War of 1812 Graves
Far from Home, Far from Memory
Almost hidden on Seneca Turnpike is the small gravesite
of two soldiers from the War of 1812.
What tale do these two men tell in death?
One of service to a fledgling nation
in life in a rapidly changing world
One of remembrance after death
in an everchanging landscape around it.
In the book, The Little House,
The Little House watches the city grow up around it.
Once a very rural landscape in the country,
it found itself surrounded by the city that grew around it.
The same is true with these two graves:
Up this small path...
are the remains of two Captains from the
War of 1812.
The city grew up and changed around them.
As neither Crouch or Branch were from around here,
How did they come to be buried here?
First, we must understand the land and the times.
By 1790s, there was only one main road through the area:
The Seneca Turnpike.
Laid out on the path used by the Haudenosaunee,
it wasn't a new road, just an improved toll road across
the new military tract area.
A few hardy souls moved into the area along this road.
Eventually they would veer off like Shepard of Shepard's settlement
and find their designated portion of land
given to them for service in the Revolutionary War or
sold to them by the aforementioned soldiers who didn't want to move
from their comfortable village lives in New England to a far less
comfortable one in the newly opened lands in New York.
In Onondaga County, what remained of the ancestral lands
and treaty designated lands would be slowly eroded away leaving the
Onondagas with a small patch of land to the south
in an area that should have been as about half the size of the county today.
Then Onondaga Hill became the seat of the county government.
By 1810 Cornelius Longstreet deeded part of his land across the valley to
build an armory.
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(a pic of it from the late 1800s)
“The building was erected in 1810 on a hill half a mile east of Onondaga Valley. It was an Onondaga limestone structure two and one-half stories high, and soon after its completion was filled with stores and ammunition sent there by the secretary of war. It was built by New York State and used by the United States. Limestone for the construction was obtained from the quarries on what was part of the House farm. On its roof were two huge wooden cannons which indicated the purpose of the building." ~Steven Mertens quoting an unknown source
Here the settler in Onondaga Hollow could feel a bit more secure
knowing that munitions were not far off.
Why did they need an armory?
Well for one, it wasn't because of "the Indians".
The Haudenosaunee had been long since neutralized as a threat,
not that they ever had been in the first place.
In fact, the relations between the residents of Onondaga Hollow
and the Onondaga Nation were good.
It was Great Britain they were worried about.
Munitions and supplies were plentiful along the coast but in the Military Tract area,
not so much. And this region was being settled by men who had seen war
and knew Great Britain's military strength and tactics.
And rumbles and tremors of war were already lurking.
On the outbreak of the War of 1812, New York was prepared.
Troops were mustered from all around the new nation to fight its old enemy.
The US as it looked in 1812.
Great Britain not only fought along the coast of America and on the ground,
but also staged battles along the Great Lakes in an attempt to
break apart the new nation from "behind" and
reclaim its old territories
Onondaga County provided arms and munitions.
Guns and cannons came from the Armory
and bullets were made at the blast furnace
at Furnace Brook in what is now Elmwood Park.
A great refresher on this oft forgotten war.
and a piece about the war in New York
Some made it home and lived a long life.
(Joseph Cole from LaFayette Cemetery)
But like all wars,
not everyone made it home.
And very much like other wars, many men died
--not from bullets or cannon fire--
but from sickness and disease that
ran rampant through the camps.
Capt. Benjamin Branch, of Virginia,
fell sick while his troop
was stationed on Academy Green
and died.
His troop buried him away from camp
and far from home on Onondaga Hill.
It wasn't practical to return the fallen back to their
hometowns in the days before the railroad.
They had to be interred quickly to prevent disease from spreading.
A great fear, only eradicated in the 1900s, was smallpox.
If it didn't kill, it maimed.
So close to returning home after the end of the War of 1812,
a former prisoner of war returning home to Cohocton, NY,
Henry Crouch died of smallpox that ran through camp while he was in Marcellus.
