flag holder medallion on each veteran’s grave in eight local cemeteries.
This is part of a six-year project to digitize listings for these cemeteries. While digitizing and visiting these cemeteries, it became apparent that most veterans were not identified.
Digitized information is available at the Farmington Historical Society and Museum and at the Farmington Area Public Library.
The cemeteries are: Oak Ridge, Hill, Pleasant Hill Chapin, Providence Chapel, Coal Creek Dunkard, Yates City, Blakeslee and Uniontown. There are more than 1,000 veterans buried in these cemeteries and 800 of them do not have a flag holder.
Photo by Herb Stufflebeam.
The Historical Society hopes to place flag medallions on all veteran’s graves by Memorial Day of 2021. Star Metal Art, a local metal design company in Farmington, has assisted in the design and manufacturing of the medallions.
The cost of this project is projected to be $12,000, all of which is being funded by donations. The Bank of Farmington has been the most recent contributor of $500. A Monari’s Chili Dog fundraiser held in October, in cooperation with Spoon River Home Health, also raised $4,008.
Tax-deductible contributions to the Veterans’ Medallion Project are acceptedat the Bank of Farmington.
