Dedication ceremonies in Jefferson County, Georgia for a new memorial honoring 26 County men who gave their lives in service to their country during WWI
They will not be forgotten
By Parish Howard
via the Augusta Chronicle newspaper (GA) web site
The names of 26 Jefferson County men who gave their lives in service to their country during WWI were revealed, etched in granite, on a new monument in the newly redesigned veterans plaza on the county courthouse lawn Thursday, June 6.
The previous monuments to service men and women who served in other United States wars were removed, cleaned and replaced around the flagpole in a design inspired by a military star, Commission Chair Mitchell McGraw explained.
“This veterans plaza originally started last year with Dr. Lamar Veatch, a Jefferson County native and member of the WWI Commission who brought the idea of a WWI memorial to the board of commissioners and historical society,” McGraw said. “The commissioners tasked the historical society with raising funds from private donors for the memorial.”
The Louisville Garden Club helped redesign the placement of all of the memorials on the grounds.
This was all done to honor the memories of fallen heroes, McGraw said.
Dr. Lamar Veatch, who works with both the United States and Georgia WWI Centennial Commissions called WWI “the war that changed everything, the war that changed the world.” He told those gathered on the courthouse lawn Thursday that these organizations have been working to help Georgians remember all of the sacrifices that were made during that conflict.
Veatch personally has worked on both a photo inventory of all WWI monuments in the state and a list of all Georgian WWI soldiers they could identify who died in combat.
“We have a database online of about 4,069 names, 1,400 of which are African American names and that particular part of our community got a pretty short shrift when it came to recognition after WWI so we were particularly interested in making sure we recognize contributions of the African American community from Georgia,” Veatch said. “We brought this to the commissioners’ attention, the Jefferson County Historical Society jumped onboard and now we will have a monument out here that has 26 names on it to represent the soldiers from Jefferson County who died in service.”
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