Transcription
Bonnie: Hello, I’m Bonnie Dailey. I’m the town historian for the town of Jefferson in Schoharie County. And Clay has asked me to talk a little bit about some of our veterans who were buried in the different cemeteries around Jefferson. So let me start with the Revolutionary War since America Revolution 250 anniversary is coming up next year. In the old Jefferson Cemetery, which I believe is the oldest cemetery in town, we have at least 10, maybe 12, veterans of the Revolutionary War buried. And we’ve been documenting them. And we have cleaned their graves for next spring so that they will be very easily read when people come to tour the cemetery and see them. We’re also planning to erect an historic marker for the old Jefferson Cemetery along the entrance path which comes from Main Street back to the cemetery.
So, then the Civil War soldiers have been documented extensively by one of our researchers up in Jefferson with the Jefferson Historical Society, Stephanie Ruquet. And although we have a war memorial for the Civil War Cemetery, or I’m sorry, for the civil war veterans in Evergreen Cemetery. It only has about 27 individuals listed and Stephanie has found more than 200 civil war soldiers who had a relationship with Jefferson. They either grew up there, enlisted there, retired there, were married to someone from there, they have some sort of a relationship with Jefferson.
And then just to go on with some of the other wars, we’ve had a World War I book binder put together with information about each World War 1 soldier that has been researched and documented and in October of 2025, we did a dramatic presentation reading letters to and from one of those World War I veterans, Carl Skidmore, from his family and reverend and, oh, a Red Cross nurse and of course, his mother and father and from Carl himself back to his family. Unfortunately, Carl was one of the, I think the only soldier from Jefferson in World War I who didn’t make it home, so it was a very moving presentation.
And World War II, we also have a binder that’s been put together, I believe, by Laureen Hamm up in Jefferson, Laureen Lawrence, Laureen Hamm Lawrence. About all the World War II veterans who served from Jefferson. And she’s documented their families, their history, their military service, and that binder is available up in our Judd Hall Museum as well. And finally, most recently, we have begun to do oral histories with our Vietnam veterans up in Jefferson. And we’re just lucky to have some of them who are still able to give us their histories and what happened to them in one more terrible war.