The remains of a Revolutionary War soldier are being moved to another resting place in Vermont this Memorial Day weekend because erosion threatens some of the graves at an old cemetery near a river bank.
Revolutionary War soldier Josiah Clark, who fought in the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill in Massachusetts, was buried in the Stow cemetery in Weybridge in 1835. Erosion over the years left his grave perched on the edge of a steep eroding bank, so his bones were exhumed in 2019.
On Saturday morning, a horse-drawn wagon will carry a flag-draped coffin containing Clark from the congregational church to another cemetery nearby for a reinternment ceremony, said Tom Giffin, president of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, who has been working on the project for years. The procession will be led by an Honor Guard from the Middlebury American Legion and a bagpiper with a flag display provided by veterans of the Vermont Patriot Guard Riders, organizers said.
“I can’t think of a more appropriate Memorial Day than this,” Giffin said.
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The rest of the roughly 20 graves will also be moved to the Old Weybridge Hill Cemetery eventually, including the remains of Revolutionary War soldier William Haven.
