Dig these Wright-Patt Cemetery Facts

  • Published
  • By Sandy Simison
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Hiram Honaker is believed to be the only U.S. veteran to be buried on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Honaker, a Black Civil War Veteran, is buried in the Cox Family Cemetery, located near the base runway.

According to war department records, Honaker had enlisted in the Union Army on Sept. 1, 1864 at age 43. He served with Company A., 5th Regiment, U.S. Colored Cavalry, until his discharge on Mar. 16, 1866, at Helena, Arkansas.

He was born in Bath County, Kentucky, according to war department records, but records in the Greene County courthouse list him as having been born in Bath Township, Greene County. This discrepancy might be explained by the realization that in Honaker's era, many children of slave parents did not know their true age. Hiram had a son named Jerry who moved to Springfield, Ohio and was believed to become a preacher.

Honaker, who died in 1888, was buried with his wife Rachel, and daughter Lucy in the cemetery plot of the John Cox family. According to an article from a 1990 Skywrighter article and other newspaper sources, researchers determined the circumstances under which Honaker met Cox are unknown. Any Civil War connection between the two men was discarded for lack of evidence. According to a base historian, it is believed Honaker became endeared to the Cox family and is believed to have been a well-regarded employee of the Cox family.

Cox was believed to be one of the wealthiest men in the then-city of Osborn, and founder of the village, according to records. Osborn later merged with the village of Fairfield to become the City of Fairborn in 1950. Cox migrated to Ohio from Virginia, near the start of the 19th century. In addition to the Bath Township farm, Cox owned other farms in Greene County and some in Clarke County, Ohio as well.

Cox selected an area from his 690 acre farm and designated it as a burial grounds for his family. Many of the graves in the Cox family cemetery are those of small children, most dating from the mid-19th century, with the most recent marked 1924. That was during the days of smallpox and diphtheria, according to the base history office records.  A 195-year old cemetery, there are no known descendants of the John Cox or Hiram Honaker families. The burial site contains 80 known graves.

The Cox farm was purchased by the government in 1943. The family refused to sell the cemetery or permit relocations of the graves. The cemetery was deeded to the government in condemnation proceedings in 1950, according to records. 

In 1971, a new tombstone was placed at the grave of Pvt. Honaker. The tombstone was provided by the Memorial Division of the U.S. Army in response to a request from Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio, Texas.
 
In another area of the base, gravestones mark the resting place of the Shank and Landis families. Those family plots are the only ones on record at the base.  Some records say the cemetery used to be where Bldg. 262, Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters, now stands.The cemetery, now referred to as the Landis-Shank cemetery, was acquired by the Air Force in 1924 with the acquisition of 3,767 acres of mostly farm land that was donated to the government.  The burial plot itself, consisted of .021 acres. 

Around 1941, the eight graves were moved, from their probable site at Bldg. 262, to their present location off Hebble Creek Road near the Prairie Trace Golf Course adjacent to hole number 10. According to History office information, the graves were moved from their original site and reburied in the Landis-Shank Cemetery under the supervision of the chief of maintenance at the time.

In an article that appeared in the Aug. 24, 1962 issue of the Skywrighter, the reason for moving the family cemetery was because it was on a site selected for Bldg. 262.  Mr. Banks Corbett stated that he remembered moving that cemetery from the site where Bldg. 262 now stands to a location approximately 60 yards northeast of Bldg. 202. 

Corbett also was responsible for resetting the headstones and erected an iron fence around them. For several years, he kept the enclosure trimmed and stones cleared. 

No background information is available about the Landis and Shank family members buried there other than the names, ages, and dates on the stones. John Shank, age 30 years, 8 months, 2 days; Henry Landis, age 73 years, 9 months, 12 days; John W., son of John and Artemis Shank, aged 11 years, 6 months and 1 day; Elizabeth Lends, aged 67 years, 1 month, 11 days.