Memorial Day event planned for Sulphur Springs cemetery

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Rocky Eldred of Bella Vista shows the gravesites of relatives Friday at the Grand Army of the Republic cemetery in Sulphur Springs. Eldred was helping get the cemetery spruced up for a service on Memorial Day.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Rocky Eldred of Bella Vista shows the gravesites of relatives Friday at the Grand Army of the Republic cemetery in Sulphur Springs. Eldred was helping get the cemetery spruced up for a service on Memorial Day.

A Memorial Day event at 4 p.m. Monday will honor veterans buried at a Benton County cemetery that's more than 100 years old.

The Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery in Sulphur Springs was created in the 1890s by members of the Grand Army of the Republic, said Joe Rainey, secretary and treasurer of the local chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Those members decided they wanted to be buried together.

"They got to be almost like brothers," he said.

The Grand Army of the Republic was an organization for veterans that spanned the country, Rainey said. Veterans of various wars, family members of veterans and members of other local families are buried at the cemetery.

The cemetery is in Sulphur Springs on Skyline Drive between Colony Drive and Rocky Dell Road.

NW News on 05/23/2015

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