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Historic tour of Union Cemetery

Guided walking tour to focus on oldest sections, Saturday

By JULIE STENGER 6 min read

STEUBENVILLE -- Those who have a love of history and are interested in learning more about historic figures buried in the oldest portion of the city's Union Cemetery, will have the opportunity to attend a guided tour next weekend.

The second-annual Union Cemetery Walking Tour will take place promptly at 10 a.m. Sept. 30. The tour is expected to last until noon and is being sponsored by the Friends of Beatty Park.

The Friends of Beatty Park is a volunteer group which seeks out funding for park improvements and organizes volunteers to work on various park projects, according to officials.

The event is free and open to the public. Those attending are asked to arrive prior to 10 a.m. in order to allow time to park and walk to the old stone bridge where the group will meet.

The tour will include walking to various gravesides in the oldest sections of the cemetery and learning about the veterans, businessmen and pioneers from the area.

"We will remain in the area north of the bridge for this annual tour location," explained Flora VerStraten-Merrin, organizer and chair of the Friends of Beatty Park. "This year's focus will be on the oldest sections of the cemetery."

Three tour guides will walk with the group and be on hand to answer any questions. Guides include VerStraten-Merrin, Jeff Evans and Paul Zuros.

Evans, who has loved history and nature since childhood, recalls when he would climb into his grandfather's lap to explore books about the nation's past.

By high school, he was active in several local history organizations and spent summers uncovering the past with a local university's archaeology department.

He graduated from Bethany College, where as a student, he served as a seasonal ranger at Fort Necessity and Petersburg National Battlefields, spending a semester working at Colonial Williamsburg.

Evans spent a decade as an interpretive ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site, winning an Incentive Award for helping develop interpretive programming.

He teaches geography, economics and American History in Raleigh County, W.Va.

A longtime senior staff writer for the Battlefield Journal and previous guest editor of the Jefferson County Ohio Genealogical Newspaper, he is a frequent contributor to several publications and is a sought-after lecturer.

Evans will serve as one of the morning's graveside presenters. He will be speaking about the history of George Porter, Col. George W. McCook, and several others, VerStraten-Merrin said.

Porter served as a sheriff and a captain. When the call for troops came, he enlisted in April of 1861. He took part in 13 battles.

McCook was a lawyer, politician and soldier. He was an Ohio attorney general and an officer of the Union Army during the Civil War. He was a member of the Fighting McCooks.

Evans will be sharing the history of the Civil War monument, as well as the veterans who are buried there, VerStraten-Merrin commented.

Zuros, the former director of the Historic Fort Steuben, local historian and author, will serve as another graveside presenter.

Zuros was raised by parents who were interested in history. He developed his love for the past early on. His interest in local history started when he volunteered with the Hancock County Museum in New Cumberland and then later with the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center.

He graduated from Weir High School and went on to West Virginia University to pursue a degree in history and a minor in public relations and Italian studies.

While at WVU, he worked for the National Park Service in Richmond, Va., at the city's Civil War sites.

Zuros graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a master's degree in public history with a concentration in decorative arts. Throughout the years, he has worked with the John Heinz History Center in its library and archive, the Fort Pitt Museum and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. Before returning to the Ohio Valley to take the reins as executive director of Historic Fort Steuben, he was operations manager with the West Virginia Humanities Council and served as the executive director of the Historic Craik Patton House, a historic house museum in Charleston.

He is currently the Hancock County administrator. For nearly four years, Zuros has been writing a bi-weekly local history column in The Weirton Daily Times and the Steubenville Herald-Star entitled, "History in the Hills."

He will be speaking at the gravesides of James Collier and Jerome Edwards, among others, it was noted.

Collier was a veteran in the War of 1812. He was the first person to volunteer from Jefferson County for service in the Civil War, according to online documents.

Edwards served his country in time of war, despite the obstacles placed before him. Encouraged by opportunities for black pilots at WVSC, he enrolled in the civilian pilot training program. After earning his license in 1940, he joined the Tuskegee flight program and successfully completed advanced training. His younger brother would soon follow in his footsteps. In 1942, 2nd Lt. Edwards was assigned to the 332nd fighter group. At the Oscoda Army Air Field in Michigan, while in advanced aerial combat training, Edwards was killed when the engine of his P-40 aircraft failed at takeoff. It was the first fatality of the 332nd fighter group.

VerStraten-Merrin will serve as a presenter at the graveside of Revolutionary Patriot Johannus Christopher Fischer, otherwise known as John Fisher. "Fisher was an early South-Ender, who is the namesake of Fisherville" she said.

"He has a very interesting early pioneer and burial history, dying in 1809, long before the Union Cemetery was established in 1854."

VerStraten-Merrin grew up in the South End of Steubenville. Beatty Park was her childhood playground.

"With all of its natural amenities that could be afforded to me as a child, it was a place to swim and hang out with my friends and sisters," she said.

"That is the reason I started the revitalizing volunteer group, the Friends of Beatty Park almost four years ago," she added.

She is writing a book about the park's history, the adjacent Union Cemetery and the South End of the city.

VerStraten-Merrin has served as president of the Ohio Genealogical Society's Jefferson County Chapter for 22 years. She is a local historian, managing a large website for the chapter and enjoys assisting those researching their Jefferson County pioneer roots.

Her first ancestor arrived here in 1797 and was one of the first justices of the peace.

She said she is looking forward to the second-annual walking tour, as it will be a way to inform the community about those who fought for our country during the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I and World War II.

Each plot visited will have an interesting story to tell about the men of long ago who fought for this country.

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