By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
MANSFIELD — Is your loved one missing his or her veteran or fireman marker at the Columbus Cemetery?
Sometime after Christmas Day and before the next night, an unknown person or multiple people removed graveside property — namely — veteran and firefighter memorial markers.
Approximately 60 markers were removed during the holiday from their designated gravesites — impacting the burial places of a score of veterans and firefighters within the community.
In place, each veteran marker had indicated that the person buried at that location had served in a specific American war and when.
The markers, all nameless, were not stolen during the act of vandalism. Instead, the markers were eventually thrown away elsewhere on the grounds of the cemetery.
”Some of these grave markers were removed from certain sites and then put in a pile,” said Lt. Eric Campbell of the Mansfield Township Police Department.
Although the event happened over the Christmas holiday, “The Police Department was advised of the incident on Monday, Jan. 7,” said Lt. Campbell on Tuesday. “This was reported to us as a matter of record only since the veteran markers were recovered.”
However most of the markers have not returned to their rightful places — and many may never do so as they the markers are nameless.
Lt. Campbell said if folks notice a marker missing at the gravesite of a loved one, to contact a representative of the cemetery.
That person is Dorothy Archer, who is the secretary and sexton of the Columbus Cemetery.
She is holding on to the markers for now while seeking help from the community to identify them. As of press time, her message to residents was posted on the Mansfield Township website.
She told the Register-News on Wednesday that many of the veterans buried there no longer have families living in the area.
”I think a lot of them are gone, and I don’t think anybody is going to come forward because they are not living either,” Ms. Archer said.
There are 2,512 people buried at Columbus Cemetery, she said. One headstone has an epitaph dating back to 1806.
”Some of the older ones are worn off from the weather,” she said.
She told the Register-News she plans to place the markers together at the cemetery once the ground hardens.
Ms. Archer noted she has reached out to the local VFW for assistance in trying to identify which marker goes with which veteran. “It is a shame. They fought for our country,” she said of the veterans buried in Columbus Cemetery.
Once it had been discovered that the markers had been removed without authorization and thrown about, the night of Dec. 26, according to Ms. Archer, family members of a veteran buried in the Columbus Cemetery collected the markers they had discovered in disarray — and reported the incident to her.
The mayor of Mansfield told the Register-News on Tuesday that he, too, has relatives buried in Columbus Cemetery.
”It is upsetting to the families,” Mayor Arthur Puglia said. “You wonder where the morality is going in our lives.”
Of the unknown perpetrators, he said he assumed it was younger people who removed the markers.
”I think it is really terrible what they did,” Mayor Puglia said. “It just shows a lack of respect for people.”
He noted that when he was younger, he was scared to go to the cemetery — especially at night.
”Times have changed,” Mayor Puglia said.
”The older you get the more you realize it is more about family and loved ones,” said Mayor Puglia, 69. “It shows a total lack of respect . . . but I guess that is our times.”
Also, the mayor said there is a lot of the good in the township with youth recreation groups and Scouts working for a better Mansfield.
”It is a shame,” Mayor Puglia said. “So many young people struggle to be good, and they don’t get their recognition.”
Ms. Archer said in her message on the township website, “Parents, if you are reading this, please speak to your children about this incident and the importance of valuing respect for private property and the men and women who serve our country.”
She told the Register-News, “I am hopeful that the children of the township will learn to respect the people who fought for them . . . They shouldn’t even be in the graveyard. As far as I am concerned — it is sacred ground.”
During last week’s Mansfield Township meeting, Linda Semus, municipal clerk, updated the committee on the Columbus Cemetery vandalism incident. She said the report was made Dec. 26 when a visitor discovered veteran and firemen markers had been stripped off many graves and were strewn about the graveyard.
Ms. Semus encouraged people to contact Ms. Archer with information that may help her in finding out where some of the veteran and firefighter markers belong.
Dorothy Archer can be reached at 609-298-4339.

