Samuel Murray long has been forgotten.
But thanks to a new veterans’ memorial in McLouth, the former wagon master in the Revolutionary War will now be remembered.
The memorial, which is in the McLouth City Park on Union Street, will be dedicated at 2 p.m. Nov. 6.
“We have one main flagpole with an eagle on the top,” said Marie Meador, a veteran and a co-chairman of the memorial committee. “The base with bricks with veterans’ names, or of those who are serving now, will run around the base of the flagpole.”
Eventually, Meador said, there will be six flagpoles — one for each branch of the service.
The memorial has been in the planning stages for several years, Meador said.
“It came about when our Legion post had to sell our post home, so we wanted to do something for our members and something for people to go to remember those who had served and who are serving so they weren’t forgotten,” Meador said.
There’s been good response to the brick purchases, she said.
The bricks cost $30 for one, $50 for two and $25 for each additional brick after that, Meador said.
“Right now I have 196 bricks with names on them,” Meador said. “I have orders for 10 more and we’ll probably have at least 20 more by the time of the dedication. People are more interested once they see something up.”
This will be a living memorial, Meador said, and bricks may continually be added.
And, she noted, the memorial isn’t just to honor McLouth veterans.
“This is for anybody,” Meador said. “It does not matter where they are from or where they live. If they just want to remember somebody, we’ll gladly have them honored.”
And, she’s glad the memorial is on Union Street, where visitors to downtown McLouth will see it.
“It’s very important, because some people do forget what has been sacrificed for them” Meador said.