VETS GRAVE FINALLY HONORED

A bar­ren grave site of a Civil War vet­eran is no longer unmarked after a 142-year wait, due to the efforts of two descen­dants.

John Cranston, a Civil War Union sol­dier from Co. A 17th Reg­i­ment Kansas Vol­un­teer Infantry, died May 19, 1871, after the war. He is buried in Lin­den­wood Ceme­tery in Fort Wayne.

For 142 years, his grave was unmarked.

Recently, mil­i­tary records were ver­i­fied by the U.S. Depart­ment of Vet­eran Affairs with a request for a stan­dard head­stone on Oct. 9. The VA ver­i­fied all of the infor­ma­tion about John Cranston. Twenty-one days later, on Oct. 30, a head­stone was placed on the grave by the vet­er­ans group, which also paid for it.

Now, on this vet­er­ans day, his grave is finally rec­og­nized, 142 years later.