Memorial Day Services at Westboro in Jefferson Township have been occurring for 149 years — since 1868, as nearly as can be documented, according to present Chaplain Calvin Martin of American Legion Post #179 of Blanchester.
In May of 2014, Chester Wilson, now 95, of Blanchester and a former resident of Jefferson Township, was honored for his involvement in the arrangement of Memorial Day Services for 22 years.
Moving forward to this year, the Blanchester American Legion Honor guard presented arms and fired the salute during the services.
About 75 people were present for the services, which takes place at the center of the Flag Circle near Jonesboro Road. In the center of the Flag Circle, IOOF section, is a monument erected by the O.G. Sherman Post #360, Department of Ohio. This monument, dedicated in May 1914, was built as a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) cenotaph to honor the veterans of all wars.
As shown in the postcard, many residents walked to attend the first ceremony with the cenotaph in place according to the diary of an old Westboro resident, Ella Garner Hudson. (Hudson’s son, Howard, was former president of National Bank & Trust in Wilmington, now Peoples Bank).
Over the years, when Jefferson Township School was in session,the school’s high school band marched out to the cemetery on Memorial Day, directed by Retta F. Osborn, with assistance by Walter Nichols, former Clinton County Superintendent.
The parade pictured is of people walking along Jonesboro Road to the cemetery about 1914. The flag bearer in the picture was Ed Deniston, last living area Civil War veteran at the time. Deniston was a relative of Captain A. F. Deniston who commanded Company “C” of the 175th OVI composed of several Clinton County residents, many from Westboro, during the Civil War.
Several members of this regiment, as well as Ohio Company “E” 47th OVI, Ohio Company “C” 79th OVI, and representatives from other regiments, as well as one member of Company “H” 25th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, are buried in this aged, well-maintained cemetery.
Dorothea Kratzer, former Clinton Genealogist of the Year and Clinton County Woman of the Year, has documented at least 96 Civil War veterans’ graves in the Westboro cemeteries. The American Legion places flags on these and all other veterans’ graves in the cemetery each Memorial Day Weekend.
In 2011, the Jefferson Township Cemetery Association, started in 1978 by Walter Nichols for the preservation of the cemeteries, commissioned Terry Hardesty, a blacksmith from Fayetteville, to forge a walk-in gate, with funds donated by then cemetery board member Ruthanna Kiehfuss in memory of the Lucas Family of Jefferson Township.
