Students become caretakers of city’s historic burial grounds

Fairfield South Elementary School students raised money to erect a plaque at the entrance of the city’s historic Symmes Burial Grounds, located on Nilles Road at Hicks Boulevard.

Fairfield South Elementary School students raised money to erect a plaque at the entrance of the city’s historic Symmes Burial Grounds, located on Nilles Road at Hicks Boulevard.

Since the late 1990s, third-graders at Fairfield South Elementary School have been the caretakers of the city’s historic Symmes Burial Grounds, the resting place of Celadon and Phebe Symmes, founders of Fairfield, and seven of their children.

The students raised money to erect a plaque at the entrance, located on Nilles Road at Hicks Boulevard.

On Oct. 19, third-graders walked from their school to the grounds to rake leaves and pick up sticks around the city’s most historic site. The group will return again in the spring to clean up and plant flowers donated by a local nursery. The project is a partnership between the school and the city.

Angie Miller, a third grade teacher, is coordinating this year’s visit. She said students are getting an introduction to a lesson they will have in the spring about local history.

“As part of the third grade curriculum, students learn about Fairfield history, including the Symmes family,” Miller said. “They learn that it is important as citizens to care for our community. We are the stewards of the historical grounds and grave markers. Though many of these stones have fallen and are hard to read, it allows them to have a sense of the past.”

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