Unknown Sailor Buried at Oak Bluff Cemetery

The inscription on the tombstone of an unknown person buried along the shore of Lake Erie reads:

Unknown
U.S. Sailor
1813

In 1935, the U.S. Government provided a granite marker for this unknown sailor, buried at the Oak Bluff Cemetery, located between Huron and Vermilion, in Erie County, Ohio. In the mid 1930's, members of the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution researched several Veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and were successful in obtaining grave markers for several Erie County veterans.

An article in the February 3, 1935 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that members of the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mrs. Ross Cherry and Mrs. George Doerzbach, met with Charles Ruggles, the son of Almon Ruggles, who was an early surveyor of the Firelands. Charles Ruggles said that on a fall day in 1813 his father was walking along the beach, when he came across the body of a man dressed in a United States naval uniform. Almon Ruggles was sure that the body was that of a man who had served with Commodore Perry in the recent Battle of Lake Erie. The elder Mr. Ruggles purchased a coffin for the sailor, and saw that a Christian burial service was held for the unknown man. The sailor was given a tombstone in 1813, but by 1935, only one letter was legible on the badly worn marker.

Later in the summer of 1935, the unknown sailor received the U.S. Government issued granite tombstone. This took place due to the efforts of the D.A.R. ladies, who according to the newspaper article worked with "indefatigable patriotic zeal."