civil war gravestone to be returned with military ceremony

MIDDLEBORO – By Jason Kenney, Special Writer, Middleboro Gazette, Thursday, November 8, 2007
Headline: Grave Marker Restored In Veterans Day Tribute

A grave marker, missing for nearly 80 years from a Civil War veteran’s grave at Old Kirk Cemetery in Attleboro, is going to be returned to its rightful place thanks to the efforts of Middleboro residents Chris Wainwright and Robert Lessard.
A special ceremony marking the return of the gravestone will take place at 10 a.m. this Saturday morning at the cemetery, which is located at the rear of the Second Congregational Church in Attleboro (50 Park Street.)
Mr. Wainwright, who is the commander of the Middleboro VFW, discovered the gravestone several years ago when he was salvaging materials from the site of a demolished home in Norton. He said he found the stone under a gutter drain pipe, which had been used as a splash plate.
“Since I salvage stuff on the side, I asked the demolition crew if they would let me salvage stuff from the building,” he said. “After they said yes, I noticed a rock under the gutter and figured I’d take it home and eventually do some landscaping stuff with it.”
Not knowing what it was at the time. Mr. Wainwright had workers load the flat stone into his pickup. He took it home and placed it behind his garage. Much later, he turned the stone over only to discover that it was the gravestone of a Civil War soldier.
“I was completely shocked when I found out it was a gravestone,” said Mr. Wainwright. “I thought it was just a flat piece of marble or something.”
Mr. Wainwright said the he didn’t know how to look up information on the soldier so he immediately contacted local historian and American Legion member Robert Lessard.
“After flipping the stone over, I tried to figure out how I could find out what cemetery it came from,” he said. “I knew Mr. Lessard was researching stuff for the Middleboro Veterans Council to find the names of a couple of veterans that were missing from the town’s War Memorial. So, I asked him to research it and he found all the information.”
From the information contained on the gravestone, Mr. Lessard, said he conducted a search of military records and discovered information about the soldier.
According to Mr. Lessard, the stone belonged on the grave of Private Augustus A. Starkey, who had enlisted in Company H, 40th Massachusetts Infantry in Attleboro on September 1, 1862.
State military records indicate he was 42 years old when he enlisted and was a carpenter by trade. He joined for duty and enrolled on August 15, 1862, for a three year period and was placed on the Company Muster-In Roll on September 1, 1862.
The records also reveal that Mr. Starkey spent time in the White Hall Hospital in Philadelphia in October 1864 with an unknown illness and returned to duty on January 19, 1865. He was mustered out of the service in Richmond, VA., on June 16, 1865.
Based on the military records, Mr. Lessard then contacted Sue Hindersmann, a reference librarian at the Attleboro Public Library, to gather additional information.
“Through the Attleboro Public Library, we learned that he was born in Attleboro on May 7 1820, and was the son of Amos Starkey and Hannah Moulton-Starkey of Norton and was baptized as Amos Augustus Starkey,” Mr. Lessard said. “It is interesting to note that a town report reveals he changed his name on May 1, 1863 as “Augustus.” The town report received that information on July 21, 1864, when he was 44 years old.”
Following Mr. Starkey’s death on February 11, 1894, he was buried in the Old Kirk Cemetery of the Second Congregational Church and his stone went missing “at least before 1928.”

Mr. Lessard said that he will take part in this Saturday morning’s ceremony with Mr. Wainwright that will include a military honor guard and firing squad under the command of squad leader Walter Campbell of the Middleboro Veterans Council and a color guard led by Robert Burke of the Oak Point Veterans Association.
The Civil War Reenactment group, the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Division, and representatives from the Massachusetts Civil War Round Table will also be participating in the ceremony.
.....................( Researched and compiled by Post 64 Historian Bob Lessard.)