Gravestone To Be Dedicated on Saturday

MORRIS—On Saturday, September 2 at 10 a.m., a grave marker dedication will take place for Benjamin Weston, a Revolutionary War ensign in the 9th Connecticut regiment who was residing in the New Lisbon area at the time of his death in 1818. The ceremony will take place at Harmony Cemetery, 164 Pegg Road, Morris. The event is free and open to the public.

The dedication marks the culmination of efforts by Weston’s fifth great-grandson, John Avedian of Winchester, Massachusetts, both to locate the grave and subsequently to work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain a grave marker to replace the original one, which had disintegrated.

Avedian will be present at the ceremony and will speak about Weston and about the process of procuring a replacement marker. He will be joined by his wife, Arevik, daughter Ani, and son Aram, as well as by his mother, Linda Coyle, three sisters, a brother-in-law, two nephews and a niece. Another Weston descendant, Barbara Bys of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, will also attend.

Members from both the Oneonta and the Tianderah chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution will conduct a ritual dedication of the marker. A color guard from Boy Scout Troop 61 of New Berlin will also participate.

Refreshments provided by the DAR chapters will be served on site after the ceremony.
Harmony Cemetery is owned by Morris’ Zion Episcopal Church and is the site of the parish’s first church and burial grounds. In 2022, a historic road marker was placed at the cemetery by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, which fosters a New York State Historic Marker Grant Program commemorating historic people, places, things or events within the time frame of 1683-1923. Since 2006, the foundation has funded more than 950 markers in all 62 counties in New York State.