• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

College Student Uncovers Soldier’s Gravestone In His Basement, Learns He Fought In War Of 1812

by Lauren Novak

Published May 29, 2018

soldier gravestone

The tombstone of a soldier from the War of 1812 was found in a college student’s basement.

The mystery of the gravestone runs from that student’s basement in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to a local cemetery. The student from Bridgewater State, Derek Kruk, said he came down to the basement one day and couldn’t figure out what it was on the ground. He cleaned it up and realized that it was a tombstone — and a very old one at that.

Related:

  1. Large Wildfire In Ireland Uncovers Historic World War II ‘Éire’ Sign
  2. College Student With Deep Voice Channels Johnny Cash In ‘American Idol’ Audition
WWLP News

The tombstone read: Jabez Harden, born 1796, died 1879, a veteran of the War of 1812.

Kruk wanted to find out who Jabez Harden was so he called up the Bridgewater town clerk, Marilee Kenny Hunt.

book jabez
WWLP News

Hunt looked up Jabez Harden in some local history books and found out that he was a militia captain. She then contacted Chip Mangio to do some additional research on this mystery.

Jabez harden
WWLP News

Mangio is the head of ‘The Friends of Middleboro Cemeteries’. In his searching, he found Jabez’s actual burial plot with a new headstone in Pratt town cemetery in Bridgewater, along with the grave of his son, Benjamin, who fought in the Civil War.

jabez headstone
WWLP News

Mangio guesses that the tombstone in Kruk’s basement is the old gravestone that was given to a relative. When a new tombstone is installed, the old one is often given away because they are very expensive and are still decent stones.

medallion
WWLP News

In their sleuthing, Hunt and Mangio also discovered that Harden did not receive any veteran’s medallions. They contacted the town’s veteran’s agent, Roderick Walsh. He made sure that Harden’s grave received a veteran’s medallion very promptly. In their research, they also learned that Jabez Harden’s father, Samuel Harden, fought in the Revolutionary War and was buried in another cemetery. They also made sure he received a veteran’s medallion on his grave site.

Watch the video below, and if you found this article interesting, be sure to share it!

Previous article: Breaking: Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush Admitted To Hospital
Next Post: Breaking: ABC Cancels ‘Roseanne’ Revival After Roseanne Barr’s Twitter Outburst

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS