Preserving Galion, Inc. has installed a historical marker along Harding Way West in Galion honoring Benjamin Leverich, a Revolutionary War veteran and early settler. The article reports the marker was installed over the weekend on property owned by First United Church of Christ, a few feet from where Leverich is believed to be buried beneath Main Street.
According to the article, Leverich served from 1778 to 1781 in the 3rd Westchester County, New York Militia under Colonel Samuel Drake. He and Mary Briggs had eight children while living in Westchester County before family members began moving west between roughly 1805 and 1812. By 1817, Leverich and sons James and Nathaniel had reached the area that became Galion, accompanied by George Wood; the Gill family arrived the next year.
An 1880 history of Richland County identifies the family as first to clear land and build cabins there, according to the article. Benjamin's cabin stood near a spring at what is now Atwood Street and hosted the township's first religious meeting, a Methodist service led by Rev. Russel Bigelow. Nathaniel's cabin was near the future Public Square, where he dug a well.
Leverich died in 1824; his will was dated May 20. Early county accounts and 1930s federal mapping place his grave on a farm corner later crossed by Main Street. A nearby cemetery was removed and remains transferred to Union Green Cemetery, while the article says Leverich's grave site remained undisturbed on private property.
Preserving Galion, which owns and is restoring the Gill House nearby, approached the church about the memorial. The marker is visible from Harding Way West. The article links the project to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.