Wednesday, August 14, 2002      Duxbury Reporter

A patriot is remembered

Grave of Revolutionary War soldier marked

By Colleen J. Joyce
MPG Newspapers

DUXBURY - While local heroes from the Vietnam, Korean, and world wars are often honored by monuments through-out the town, one organization spent Sunday honoring a local veteran from another time.

The Duxbury chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a grave marker to pay tribute to a man who fought for his country over 200 years ago.
Cornelius Delano, who lived in Duxbury from his birth in 1742 until his death in 1801, served as a sergeant in the Revolutionary War.

His gravestone, located at Mayflower Cemetery, was hard to locate because it was difficult to read, said Caroline Lewis Kardell, historian general of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

The gravestone was located by the chapter members who walked through the graveyard searching for his name, said Roseann Pratt, vice regent for the chapter.

The chapter searched the Mayflower Graveyard because they knew Delano had lived and died in Duxbury.

It was sandblasted clean using chemicals to protect the fragile slate stone, said Pratt.

The cemetery did not have records of his burial on the grounds, said Pratt, "but I see the gravestone as a memorial to him."

"It is wonderful we can pay tribute to him now," said Kardell.

The search for his gravestone began when his descendant Verna Finwick, a member of the Delano Kindred, contacted Duxbury Daughters of the American Revolution to honor him.

The group tries to mark as many graves as possible with a flag and a plaque, said Pratt, so the chapter was "more than happy to pay tribute to Cornelius.

"In this day and age, when documents of the Revolutionary War are disintegrating," said Pratt, "more and more graves are being marked before we lose the records altogether."

According to Pratt, many groups have become interested in identifying American Revolution veterans.

"It has become a trend to remember the people that made our country what it is today," said Pratt.

"He was a simple man, as men were in that time," Finwick said as she stood by the grave on a hot August day. "I wonder what Cornelius would think of today's society. I think he would be pleased to know that what he did for our country will never be forgotten."

Finwick and Pratt, wearing authentic 18th century clothes, unveiled the marker.

The plaque, with the Daughters of the American Revolution symbol, identifies Delano as a solider in the Revolutionary War. It is something that should not be forgotten, said Finwick.

Those who read the bronze plaque that lays at the base of Cornelius Delano's grave stone will remember.