"A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere."
Those of us who have visited various cemeteries over the years may have come upon a marker or monument that was denoted as a cenotaph, either with the word itself or through a description that identifies it as such. For example, those buried at sea often have a cenotaph erected for them at a family cemetery that gives them a presence in the cemetery even though they were not buried there.
However, there are times these markers are not properly identified as cenotaphs to alert the visitor that the deceased was not buried there; but that their remains lie elsewhere. This situation can occur when a well-intended person or group decide to erect monuments at a cemetery to honor veterans they think were buried there without first doing their homework to prove it as fact. There can be circumstances when it is virtually impossible to know and be sure even after conducting exhausting investigations due to such things as undocumented re-interment situations, for example.
This type of issue has arisen at the South Salem Cemetery in Buckskin Township in Ross County Ohio where seven upright gray granite government markers were placed in honor of Revolutionary War Veterans.
One of the markers in the small photograph shown above was placed for Abraham Dean. However, thanks to the extensive clean up and dectective work done by Scott and Venus Andersen, it has been discovered that Abraham Dean, who died in 1806, was buried at the nearby Dean Cemetery where his original gravestone still exits. (See photograph below.)
So, there are two "Find A Grave" memorials for Abraham Dean; one at the South Salem Cemetery and one at the Dean Cemetery.
To help clear up the confusion, a link (appearing as his underlined name) has now been placed at the top of the biographical section of the cenotaph memorial at the South Salem Cemetery:
|Death:||May 10, 1806|
Pvt 3rd class, 7th Company, 1st Bn, Cumberland Co Mil, Aug 18, 1780, Lt Co James Johnson. Capt John Woods, Lt Jacob Statler. See Pa Archives, 5 series, Vol 6, p 91 and 103 under May 17, 1781. Br 1763-1764. D May 10, 1806, Ross Co. Bur South Salem. GM Nathaniel Massie Chap D.A.R. Ref: . Fur infor Nathaniel Masie and Juliana White Chap. -Official Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers buried in Ohio.
Clicking on the link will display the actual burial memorial created for Abraham Dean where presumably he is resting in peace at the Dean Cemetery!