Continued Giving: VFW Post 6937 Members Clean Veteran Graves Inside MCNP as Volunteer Project

5/12/2025

Members of VFW Post 6937 clean graves inside MCNP in May, 2025.

Darren Doyle, story:
Our local veterans once again continue to give back in unique ways. A recent volunteer project helped result in many cleaned and refurbished veteran graves that had been neglected for many years.

According to Floyd Houston, member of VFW Post 6937, a conversation was had earlier this year about seeing random March lilies are often in places of old homesteads and lives of the past.

It was discussed how prevalent this was in Mammoth Cave National Park and how the lilies also marked grave sites.

The care of many of those graves has either become much less frequent, or some even abandoned after they became part of the park in 1941, Houston said.

Gerald Carroll, VFW Post 6937 member, scrubs a veteran grave in MCNP.

A newly cleaned grave marker, thanks to VFW 6937, in MCNP.

"This year our Post, as part of a VFW nationwide day of service, cleaned 35-40 veteran graves inside the Park," Houston said, which included those located at Joppa Church, Jasper Church, Mammoth Cave Baptist, and one small unmarked graveyard.

Participating members were Wil Cannon, Freemen Ramey, Gerald Carroll, Randall Wilson, and Post Commander Edwin Vincent.

"The VFW is our nation’s largest organization of combat veterans, chartered by Congress to remember our fallen, take care of the survivors, and do good works in the communities," Houston stated. "Here in Edmonson, our Post is known for its work performing veteran burial honors, flag training in the schools, and other patriotic activities. We meet on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 pm in the library."

1 Comment

Norman Warnell

5/12/2025 02:39:46 pm

In a secluded valley near Cedar Springs in Edmonson County lies the grave of an old veteran of the War of 1812. What makes him remarkable is that he became one of the few survivors of 'Dudley's Defeat', an important battle of that War. The British and Indians attacked the American army near the Maumee River in April 1813. After several hours of fierce fighting, 220 Americans were dead including Gen. Dudley, and the Indians had captured another 350 men. Of those captured, many were hacked to death by the Indians after they laid down their arms and were defenseless. Fortunately the British commander put a stop to the killing and marched the remaining soldiers to the British Fort up north. The captives little knew the horror that awaited them at the fort. As they approached the gates to the stockade, they saw two lines of Indians awaiting their arrival. The British, to 'humor' their Indian allies, permitted the Indians to run the prisoners between the two lines of warriors, and those that made it to the gates were in British hands, and those who didn't were left to the savages.
Among those Americans that were lined up and forced to run the gauntlet, were 19 year old David Denham and Joseph R. Underwood from Warren County who later became US Senator from Kentucky. By the time it was their turn to run the gauntlet, many of the soldiers had been killed and the dead lay in stacks and scattered up and down the line. When Underwood ran between the lines of warriors, he was struck across the face with a tomahawk, but managed to stagger through the gates of the fort. Denham didn't come out as easy. He was hacked unmercifully (and wore the scars of the cuts to his death). He managed to make it alive to the end of the gauntlet, and fell through the gates of the fort. Then the worse came...the British unable to retain the Indians, they entered the fort and before the British could stop them, killed a great number of the wounded Americans.
David Denham was carried off to a British prison where he remained until the end of the War. After the War, he was exchanged and moved to the Cumberland River area of Kentucky. He later relocated to the Cedar Springs Valley of Edmonson County where he became the proginator of the "Denhams" of that county. In his old age, he became feeble and crippled and unable to work and applied for a 'pension' of the War, but the process was delayed, and he died before he ever received a check.
Underwood became a renouned statesman and when in the US Senate, those on the floor would sometimes whisper, and point to the ugly scar across his face that became the badge of his career. Underwood, when signing Denham's pension application, made note that (Denham) was a "brave soldier".

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Continued Giving: VFW Post 6937 Members Clean Veteran Graves Inside MCNP as Volunteer Project

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