Montville Students Replace Veterans' Flags, Uncover Details About Revolutionary War Graves

MONTVILLE, NJ - For two decades, Lazar Middle School history teacher Rick Crescente has led students through local cemeteries each spring to replace American flags at the gravesites of Montville veterans — a tradition that this year reached a milestone anniversary and took on new historical depth.

More than 15 students participated in this year's field trip, which stretched back to the Revolutionary War and forward to a pair of full-circle reunions that underscored just how far the tradition has traveled.

Montville Township Public Schools technology specialist Jeff Bonicioli joined the trip this year, bringing headstone-cleaning tools, historical research and technology-assisted investigation that yielded a significant discovery.

According to the district, Bonicioli's work — supported in part by AI research tools — helped students clarify the actual burial locations of several Revolutionary War veterans long associated with Montville. Among the findings: Conrad Estler, previously believed to be buried at the cemetery on Church Lane, is in fact interred at a private residence in a nearby town. John Estler's gravesite was also cleaned and restored, and can now be read more clearly than it has in decades.

Students also learned about Revolutionary War veteran John Blowers, who served during the war and lived to age 95, and heard the story of Thomas Cornelius Doremus, whose family home — still standing today on Route 202 in Montville — hosted George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and both Continental and French troops during the war.

The 20th anniversary of the trip brought two especially meaningful reunions. Montville Police Officer Thomas French and MTPS School Resource Officer Patrick Johnson, an Army National Guard veteran, joined students on the field trip this year — walking the cemetery grounds and replacing flags alongside current students, just as they had done two decades ago as members of the very first class Crescente brought on the trip.

Michelle Trautmann, also part of that original group, returned this year alongside her daughter. Nicole Rudge, who has participated in the trip for more than a decade, also joined students again this year.

Bonicioli, who grew up surrounded by veterans, used the occasion to deliver a message to students about the obligation to remember. According to the district, he reminded students "that the military never leaves anyone behind and that we must continue to preserve the stories, sacrifices, and legacy of our veterans as the country approaches its 250th birthday — and for generations to come."

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