Hope Cemetery Civil War Monument Cries Out for More!
Submitted by Larry Jones – Town of Hornellsville Historian
It’s been 136 years since the monument was erected and 161 years this April since the battle cries subsided and the guns fell silent after the North and South fought each other in blood filled anguish. It was brother against brother over the issue of state’s rights and slavery. The worst war in the United States’ 250 year history with hundreds of thousands of lives lost, and more casualties from both sides during its four hellish years than most major wars the US fought in combined! It still lingers within our memories and truly reminds us of the precious gift unity is within our great nation.
A single monument stands at the center of Hope Cemetery, just outside of Hornell in the Town of Hornellsville. Erected in 1890, it was placed there by Civil War veteran’s families as a memorial, quoting Abraham Lincoln; “for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.”
However, there is something unfinished about it. The monument remains blank. There are no names of the soldiers who suffered at the hands of this horrendous conflict. The monument was erected in memory of the heroes from Hornell and the Town of Hornellsville by their families.
As a young lad, Chris Olix used to walk through Hope Cemetery as a shortcut to get to town. As he grew older, he noticed this monument standing alone by itself and was drawn to its blank stare of nothingness other than why it may be there other than a brief description at its base.
Chris, father of three grown children and a lifelong resident of the Hornell area, now lives with his wife on Webb Road. After retiring from employment in 2025, he took the initiative setting out with the mission to rectify this situation. As a veteran himself, having served as an Army reservist platoon leader and then New York National Guard as a group staff Engineer officer, he retired from the military in 1991. This only exemplified his zeal to “finish the job” at Hope Cemetery and put local Civil War Veterans to rest with the proper respect and honor they deserve. Quoting Chris; “As a veteran, I find that our community is lacking in complete understanding of the great sacrifice of what 40% of the military aged men in this town did for our community and country. Dozens were killed, dozens more died of disease, dozens more again were wounded in battle, and most all of the men were discharged for disability or ended up as POW’s.”
Please read and respond to the letter Chris has written to all readers in hopes to finalize his list of names so that not one of these fallen heroes are forgotten.
Dear Families of Civil War Veterans,
We at the Canisteo Valley Historical Society and Steuben County Historians office are working diligently on acquiring the names and units of any local Civil War veterans that may have lived in The Town and City of Hornellsville at the time of the Civil War. We need this information so we can add appropriate names to the sides of the Civil War monument located in Hope Cemetery.
We currently have over 500 veterans identified from Hornellsville, city and town, who served and fought to save the Union. But we are still lacking more names of veterans who may have lived in Hornellsville at the time of the war but enlisted in adjoining towns and cities.
If you have access to your family’s ancestry during the time of the Civil War and know the names and units of your family members who served, we would greatly appreciate it if you could send us that information to the attention of Chris Olix. My email is: caolix@verizon.net. Thank you!
Sincerely, Capt. Chris Olix – US Army and NYNG ret.
