The whole story of the Schermerhorn Cemetery near Easton, and the two war veterans who were discovered to have been buried there, continues to be a fascinating one.

For instance, the two veterans were not from Faribault County when they fought in their wars, and, truth be told, neither one lived in the county very long.

It is a curious fact that both men moved to Faribault County in 1866, purely by coincidence.

Let’s face it, when Thaddeus Smith fought in the War of 1812, there wasn’t any Faribault County. There wasn’t even a State of Minnesota.

He was born in Vermont in 1788.

He enlisted out of New York in 1812, once for three months and then again for six months, so he served in the military twice in the War of 1812.

After the war he married, had four children, and lived for many years. But not here.

It wasn’t until he got old that he moved to Faribault County where his three sons lived, so his sons could take care of him. Smith lived here only a few years until he died. He moved to Minnesota in 1866 and died in 1875 at the age of 87.

He was buried in the Schermerhorn Cemetery.

George Schermerhorn fought in the Civil War, but had entered the army from his home in Illinois.

He was wounded twice in the war, once was a minor wound and the second time was a leg wound and they removed his leg.

While he was serving his country, his parents and family moved to the then brand new Faribault County. So when he returned from the war in 1866, he came to Minnesota to be with them.

He, too, did not live in the county very long before he died. He was here for just one year when he died in 1867, at the age of 23.

His parents buried him in their new cemetery they had started on their farm, which they had given the family name of Schermerhorn.

Eventually there were about 30 people who were buried in Schermerhorn Cemetery, but the last one was in 1900. In 1903 the land was donated for the new St. Peter’s Cemetery and the Schermerhorn Cemetery was abandoned. Eventually it was overgrown with brush and trees and forgotten about.

Enter LuAnn Schrader of Easton. She and her mother rediscovered the cemetery in 1975 while looking for a family member’s grave. The cemetery has been a passion of hers ever since. She has searched for records of those buried there, and helped with trying to clean the place up.

It wasn’t easy. There weren’t many records to find. The first burials at the cemetery were in 1867. Faribault County didn’t start keeping records until 1870.

And then there is the fact that the cemetery itself is a half mile from any road.

In 1981 the Barber Flyers 4-H Club made an attempt to clean the cemetery up, but it again became overgrown. In 1993, John Wettlaufer organized an effort to find all the gravestones, remove them from the dirt and brush, clean them up, and placed them on a cement pad they put there.

Just last year, it was discovered that two of the people buried there were veterans Smith and Schermerhorn. That is when Faribault County Veterans Service Officer Dave Hanson and Faribault County Historical Society member A.B. Russ became involved.

They have been on a mission to get a veteran’s gravestone marker for every veteran buried in Faribault County. Even for two men who didn’t live in the county long and are buried in a long forgotten cemetery.

It took a lot of effort, research, paper work and two tries with the Veterans Affairs office to finally secure the gravestones, but they got it done.

Now, Schrader, Hanson and Russ will join the Easton American Legion members for a very special Memorial Day program out at Schermerhorn Cemetery.

And two long-forgotten veterans, buried in a long-abandoned cemetery, will be properly honored and saluted, remembered for their service to our country.

And what better time to do it than on Memorial Day.