The East Otto Cemetery on Mill Street has recently been recognized with a Pomeroy Foundation historical marker.

EAST OTTO — A historical burial marker from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation has been placed at the East Otto Cemetery, officials recently announced.

This spring, cemetery director James Beach took on the task of grant writing and application of the newly acquired American Revolutionary Patriot sign. After some research, he applied to the Pomeroy Foundation for the historical sign, which recognizes the cemetery as having Revolutionary War veterans buried there.

The “Patriot Burials” sign recognizing American Revolutionary War veterans buried in the East Otto Cemetery.

Beach’s diligent work awarded the cemetery with a yellow and blue, 18-by-32-inch cast aluminum sign, bearing the inscription “Patriot Burials,” and naming veterans M.T. Beach, J. Burchard, A.W. Treat and E. Larabee, who were buried between 1830 and 1851. The new sign is located at the corner of Mill Street and County Route 12.

The East Otto Cemetery Association Board of Directors is made up of unpaid volunteers who donate time maintaining the property located on “Cemetery Hill” near the town center. The volunteers do much of the work for the cemetery, which includes annual and emergency meetings, overseeing the general operation of the cemetery, recordkeeping, accounting, lot sales, burial and foundation arrangements, grant writing for hazardous monument repairs, purchasing of flowers for the spring planting and watering of flower boxes and urns belonging to the cemetery, installation of flags on all veteran sites, general maintenance, painting, leveling new grave sites, planting grass, repairing and stabilizing grave stones, spring and mid-summer and fall clean-ups, tree trimming, trash collection and disposal.

For more information about the cemetery, call Larry Steinbar, board president, at (716) 257-3054. Memorials at the time of a loved one’s death, or at any time, may be made by mailing a check, payable to East Otto Cemetery Association, to Michelle Gogel, secretary, 8917 Reed Hill Road, East Otto, NY 14729, or by contacting your funeral home.