So close, but yet so far 😔
His militia men thought it fitting to bury him with the fellow soldier
buried on Onondaga Hill, the seat of the county.
And now the cemetery had its two residents.
The soldier was not alone. He would forever have a comrade by is side.
For more info:
https://www.syracuse.com/living/2021/10/the-story-of-how-two-war-of-1812-soldiers-came-to-be-buried-side-by-side-on-onondaga-hill.html?fbclid=IwAR0G5PId_YHGSQ1Bout2WauFqhaNaJMOKnQtfSFNC0LdQ1Z4IUAW2gfN_EU
For more info:
https://www.syracuse.com/living/2021/10/the-story-of-how-two-war-of-1812-soldiers-came-to-be-buried-side-by-side-on-onondaga-hill.html?fbclid=IwAR0G5PId_YHGSQ1Bout2WauFqhaNaJMOKnQtfSFNC0LdQ1Z4IUAW2gfN_EU
Their graves over looked the Arsenal and the road that had brought them to our area.
But just as the war fell from memory,
so did the arsenal.
It was briefly used during the civil war,
then abandoned
Then slowly, block by block,
(from David Tuxill)
Ever so slowly...
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It fell into ruins...
...until there is not much left.
While there is much to be learned here,
---an archeologist's dream---
the site is embroiled in deed disputes and access rights
and all the while it crumbles.
Written 11 years ago, not much has changed
https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2012/10/the_onondaga_arsenal_potential.html?fbclid=IwAR0Qdb066dDQ8UpGptMNFnY1B6pmKiIuF8D19cAQ0v19aOpHOxq5SK5mN_A
A champion of the Arsenal, Dennis Connors,
did a great presentation on the Arsenal.
Written 11 years ago, not much has changed
https://www.syracuse.com/opinion/2012/10/the_onondaga_arsenal_potential.html?fbclid=IwAR0Qdb066dDQ8UpGptMNFnY1B6pmKiIuF8D19cAQ0v19aOpHOxq5SK5mN_A
A champion of the Arsenal, Dennis Connors,
did a great presentation on the Arsenal.
A landmark site that NEEDS preservation,
even in ruins.
Neglect has done more damage than cannon fire ever could have.
On the other side of The Valley lies the other War of 1812 site in the county,
our War of 1812 cemetery.
This gravesite has more names than residents.
War of 1812 Cemetery
It has changed over the years.
Once it was at-level with the land looking across to the hospital
But over the years the hill was dug through to make the descent
into the Valley below safer
Here is a pic from the late 1800s showing the cemetery on the right.
The road has been widened and altered since this pic.
But these two men have almost been forgotten.
Their resting site doesn't appear on old maps
Not in 1852...
Not in 1859...
Nor in 1874
To the south, they have overlooked Devil's Tooth,
A piece of conglomerate rock that broke off the hillside
into Hopper's Glen below after the last ice age.
And watched as wagons, then carriages,
then cars passed them to the north.
The only access to this cemetery on this tiny strip of land is an access lane.
Whose guaaranteed access is in a precarious state today
Other areas have figured out how to honor the forgotten fallen
whether in mass grave outside Buffalo
or another small two grave burial on the old Russell -Pierrepoint Road
(pic by Anne Cady)
Our War of 1812 Cemetery needs to be consciously preserved
to honor the memories of those who fought more than 200 years ago.
Access to the land should not be up for sale,
let alone the natural treasure of Hopper's Glen and Devil's Tooth.
200 years from now,
people should still be able to stop by and visit both
the Arsenal and the War of 1812 graves.
People need to know the cost of war,
even if that battle was long ago.
They need to see that real lives were lived
and given for freedom.
And if nothing else,
these two
probably wouldn't mind
just someone stopping by and caring,
as they are so far from home 💗
Nice article. I grew up just below these points and visited often as a child. Good to learn about the places we usually hurry by..and never see.
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