WAYNE — A gravestone for Civil War veteran Benjamin F. Burgess will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 21, at Beech Hill Cemetery on Strickland Ferry Road off Route 219.

The public is invited to attend. 

The stone, which comes 116 years after Burgess died in 1902, will be placed beside those of his parents, Elisha and Fanny Burgess.

Burgess grandfather, Benjamin, arrived in New Sandwich, which was part of East Livermore, around 1792. His settlement on Beech Hill was annexed to Leeds and then Wayne.

Benjamin F. Burgess was born Sept. 17, 1835, in Wayne, the 13th child of Elisha and Fanny Nye Burgess. Fanny died the next day. His father died when he was 15 and he lived with a brother until he was able to be on his own.

Burgess volunteered to serve during the Civil War, returned home to his wife and family, living out his life farming in Leeds. He died in 1902. Many of his descendants live in Leeds.

For more information, contact Tanya Hanson at 207-524-2094 or Marilyn Burgess at 207-524-5933.

The smaller headstone on right is that of Benjamin F. Burgess.