Dubois County Memorial Day schedule includes countywide services, guest speaker Mark Messmer

Dubois County’s Memorial Day observance will center on Courthouse Square in Jasper, where veterans groups will gather Saturday, May 23, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the courthouse veterans memorial, POW/MIA monument and fountain. The program will include patriotic music, a ceremony honoring all deceased veterans, an honor guard, a firing detail and a POW/MIA display, with U.S. Rep. Mark Messmer as guest speaker.

Messmer, a Republican who represents Indiana’s 8th Congressional District, was sworn into the U.S. House on Jan. 3, 2025. For families deciding where to attend the county’s main tribute, the Jasper ceremony is the most visible stop, bringing together the Dubois County Veterans Council and all veterans organizations in the shadow of the courthouse memorials that have become a local Memorial Day focal point. A meal will follow at Dubois County VFW Post 673 from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The countywide observance is not a single event so much as a route through Dubois County’s cemeteries and memorial sites, with services spreading across Jasper, St. Anthony, Holland, Huntingburg and Ferdinand. Jasper American Legion Post 147 and Dubois County VFW Post No. 673 will lead services at Fairview, Shiloh, St. Mary’s in Ireland, St. John’s in Boone Township, Portersville, St. Paul’s in Haysville, Hill Church, Crystal, St. Raphael’s in Dubois and Enlow. Those visits place the holiday where many local families already know to look, at the graves of relatives and neighbors who shaped the county.

Other posts will cover the rest of the map. St. Anthony American Legion Post 493 will host services at St. Anthony, Celestine, Schellville, Meteor, Birdseye, Cox and Bretzville. Holland American Legion Post 343 will visit Selvin, Holland, Zoar, Stendal, Saint Paul and Augustana cemeteries. Huntingburg VFW Post 2366 is set for St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery, Fairmount, Mayo Cemetery in Duff and Veterans Memorial Park on 14th Street by the Event Center. Ferdinand American Legion Post 124 and Ferdinand VFW Post 11365 will hold services at St. Henry, the Ferdinand Veterans Memorial and St. Ferdinand/Christ The King Cemetery.

Dubois County government describes the county as 432 square miles, and its history page notes that numerous small cemeteries with the graves of early settlers and travelers still sit near Highway 56 east of Haysville. That landscape helps explain why Memorial Day here remains tied to churchyards and rural burial grounds as much as to downtown Jasper. The county’s courthouse memorial and the many cemetery stops together turn the holiday into a countywide act of remembrance, from the center of Jasper to the far edges of the township roads.