Richland County: Veterans Honor Grounds and Honor Wall at Mansfield Cemetery

Ohio requires each county veterans service commission to bury or cremate a veteran, or a veteran's parent, spouse or surviving spouse, who died without the means to pay, with the county paying up to $1,000 (Revised Code 5901.25 to 5901.27; see the Ohio entry). Richland County publishes no page describing that duty; call the commission at 419-774-5822 before signing a funeral contract, and a family burying a veteran's spouse or parent should ask, since the statute covers them too. What the county's books do show is its own burial fund: the 2026 Veterans Burial lines carry $106,000 for burials, $4,500 for grave markers and $15,000 for Memorial Day, and a separate Veterans' Cemetery Fund - restricted to contracting with cemetery associations for the purchase and maintenance of burial plots of veterans and their spouses - closed 2025 at $41,673. The Honor Grounds. The commission's section of Mansfield Cemetery is for an honorably discharged veteran and the veteran's spouse, at a minimal cost, or free of charge when the family does not have the financial means. The lot is laid out in sequential order by date of death and comes with one headstone, a flag-holder footer and a headstone footer. Since August 23, 2016, when Mansfield Cemetery stopped eight-foot burials for the ground's instability, a couple shares one lot only as one vault burial and one cremation, or two cremations; two caskets mean two lots, side by side by guarantee. The Honor Wall. Dedicated on November 11, 2024, the wall added 768 individual niches to extend the Honor Grounds, with handicap-accessible walkways, benches and a centre flag pole; burial is limited to a veteran and spouse in the same niche, placed in the order the cremains are received. Lots are bought through the commission's office only, and a DD-214 is required. The Richland County Burial Detail salutes veterans there. Each May the commission places flags at Mansfield Cemetery. The Honor Bus. Each September the Richland County Honor Bus takes county veterans to the Washington memorials over three days at no cost. It runs under the Richland County Joint Veterans Council, a 501(c)(3), and applications are had through the commission's office, which also handles its mail and phone.