Ohio Veterans Home Death Records

Staff members of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, now the Ohio Veterans Home, are pictured above in 1915. Doors were first opened to the Home in Erie County, Ohio on November 19, 1888. 

The first person to be buried at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home Cemetery was Levi Drummond, who died on January 3, 1889, at the age of 47. He had served in Company F of the 57^th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. As part of a Cemetery Census project undertaken in the 1980s, members of the Erie County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society collected data from the Ohio Veterans Home. This resulted in a compilation of brief death records of hundreds of residents who died at the Home from January 3, 1889 through December 31, 1983. Many volunteer hours were devoted to getting this compilation completed.

The book is arranged alphabetically by surname. The five columns provide:

• Name of the Veteran
• Age at the time of death
• Date of death
• Place of burial
• Registration number of the deceased while a resident at the Home

Over 7,000 death records were abstracted during the compilation of these records. 3,528 were buried at the cemetery on the grounds of the Ohio Veterans Home, and 393 were buried elsewhere in Erie County. The rest of the Veterans were buried outside of Erie County.  Below is the listing for William L. Carr.

William Louis Carr received the China Relief Expedition Congressional Medal of Honor while he was serving as a Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Boxer Rebellion. Corporal Carr died in April 1921. (Note: Corporal Carr’s tombstone reads April 14, but the death record lists his death date as April 4.)

James Jardine served in Company F, 53rd Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallant service at Vicksburg, Mississippi on May 22, 1863. First Lieutenant Jardine died on December 9, 1922.

If you have ancestors who resided at the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailor’s Home, visit the Sandusky Library to learn a few more facts about your military ancestor in the Ohio Veterans Home Death Records publication.