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."

Friday, June 28, 2013

Update from Scott Andersen about the Dean Cemetery in South Salem, Ross County, Ohio

Scott Andersen continues with his clean up work at the Dean Cemetery in South Salem, Ross County, Ohio. He has been concentrating his efforts for a few years with grounds maintenance and searching for sunken gravestones which he feels may exist there.

Below is a longer view of the Dean Cemetery provided by Scott today:


From Scott:
 
"The weeds at Dean Cemetery had grown up, but it was all soft stuff so it cleaned up very nicely.  I think I have it at the point now where I can start searching for more stones that are buried just below the soil and grass.  Bet I find more.  Pretty sure that there has been nobody out there looking that hard for the last 100 years or so."
 
(Above is an earlier photograph of Scott at the Dean Cemetery.  We can easily see how grown up the brush and weeds were at the time this photograph was taken.)
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Currently, on "Find A Grave" there are 25 interments listed for the Dean Cemetery.  


Besides the surname of Dean, other surnames represented at the Dean Cemetery include:

Brackney, Burnor, Collins, Cunningham, Dickey, Lawhead, Mark, McArthur, McGinnis, Milton, Pummil, and Wallace.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Spotlighting Maple Grove Cemetery - Willoughby Hills, Lake County, Ohio

Sharing some monument and gravestone photographs below. Pictures taken on June 23, 2013.  

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Also, please note:


Please click on the underlined link above for Lake County Genealogical Society to read the history of this cemetery and view their transcriptions that include some details for categories such as section, row, symbols, and comments. 
 Back view photograph of unknown tablet marker that has been repaired and placed back in its slotted base.  The repair appears to be old.
 Large Campbell Family Monument 
(above and below) 
(Please refer to the  Lake County Genealogical Society transcriptions link for this large monument)

 Granite monument above for the Colson family of Alexis E. Colson, Angeline L. Williams Colson, and Charles J. Colson
 Chester Ellsworth and Mary Hoeg Ellsworth - their granite monument (above and longer shot view below)

 John C. Ellsworth (son of Chester and Mary Ellsworth) and his wife, Celestia Helena Maria Jeanette Dowen Ellsworth gravestone above
 Hiram McArthur's tablet style marker on base above
(close up view of marker's inscription above and full size picture of front of gravestone view below)

 Gravestone for Joseph C. Johnson 
(above: top view picture of marker and farther away view picture of marker below)

 Upright gravestone for Jacob Lilley (above)
 Lucy A., wife of William W. McKenzie stone marker on base (above)
 Nicholas Dowen tall monument
 (close up of transcription above and longer shot view of monument below)



 Ezra Bowen Viall's gravsite with repaired gravestone in slotted base above
 Jacob Scherr's single stone on base above.

This single stone above is sitting out of the main area of the cemetery
View of part of the cemetery from the road

Thanking Rick Luciano for visting the Maple Grove Cemetery in Willoughby Hills and  sharing his pictures of some of the above monuments and gravestones found in this early and almost forgotten older burial ground in Lake County, Ohio.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Spotlighting the Quirk Cemetery in Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio


&

 
 
 Unknown markers above
Ralph Williams (broken stone above to the left) & Walter B. Williams (broken stone above to the right)

Longer shot view of the Quirk Cemetery above

(all photographs courtesy of R. Luciano)

Currently, there are 69 interments listed for the Quirk Cemetery on "Find A Grave."

Also, a very good tombstone transcription listing for the Quirk Cemetery can be found on the following website:

Monday, June 24, 2013

Spotlighting Pittsfield East Cemetery (AKA East Pittsfield) - Pittsfield, Lorain County, Ohio

Sharing a wonderful email I received today from Ralph A. Hayes:

    "Thank you for your interest in our cemetery preservation work.

The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado that leveled Pittsfield passed directly over our East Cemetery. Many of the headstones were broken or completely destroyed. At that time, knowing very little about cemetery preservation, the township officials attempted to repair the stones to their best ability.
 Since then many of those repairs have failed. 

Over the past several years, we have attempted to correct or improve the efforts of these 1965 repairs. During this time we have also straightened and leveled many stones in our oldest section of the cemetery.

      I personally have attended a number of cemetery preservation workshops held throughout the mid-west, especially those held by the Indiana State Historical Society (which they usually hold twice a year)

      These past couple of years we have been somewhat inactive in our preservation work.

I find it difficult to find volunteers that are willing to attempt some of the heavy work involved since it requires a minimum of three people to do a good job of lifting and resetting the larger stones. 

