- With the approaching 250th anniversary of the United States, Northern New York chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution sought to recognize revolutionary war veterans who settled in Jefferson County.

More than 450 of these veterans are buried in local cemeteries.

Planning for the monument began more than two years ago in 2024.

Through numerous meetings, a special committee carefully developed, refined, and finalized the design that would bring the memorial to life.

Crafted by A.Cozzi Monuments of Watertown, the monument was installed and dedicated in early July.

The monument is located on Arsenal Street in front of the Jefferson County office building alongside other regional war memorials.

Two historical quotations were selected for the monument.

One is from Thomas Jefferson for whom Jefferson County is named, and the other is from John Adams, who was serving as president when Jefferson County was established.

- This design was a, a long and detailed process.

We considered probably six or eight different designs as to which we though would be most appropriate.

The reason we chose this one is we wanted this to be a, basically a time of reflection.

Those people would come and sit on the bench and there's a QR code that they can scan, and from that it's brought to a landing page, which would give people a history of it.

We have it designed to kind of be pointing towards the other veterans, knowing that this began the process of maintaining our freedoms.

- This monument is meant to be a living monument.

It's meant to honor those who fought and survived and came here after the Revolutionary War, and they established their roots here.

And, and the purpose of this too and how it means for the community is to try to bring that history forward into the present and honoring both our 250th anniversary, but also to recognize that they are the ones who fought and survived and started all of this and our notions of liberty and freedom so that when those who served and sacrificed all and the case next to us, there was no question what they were sacrificing for because of what these individuals did in the beginning.