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."

Monday, March 5, 2012

Spotlighting the Orr Family of Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio

Elizabeth Hesser Snider Doster, widow of Henry Snider and John Doster, Sr.
She had lived with her daughter, Eliza Snider Orr, and the Orr family, and was buried with them at Sugar Grove Cemetery, Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio

Longer show view of the large Orr monument for the John Orr family buried at Sugar Grove Cemetery, Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio

Eliza (Snider) Orr, wife of John Orr, buried at Sugar Grove Cemetery, Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio

Samuel C. Orr, son of John & Eliza (Snider) Orr buried at Sugar Grove Cemetery, Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio. Note, Civil War veteran who died at Bowling Green, Kentucky on March 8, 1864.

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With thanks to Mr. Sam Bowers, Perry Township Trustee Chairman, for taking these photographs of the large white marble Orr monument at the Sugar Grove Cemetery in Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio.

Per Mr. Bowers:

"Perry township is about to take the Sugar Grove Cemetery back over.

The church has had the cemetery surveyed and is doing away with the potters field to make room for the driveway and new parking lot.

They are also moving the grave in potters field and paying the township $6,000.00 for the graves they are taking for the parking lot. Or I should say they are paying for the lots that the parking lot and new section of the church are already over."

Story from the "Lima News" about Deb Garver and her cemetery work in Allen, Hancock, Hardin, and Putnam Counties Ohio

Thanking "Save A Grave" for bringing my attention to this story written by ROSANNE BOWMAN - 
419-993-2084 that was published yesterday online by the "Lima News." Click on title to access it.

Quoting a point from this story:

"2. What do you do to research them? What is the process?"

"The order of events, I guess you'd say, is I go to the cemetery, and I take pictures of all the stones. If I can't read them, then I use shaving cream, which I wipe on the stone and it goes into the crevices and makes the stones easier to read. It doesn't hurt the stones at all; I teach chemistry by the way. I come home, and put it all on the computer. I look them up on ancestor.com to see if I can find any other information about them. Then I include that information along with the picture I took as a memorial on an online cemetery. This way, someone in California can see great-grandpa's actual gravestone."
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The only issue that most of us would have with this approach is the use of the shaving cream. It has been stated many times, including by "The Association for Gravestone Studies", that it is NOT good to use shaving cream on gravestones.

So, please click on "The Association for Gravestone Studies" link above in this paragraph to learn the reasons and recommendations for best practices and proper methods of cleaning gravestones.

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Overall, this is a wonderful story to read and is worth sharing. Deb is to be congratulated for her work in documentating gravesites in her area on "Find A Grave".