From Obscure Grave Site to Public Memorial

From Obscure Grave Site to Public Memorial. . , Reburial and Commemoration , When road construction disturbed Steuben’s burial site in 1804, his former aide and estate executor, Benjamin Walker, had the baron’s body moved to the five-acre wooded area, now called the Sacred Grove. Walker donated 50 acres, including the baron’s grave site, to the Welsh Baptist Society, which agreed to maintain and preserve the Sacred Grove., In 1824, caught up in the renewed patriotic fervor that swept the nation after the War of 18 12, the citizens of Oneida County placed a simple limestone marker bearing the inscription STEUBEN over the baron’s grave. By 1857, that marker had deteriorated, causing German-American societies and newspapers to launch a fundraising campaign to erect a permanent memorial. Completed in 1872 with assistance from New York State, that grander public monument commemorates Steuben’s leadership role in the struggle for American independence., A Fitting Memorial , To celebrate the bicentennial of the baron’s 1730 birth, New York State enacted legislation creating the 50-acre Steuben Memorial State Historic Site with the Sacred Grove at its commemorative center. When Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the site on September 12, 1931, the original historic trail from the west was paved as an empty drive, its modest parking lot fenced, and the area outside the Sacred Grove planted with rows of Norway spruce said to represent the rank and file of Valley Forge., The state built and furnished a replica log cabin in 1936 to interpret the baron’s life. Its design was based on an 1857 engraved version of the 1802 pencil drawing of the cabin by Reverend John Taylor. Land on which the Baron’s original cabin stood was donated to the state in the 1990s and is located nearby., Steuben Memorial State Historic Site maintains a long and proud New York State tradition of commemorating people, places, and events that shaped our early nation. Thank you for honoring Steuben with your visit today.