An annual commemoration in Riley Township is a little extra special this year for Joanne Ziolkowski. Her sixth great-grandfather, Heman Adams, will be recognized for his service during the Revolutionary War.
"He is a descendant of Thomas Rogers of the Mayflower, and he is a fourth cousin to John Quincy Adams," Ziolkowski tells WVXU. "He was 16 years old when he first enlisted for the Revolutionary War."
Adams will be recognized along with Thomas Boone — cousin of the famed frontiersman Daniel Boone — during the 63rd annual Salute to Pioneers at the historic Indian Creek Pioneer Church and Burial Ground in Riley Township near Oxford.
Ziolkowski's research into her ancestor found he came to Ohio from Sandwich, Massachusetts, in the early 1800s after the war. He arrived with his wife, and his daughter and son-in-law to farm the land.
Everything seemed fine for a while, but then Adams' story took a puzzling twist.
"Around 1825 — the records don't go into exactly what happened or what the behavior was — but his son-in-law actually had Heman Adams declared insane," Ziolkowski says. "It could have been as simple as something like the fact that he had PTSD, given that he was 16 when he first enlisted in the Revolutionary War. Who knows?"
However, by the time he died in 1848 he was of sound mind, Ziolkowski says, because he had a fully executed will that nobody challenged.
The recognition event is part of Butler County's America 250-Ohio celebrations.
Brad Spurlock, manager of Lane Library’s Smith Library of Regional History, will share the stories and military service of Adams and Boone. There also will be live music, a historic interpreter and an Ohio Heritage Tree planting.
The event is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at the Pioneer Church, 3000 Indian Creek Road, Oxford, Ohio 45056.
Indian Creek Regular Baptist Church was established in 1810 by people who migrated westward following the Revolutionary War. The current brick building was constructed in 1829 using handmade bricks fired onsite. It's one of the oldest surviving churches in Ohio, and the neighboring cemetery is Butler County’s first public burial ground.
Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Identification Project
The Adams and Boone grave sites are included in the America 250-Ohio project to identify all the graves of Revolutionary War veterans in the state.
There are an estimated 7,000 Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Ohio. Over the last year volunteers have documented more than 4,000 grave markers.
According to a release from America 250-Ohio, "Prior to this project, no comprehensive, publicly accessible database existed that mapped the precise locations of these graves. Records compiled over the years by the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) identified roughly 6,800 veterans believed to be buried in Ohio, but exact GPS coordinates, current photographs, and condition assessments were largely unavailable to the general public."
The last day to submit information to the Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Identification Project database is May 25. Submissions appear on a live, publicly viewable dashboard at ohpo.maps.arcgis.com in real time.
Read more:
