Welcome to Livingston County’s Bicentennial GeoTrail!
My name is Find R. Fox. I’ll be your guide to super-sleuthing the hides at these amazing, historical locations all around our beautiful 200-year-old county!
To make your travel through history a bit easier, imagine yourself in a Time Machine (your best mode of transportation will do). Set the dial (your gps unit) to the first year (coordinates) listed below, check the waypoints for Parking and push the navigate button! Whirl your way there then switch your coordinates as needed to navigate to the geocache to sniff out the container and sign the log sheet. Good Luck & Enjoy the journey!!
This is a cemetery. Daylight caching only.
Daniel Shays, a native of Massachusetts, was commissioned as a captain in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment and participated in the battles of Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Saratoga and Stony Point during the American Revolutionary War. After retiring from the army in 1780, Shays settled in Pelham, Massachusetts, were he served in several local government positions.
Economic conditions in the county after the Revolutionary War were strained due to heavy war debt. Small farmers, many of whom were former soldiers, were hard hit and began to organize efforts against the government to protect their land from seizure in lieu of unpaid debt. Peaceful efforts by farmers were ignored and soon replaced by militant action.
In 1786, Daniel Shays led several hundred rebel farmers known as Regulators and organized an insurgence forever dubbed “Shays Rebellion.” The private militia attempted to prevent the state supreme court from convening and stormed the courthouse at Springfield and the Federal arsenal.
The state militia quelled the uprising and Shays and the Regulators fled in defeat to Vermont. Condemned to death in absentia on a charge of treason, Shays petitioned for amnesty in February 1788. The petition was granted by John Hancock, the newly elected governor. Soon afterwards Shays relocated to New York.
Shays Rebellion struck a cord on the national level in the summer of 1787 when the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia convened and struggled to create a stronger central government that would “establish justice and insure domestic tranquility.” Shays’ Rebellion figured prominently in the debates over the framing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
Daniel Shays arrived in Livingston County, around 1816 and settled in the hamlet of Scottsburg in the town of Sparta. He married a young widow by the name of Rhoda Havens. Shays was considered a local celebrity and often found visitors at his door eager to hear tales of the old gentleman’s daring exploits. He appears to have lived a quiet life in Livingston County before he died in 1825.
Daniel Shays was buried in Union Cemetery in Conesus. For many years the soldier and rebel had only a rustic stone marker signifying his final resting place. More than a century passed before a granite marker was placed in his honor, however, Shays’ name was misspelled. In 2016, a new grave stone was dedicated with the correct spelling.
Since Daniel Shay's headstone, front and back, along with the signs at either end of his row and the historical marker are all on-line, we thought we would have you look at the 2 headstones in front of his (towards the road) for the information to the final cache, especially the one in better shape.
Final coordinates are N 42 40.REV, W 77 42.OLT, where
R = second digit of year this person was born
E = last digit of year this person died
V = last digit of the war in which this person served
O = third digit of the year this person was born
L = last digit of year this person was born
T = number of letters in name of woman (older headstone)
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
For those geocaching without a checker - yes, cache is in cemetery area. Also, R + E + V = O + L + T + 1
This cache is 1 of 36 caches comprising the Livingston County Bicentennial GeoTrail (LivCo200) placed in the summer of 2021 in honor of Livingston County’s Bicentennial by members of the local geocaching group called the Bee Hive. For more information about Livingston County’s Bicentennial, visit the County Historian’s Bicentennial web page on the Livingston County New York website at https://www.livingstoncounty.us/1115/County-Bicentennial
