Insuring they are remembered

Behind the weekend bustle at Fuji Park, through the gate and hidden in its own quiet corner is a place of peace.

In the shadow of modern buildings and with the sounds of Highway 395 serving as background music, the out-of-way corner serves as the graveyard for Civil War veterans John Thoroughman and James Johnson.

They are bound together by the similarity of their lives and also by the man who maintains their burial site.

When Ron Mason moved to Carson City, he stumbled across the stones while walking his dog, Bodie, in Fuji Park. The stones were surrounded by weeds and in need of maintenance, so without knowing much about them he decided to volunteer his time. When he learned the two men were veterans, he had all the information he needed.

"Being an ex-military man, I thought these soldiers deserved to have their graves taken care of," Mason said. "The parks department has so much to do at this park that I thought I'd help out."

This Memorial Day, Mason said, he plans to spend time with the two soldiers. New flowers will be put by their stones and American flags will be placed near the graves.

Mason, who was in the Air Force for seven years stationed at the Pentagon, said it's important to preserve the graves of men who served their country.

That was 18 months ago, and Mason - with Bodie in tow - can be seen working in the area most days. He has removed all the weeds. White rock was added to the graves and a flagpole was added to the site, all at Mason's expense.

"It's just right to honor them. To honor these servicemen that served this country," Mason said.

Denny Howard, facilities supervisor for the park, said a plaque with information about the men will soon be added and hopes to make further improvements to the area in the future.

"We want to clear out the area further around them and clean it up. Just do some general improvements to the area," Howard said.

For his part, Mason said he will continue the maintenance of the area as long as he is able.

"As long as I'm around, me and Bodie will be back here helping out," Mason said.

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Aside from being buried less than two feet apart, the men whom Mason watches over lived fairly similar lives. Both were born in Ohio. Both heeded the call to serve their country against what they believed was a rising threat. Both spent the last years of their lives at the Ormsby County Poor Farm.

They died and were buried about four months apart on an isolated plot on the Ormsby/Douglas County Line, where they have remained for just under a century.

For researchers and historians, grave sites like those of Thoroughman and Johnson - little out of the way plots - present one of the biggest problems in a nationwide effort to find the final resting places of Civil War veterans. While maintenance and preservation are not a problem for the stones in Fuji Park, many graves are in need of identification, upkeep and protection.

Registration efforts have listed 132 Civil War veterans' graves sites in Carson City.

Those who survived the war scattered, often discharged hundreds of miles from their homes. They migrated and moved throughout the country.

Sometimes they were buried with military headstones and in national cemeteries. Sometimes they were buried in fields or in local plots.

Thoroughman enlisted in Dayton in 1863 and mustered out in Camp Douglas, Utah, in June 1866. He was a member of Company B, First Cavalry and was inducted at Fort Churchill.

Johnson enlisted in March of 1865 in Marysville, Calif., and mustered out in November of 1865 at the Presidio in California. He was a member of Company A, Fourth Cavalry Regiment.

Records and history books reveal little else about their lives or service during the war.

A decade ago, a national group dedicated to preserving the era took on a mammoth project to find and register the final resting places of as many civil war veterans as they could find. Among them are the graves of Johnson and Thoroughman.

The effort has been heralded by professional and amateur historians, including re-enactors like Mike Creager of Reno, a member of the First Nevada Cavalry Company D of the Comstock Civil War Re-enactors.

Creager said he is glad to see the military service of Thoroughman and Johnson recognized at all.

"It makes you feel good that they ended up in a cemetery where they were honored for what they did. A lot of them weren't, they were just buried in unknown graves," Creager said.

Remembering long lost heroes

The push to keep track of the estimated 4.2 million Union Civil War veterans began in 1866, and is carried on today by The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

The group's 6,360 members nationwide established the National Graves Registration Project in 1996 to research, verify and record the final resting place of Civil War veterans.

David A. Davis, Camp Historian with the General William Passmore Carlin Camp 25 based in Gardnerville, said the project is difficult for several reasons.

"If you go to historic cemeteries you will see that a lot of these veterans have gravestones but there is no federal database where they are registered. Plus there are a lot of veterans scattered and buried everywhere and a lot of them are kind of off in the middle of nowhere," Davis said.

To those interested in the era, the project serves as a way to connect with the past.

"There are still people that take an interest in the era," said Mike Creager of Reno, a member of the First Nevada Cavalry Company D of the Comstock Civil War Re-enactors. "I am amazed at what these men were willing to do for their country," Creager said. "For me, having been to several of the civil war cemeteries and seen the cavalry guys, I feel like there is a connection between them and me."

Of the 4.2 million union veterans, approximately 300,000 are buried in national cemeteries. While the SUVCW understands that registering the final resting place of every Civil War veteran is impossible because of mass graves, unreported battlefield losses, burials at sea and other circumstances, they still hope to record as many as possible.

To date more than 500,000 names have been recorded, including Johnson and Thoroughman. The registry is open to the public and is available online at www.suvcwdb.org/home.

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.