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Eastern Iowa residents rediscover family while honoring veteran of War of 1812
Distant sections of a family tree reunited Monday after a search revealed the grave of an unidentified War of 1812 veteran buried in Center Point
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CENTER POINT — Monday morning saw a reunion.
It was not a reconnection, but more of a first meeting by people from family lines that had split during the Great Depression. Now, the lines are reuniting.
The spark for this reunification was Tyler Keyes, a private in the Maine Militia who fought in the War of 1812, and has laid in an unmarked grave in Center Point for nearly 150 years. Monday marked a commemoration of Keyes’ service and a chance for parts of his family tree to reconnect.
Keyes was born in New York, and lived in several locations — including bounty land in Indiana — following his military service. He relocated to Iowa in 1864 before his death in Center Point in 1878.
Keyes was buried in the Center Point cemetery in a location marked only by a small bronze War of 1812 Veteran grave marker. Thanks to the persistence of his descendants, his grave was recently identified, and on Monday a ceremony honored his service.
In attendance was Keyes’ oldest known living direct descendant, his great-great grandson, Dean Bailey, of Marion. In his 80s, Bailey said he had no knowledge of this part of his family tree and was glad to discover it. Joe Hepperle, a Marine Corps veteran who served from 1975 to 1979, also was in attendance. He is Bailey’s cousin, and the person who spurred the discovery of Keyes’ unmarked grave.
Hepperle said the effort began as a search for lost relatives. His father had been adopted out of a family of 11 children during the Great Depression. Initially, Hepperle’s father’s surname was Bailey, but that was changed to Hepperle following his adoption. Joe Hepperle’s search for a missing link to his biological family led him to Dean Bailey.
“I just happened to, when I was researching my cousin Dean Bailey's family, trace up the Keyes side of his family and I realized there's an unmarked grave,” Hepperle said. “[I] never knew [Bailey] until six months ago.”
Hepperle said his search all but confirmed Keyes was buried in the Center Point cemetery, but he lacked the resources to “put meat on the bone.”
That’s where Tony Townsend came in. The Marion resident is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, a national, federally chartered patriotic organization that works to identify and properly memorialize veterans. Townsend said he joined two years ago and has worked to properly mark more than 300 previously unmarked veteran graves in the U.S.
“I'm happy that God sent Tony, inspired Tony to send me a message,” Hepperle said. “If Tony hadn't contacted me, it would have just been a shrug of the shoulder.”
When Townsend reached out to Hepperle, he said, “You found Tyler Keyes? We’re looking for him.“
Townsend said it’s important to mark the graves of the oldest veterans, before it’s too late.
“The key for us is getting these War of 1812 and the Civil War guys marked, because a lot of times they had headstones which got damaged, or a tree fell on it and broke it, that was never replaced,” Townsend said. “Sometimes they never had a headstone.”
The headstone was supplied by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs through a process that verifies and registers the identity of unmarked graves. It can take around five months, Townsend said, as the VA requires “immaculate proof” of who is in a given unmarked grave.
Townsend said the Sons of the American Revolution has historians and veterans archive experts who, in the case of Tyler Keyes, were able to find documents about his service.
After a four- to six-week application process with the VA, the organization receives a white marble headstone identical to those in Arlington Cemetery, where more than 400,000 service members are buried.
On Monday, that headstone was placed in the Center Point cemetery to properly memorialize Tyler Keyes. Members of American Legion Post 297 in Center Point were present to display the American flag, and a bugle sounded taps in Keyes’ honor.
The group adorned the white marble headstone with American flags and reinstalled the original bronze marker.
“It’s like the saying in the military, ‘No soldier left behind,’” Townsend said. “It's kind of the same concept, for these guys to be remembered.”
Comments: 641-691-8669; evan.watson@thegazette.com
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