Harry Russell Deahl was a World War I veteran who grew up in Clarke County and worked as a farm laborer most of his short life. Recently, one of his relatives looking for Mr. Deahl’s grave in Green Hill Cemetery discovered that his grave was unmarked. Cemetery Manager Voyne Lowery contacted Post 41 to see if we could get a VA-provided military marker.
The family could not find his military records and learned that his official records had burned during the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. The family did not even know the date or circumstances of his death. Adjutant Bob Ferrebee began the process of trying to acquire a grave marker for Mr. Deahl.
With the assistance of Mary Morris at the Clarke County Historical Association, an obituary was located in the Clarke Courier giving Mr. Deahl’s death date as March 12, 1934. The March 12, 1934, Winchester Evening Star, provided more details of his death.
Mr. Deahl had been struck by a car near Winchester and died at the scene of the accident. A few minutes after midnight, he had stepped into the path of an approaching automobile and sustained a fractured skull and several broken bones. He was a bachelor who was survived by one sister. He was buried in Green Hill Cemetery with military honors provided by the Clarke County Honor Guard.
An internet search of online military records at the University of Virginia Library located Mr. Deahl’s World War I Questionnaire. All veterans of the war were asked to complete this follow-up questionnaire. The questionnaire provided the information needed to complete the application for a military marker. The application was submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The marker arrived in early September but unfortunately was broken during shipment and the VA provided a replacement marker. After almost seventy-five years of lying in an unmarked grave, Private Harry Russell Deahl now has an appropriate marker on his grave. Post 41 is committed to seeing that all veterans buried in local cemeteries have appropriate markers on their graves.
