Jeremiah M. Brewer's Tombstone

Deep in the Ocala National Forest, there is a lonesome 19th-century grave. Jeremiah M. Brewer's tombstone is a few feet away from the Florida Trail, about a two-mile hike north of the Clearwater Lake trailhead in Paisley, Florida.

The grave site is surrounded by a chain link fence and well maintained, adorned by flowers and other decorations. Not much is known about Jeremiah and how he came to be laid to rest in the middle of what is now the Ocala National Forest. The tombstone reads that Jeremiah M. Brewer was born in Clinton County, Ohio, on January 12, 1844, and died on July 6, 1877. He was 33 years, 5 months, and 24 days old at the time of his death. He served in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War as part of Ohio's 188th Infantry.