The group Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will dedicate the new headstones at Belvidere Cemetery in Thayer County.

The headstones are being added to the previously unmarked graves of Richard Furry, who served with the 74th Indiana Infantry and died in 1908; William McKillip, a member of the 85th Illinois Infantry who died in 1913; and John Williams of the 48th Iowa Infantry, who died in 1910.

“It is an honor for us to dedicate monuments at the final resting places of these veterans,” said Mark Nichols, commander of the Department of Nebraska of the Sons of Union Veterans group. “Not all veterans had the means or even other family members nearby to supply a headstone when they died. More than 19,000 men who served in the Civil War are buried in our state, and about 200 graves are still unmarked, so we appreciate communities like Belvidere that help keep evergreen the memory of the Boys in Blue.”

Several dozen Union veterans and a handful of Confederate veterans are buried in the Belvidere Cemetery. Historians have said the availability of land under the Homestead Act and for purchase from the railroads brought many veterans who took up farming and helped form new communities on the prairie.

Nebraska became a recognized territory in 1854 and became the 37th U.S. state in 1867.