Church offers to take Civil War monument

An effort is under way to keep the monument right where it is.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
WEST POINT -- It's unclear if an important Civil War monument will have to be moved, but, if so, a nearby church says it would be glad to take it.
The monument in question is a massive stone that commemorates the July 1863 incursion and capture of Confederate raider Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
Morgan and nearly 364 men surrendered to federal troops and local militia along what is today state Route 518 near the border of Madison and Wayne townships.
His capture ended a four-state, 24-day raid. The surrender site represents the northernmost incursion achieved by Confederates during the war.
For decades, the marker has stood at a roadside rest run by the state less than half a mile west of the surrender site, but the Ohio Department of Transportation says it intends to close the site as part of a program to shut down seldom-used roadside rests.
That raises questions regarding the monument's future.
The state doesn't own the land, but has an easement for the rest stop.
Determining property owner
ODOT officials are still trying to determine the owner of the property, Becky McCarty, ODOT spokeswoman, said Friday.
McCarty said the East Liverpool Historical Society, which apparently owns the marker, is negotiating with the likely land owner to get the roadside rest easement transferred to the historical society.
A society spokesman couldn't be reached, but if the group's effort succeeds, the stone will stay where it is, McCarty said. If not, it probably will be moved.
That's where West Beaver Presbyterian Church comes in.
Members say if the marker must be moved, they'd like to have it at the church along state Route 518, less than half a mile east of the surrender site.
The white, historical structure, built nearly a decade before the war, is shaded by a towering oak that probably stood at the time of Morgan's surrender.
Civil War veterans are buried in the cemetery next to the church, and legend has it that Morgan or his men rode their mounts into the church before being captured.
"We're just offering a home for it," Lucille Possage, a church elder, said. "If it stays where it is, that's fine with us."
Church members are hopeful, however, that the marker not be taken from the area. It should remain close to where the surrender occurred, they say.