The Woodstock Cemetery Committee and American Legion Post 1026 dedicated new grave markers to two Revolutionary War veterans during a ceremony Thursday, Sept. 3, at Woodstock Cemetery on Rock City Road.
The committee, American Legion, and Historical Society of Woodstock honored John Yerry and William Longyear, who were buried in the cemetery in the 19th century. The new footstones replace markers that had fallen into disrepair.
The project was funded through a grant from the Ulster County Rev250 Fund, which supports programs commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence.
“This is what represents the regular people who fought in the American Revolution, not the generals and everybody who’s famous,” said Janine Mower, the historical society’s vice president and a genealogist who led the research into the veterans’ lives.
Yerry and Longyear were among seven veterans featured in the historical society’s exhibition “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Community,” which ran from July through August. The exhibition traced Woodstock’s history from before European settlement through the Revolutionary era and the town’s founding in 1787.
Longyear was born in Shandaken in 1759 and enlisted in the fall of 1778. He served in several regiments under different commanders, and five of his siblings also fought in the Revolutionary War.
Longyear lived in Shandaken and Plattekill before moving to Kingston in 1816. He was said to have been blinded by a cannon explosion during the war. He died in 1842 and was buried in Woodstock Cemetery.
Yerry was born in present-day Germany in 1754 and came to America in 1776 as a Hessian, one of the German soldiers who fought alongside the British against the American revolutionaries.
Farmers soon captured Yerry and offered him freedom in exchange for joining the American forces, according to his descendant, Robert Baumeister, who attended the ceremony.
Yerry served with the American forces for five years and later worked as a farmer in Rhinebeck and Woodstock. He and his wife, Maria, initially lived on Bearsville Road before settling west of Ohayo Mountain in an area that became known as Yerry Hill. Yerry died in 1837.
“I call them the Founding Farmers,” said Baumeister, 71, Yerry’s fifth-generation descendant.
Baumeister, an artist who was born in Delaware and lives in Cortland, N.Y., said he has spent the past 10 years researching Yerry through records on Ancestry.com.
The historical society learned about Yerry three years ago, when Baumeister sought its help finding his ancestor’s grave. Working with Woodstock Cemetery, they located Yerry’s still-legible headstone, Mower said.
Woodstock Supervisor Anula Courtis, Councilperson Laurie Osmond, and Town Historian Richard Heppner also attended the ceremony.
“When you look around, we all stand on the shoulders of everybody here,” Heppner said. “We’re the present, they’re the past, but there’s a future out there too. We’re proud to stand on these shoulders.”
Biographies of Yerry, Longyear, and other Revolutionary War veterans buried in Woodstock Cemetery are available on the town’s website.
Isabella Schoonover is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Woodstock, Saugerties, Hurley, and surrounding Ulster County communities. Send correspondence to isabella@theoverlooknews.com.
