When he set out to help remember and memorialize the Italian immigrant victims of the Wreck of the Wabash, Jim Berryman said he didn’t do it for any recognition. For him and everyone else involved, it was about remembering the victims.

He said as much during the 2016 ceremony at Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian to mark and pay tribute to the previously unmarked and unknown gravesite of the Italian immigrant victims, who died in that horrific train crash 117 years ago. “From this day forward, with this sculpture, we will remember their journey, we will remember their dreams and hopefully this sculpture will remind us here today, and for all of those yet to visit this site, that this country of opportunity came with the sacrifices of many,” Berryman, then mayor of the city of Adrian, said at the dedication ceremony for a sculpture marking the graves.