Rosecrans Statue fund almost there: thanks to County Commissioners

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

The Rose­crans Head­quar­ters Unit and mem­bers of the Big Wal­nut Area His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety have been work­ing dili­gently over the past sev­eral years to raise enough funds to erect a mon­u­men­tal (larger than life) bronze eques­trian statue of Civil War Major Gen­eral William Starke Rose­crans on Sun­bury Vil­lage Square.

Gen­eral Rose­crans was born on Rose­crans Road in Kingston Town­ship in 1819. He grad­u­ated from West Point, worked in the Corps of Engi­neers rein­forc­ing ports on the east coast before teach­ing at West Point.

He left the mil­i­tary and went into pri­vate busi­ness as a geol­o­gist and archi­tect in Cincin­nati. When the Civil War broke out, Gen­eral Rose­crans reported for duty and ended up lead­ing major union armies to victory.

The one and one-third life-size eques­trian statue will not only honor an east­ern Delaware County home­town hero, it will pro­vide a mon­u­men­tal work of art for Sun­bury Square. The statue, cast by Alan Cot­trell of Zanesville, will be mounted on a 50,000-pound gran­ite glacial boul­der set in place in July of last year.

There have been major and mod­est donors to pay for the statue, which will cost in excess of $175,000 to model, cast in bronze, fin­ish and mount on the boul­der, but mem­bers of the Rose­crans Statue Com­mit­tee needed those funds in place six months before the Sep­tem­ber ded­i­ca­tion ceremony.

On Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 10, the Delaware County Com­mis­sion­ers approved a dona­tion that puts the statue fund close to the needed tar­get, with a few promised dona­tions yet to come in.

“The Delaware County Com­mis­sion­ers came through, they’re giv­ing $20,000 to the statue project,” said Rose­crans Statue Fund chair Bill Com­is­ford. “We’re ecsta­tic with the sup­port our county com­mis­sion­ers have shown for our memo­r­ial for Major Gen­eral William Starke Rose­crans. Our memo­r­ial, along with the Ohio Fallen Hero’s Memo­r­ial, speaks well for Sun­bury and Delaware County, rec­og­niz­ing the con­tri­bu­tions and sac­ri­fices our mil­i­tary heroes have made.”

When com­mis­sioner Den­nis Sta­ple­ton stopped at the Myers Inn last Thurs­day evening to make an offi­cial announce­ment before the statue committee’s meet­ing, he said the Big Wal­nut com­mu­nity put forth a great effort in mak­ing the Rose­crans statue a reality.

“It’s hard to do some­thing like this in a larger com­mu­nity,” Sta­ple­ton said. “In a smaller com­mu­nity like this it’s eas­ier, because peo­ple get own­er­ship of it. I also want to say that (for­mer) Com­mis­sioner Thomp­son was instru­men­tal in this. This money would not have been in the bud­get if it wasn’t for him; but we thought Gen­eral Rose­crans is such an impor­tant part of the his­tory of this part of Delaware County.”

Myers Inn Cura­tor Polly Horn said the statue fund still needs a bit under $14,000, much of it promised; and Big Wal­nut stu­dents are cur­rently rais­ing money through a Lin­colns For Rose­crans fundraiser that will give stu­dents own­er­ship of the statue as they grow though their lives.

Also as part of the statue fundrais­ing effort, mem­bers of the Rose­crans’ Com­mand Head­quar­ters Unit are sell­ing com­mem­o­ra­tive bricks for the walk­way sur­round­ing the statue. To pur­chase a brick go to < BigWalnutHistory.org >, scroll down and click on Brick.

As an added note: 710 Delaware County sol­diers fought in the Civil War. One-third never returned home, another one-third returned home phys­i­cally and psy­cho­log­i­cally dam­aged; and 93 sol­diers of the Grand Army of the Repub­lic are buried in Sunbury’s cemetery.

Mem­bers of the Rose­crans Statue Com­mit­tee said the Gen­eral Rose­crans statue would stand as a con­stant reminder of those vet­er­ans from all wars that fill our cemeteries.

Mem­bers of the Rose­crans Statue Com­mit­tee are Chair­per­son Bill Com­is­ford, Henry Shaw, Janet Macken­zie, Sue Com­is­ford, Rick Hel­wig and Polly Horn.

The Delaware County Com­mis­sion­ers are Den­nis Sta­ple­ton, Ken O’Brien and Gary Merrell.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jan 16 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.