Burying the U.S. Army Dead

Burying the U.S. Army Dead. . Pioneer Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Mercer County, with burials from 1812 to 1873. Those buried here were some of the first Euro-Americans who settled the area. Many of these families helped lay out the town of Fort Recovery, established Recovery and Gibson townships, and started businesses prior to the village''s incorporation in 1858. Samuel McDowell, a survivor of both the Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Fort Recovery, is buried here. McDowell returned to Fort Recovery in the 1830s as one of the earliest settlers. Descendants of McDowell and other of these early pioneers still live in the Fort Recovery area today., This cemetery was also a temporary burial site of the remains of soldiers who died in the Battle of the Wabash (1791) and the Battle of Fort Recovery (1794). In 1851, bones were discovered by children playing on the banks of the Wabash River. The human remains were of soldiers killed in battle some 60 years earlier. The bones were kept safe for the summer while ceremony preparations were made. Over 5.0o0 people from Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio gathered on September 10, 1851 for the celebration known as "Bone Burying Day.” The remains were transported to Pioneer Cemetery in 13 walnut caskets. The soldiers remains were moved to the site of Monument Park in 1891 where they were buried and surrounded by a wood and iron enclosure for over 20 years. In 1913, the soldiers remains were reinterred in a crypt within the current obelisk at Monument Park., "On the morning of the battle [I] and several others had just gone out to look after and guard their horses, when suddenly [we] heard the most hideous yells from the opposite side of the river, with discharges of musketry..." , -Samuel McDowell, a Kentucky sharpshooter who survived the two battles. McDowell returned in the 1830s and was one of the early settlers of Fort Recovery His remains lie here in Pioneer Cemetery.