Exploring Almost Forgotten Gravesites in the Great State of Ohio

Dedicated to cemetery preservation in the great state of Ohio


"A cemetery may be considered as abandoned when all or practically all of the bodies have been Removed therefrom and no bodies have been buried therein for a great many years, and the cemetery has been so long neglected as entirely to lose its identity as such, and is no longer known, recognized and respected by the public as a cemetery. 1953 OAG 2978."

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Spotlighting Maple Grove Cemetery - North Lewisburg, Rush Township, Champaign County Ohio

Click on title to link to Maple Grove Cemetery's records on the website of Find A Grave.com.

With special thanks to Mr. Ralph Lowell Coleman, Jr.  for his extensive research of Maple Grove Cemetery's burial records.  Ralph has also taken hundreds of stone photographs of burials at Maple Grove. 

Bio and Links

Teacher, writer, published poet. Genealogy is not just a hobby; it's a passion. Researching the COLEMAN - HARPER - BRUNER - SHAFER - IMPSON -
BARNES - SALSGIBER family lines. Roots in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Utah.
I have taken more than 7000 photos of the markers in Maple Grove Cemetery, North Lewisburg, Ohio, and Woodstock Cemetery, Woodstock, Ohio, and am posting them on an irregular basis. Contact me for assistance if you have a loved one, friend or associate buried in either of these two cemeteries in need of a photograph.
Contact: rlcolemanjr@hotmail.com

Link to Ralph's blog:  http://alongspaincreek.blogspot/

Information about Maple Grove Cemetery in North Lewisburg from Ralph:
• No deeds were sold to Maple Grove Cemetery until April 1892.

• The numbering system at Maple Grove Cemetery is SQUARE - LOT - GRAVESITE(S). The cemetery is divided into squares, which are then divided into lots, and then further divided into gravesites. Each SQUARE (numbered from 1 to 242) is divided into LOTS (originally numbered numerically from 1 - 781; in recent years this has been changed; lots are now numbered from 1-4, starting in the upper left corner of the SQUARE and going clockwise) and GRAVESITE(S) which are numbered 1-4, there normally being only 4 gravesites in each lot. Occasionally there is a 5th gravesite because burials were "squeezed in" the available room. In later years this practice has been abandoned. There are no gravesites numbered 6, 7, or 8 in the cemetery.
• The cemetery is divided into three sections, referred to from the oldest part of the cemetery (Spain Cemetery, the original burial grounds), to the "Old" addition...all of the cemetery which sits east of Gilbert Road, and the Gilbert Addition...all of the cemetery which sits west of Gilbert Road which was purchased from the Gilbert family with burials which began in the 1950s.
• The official Deeds record for Maple Grove Cemetery, which I transcribed from paper records into a digital database, show the earliest deed sold to a Holycross in 1895 to John H. Holycross. No Henry Holycross is listed in the records of deed ownership. There is a H. H. Holycross, who purchased gravesites in 1906.