Here in Pittsfield we have two other cemeteries which we have yet to work on, so as you can see the work is unending.
 
      I don't pretend to know everything about cemetery restoration,
but I have acquired a lot of "Dos", and more importantly "Don't Dos"
about the work. I have also met a lot of people who are much more
knowledgeable on the subject than I.
      If I can be of further help to you or your interests, please let
me know, as I'd be glad to share whatever kniowledge I have."

Ralph A. Hayes
Pittsfield Township Historical Society.


Currently, on "Find A Grave" there are 1,178 interments posted for the Pittsfield East Cemetery

Friday, June 21, 2013

Spotlighting the Pricetown Cemetery, Newton Falls, Trumbull County, Ohio

On June 18, 2013, a story was published online on the "Tribtoday.com" website that was written by Bob Coupland about the Pricetown Cemetery.  It describes how the members of the Newton Falls Cemetery Association and the Pricetown United Methodist Church combined their efforts to restore the Pricetown Cemetery
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The story also focuses on the fate of the gravestone for Rev. James Boyd discovered just laying on the ground at the Pricetown Cemetery.

Here is a picture of the gravestone for Rev. James Boyd that was cleaned and put back up in a new base. 

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Currently, 72 interments are listed for the Pricetown Cemetery on "Find A Grave." 

Friday, June 14, 2013

Sharing Today's Visit to Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio.

Several of my maternal side family members were buried at Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio, so it is a special cemetery for me.  

I often take random photographs of grave monuments and markers at Calvary when I am visting my relatives' gravesites.  Many times the monuments are for those that are posted on "Find A Grave" but need the photograph; and there have been instances where the memorial itself was not posted.


Hug Family Monument


Richard A. Zappa (wife Mary A. not deceased)
Monument to Pope John Paul II

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Spotlighting Clark County, Ohio -- Clark County Historical Society, Clark County Genealogical Society, and The Clark County Heritage Center

Sharing this information for researchers seeking help researching their ancestors in Clark County, Ohio from Natalie Fritz of the Clark County Historical Soceity:


The contact person for the Clark County Genealogical Society is Flossie Hulsizer: 

Use Email address of:

clark.gen.soc@gmail.com -- Flossie checks this email. 

Or

Call 937-324-0657 ext 230.  She handles their research requests and depending on the nature of the request, I believe she has checked out cemeteries in the past for people.  If she cannot do it, I know there are local findagrave.com volunteers, but I am not sure about contact information or names.  If you want genealogical research done, Flossie handles it for the genealogical society or I do the research on behalf of the historical society.  We are both located on the third floor of the Heritage Center and utilize the same resources here in the research library, but Flossie is able to do research outside of this building to an extent.  The cost for research is $15/hr, $.20 per page for photocopies.

Sincerely,

Natalie Fritz
Curatorial Assistant
Clark County Historical Society
117 S. Fountain Avenue
Springfield, OH 45502
937-324-0657 ext. 234

Police Arrest Grave Robber Thanks to Modern Day Technology -- Read about How it was Done in the "Sandusky Register"

Click on title to read what methods were used that led to the successful apprehension of a robber who took all he could at the Oakland Cemetery on Milan Road in Sandusky.  The news story appeared online on the "Sandusky Register" and was written by Courtney Astolfi. 


Currently on "Find A Grave" there are 6,624 interments listed for the Oakland Cemetery.  

Four famous interments are listed buried at the Oakland Cemetery.  

"Find A Grave" is also showing an alternate name of "Sandusky Cemetery."

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Teach Me Genealogy: How to Volunteer at Find A Grave

Teach Me Genealogy: How to Volunteer at Find A Grave: What is Find A Grave? www.findagrave.com   is a free online database of cemeteries throughout the world. Over 80 million online memorials h...

Spotlighting a Guest Column in the Steubenville Herald-Star: "Cemetery tour very revealing"

The Steubenville Herald-Star (Heraldstaronline.com) on June 1, 2013 published a detailed informative account provided by Flora Verstraten-Merrin, President of the Jefferson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society.  It is a guest column.  Please click on the title to read the full story.  

Flora visited 19 Jefferson County cemeteries in one day!  She  details the condition of each one as she found it during her walking tour.  

A new permanent link has been added on this blog on the left-hand column (Under "Ohio Cemeteries - Websites by County") to the Jefferson County Genealogical Society's "Cemetery Project" page.  It is well worth reading !  

The entire Jefferson County Genealogical Society website is excellently arranged and offers several external links of interest to genealogists and cemetery explorers alike!