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."

Sunday, August 11, 2013

A Plea For Help for Walnut Creek Cemetery, Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio


Walnut Creek Cemetery (Perry Township - Fayette County, Ohio) Report (August, 2013:
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  The older, early pioneer section toward the back and right side of the Walnut Creek Cemetery across from Buckeye Hills Golf Course desperately needs to start receiving more routine clean up and maintenance. Taller weeds are encroaching and obscuring many gravestones of all types. The cemetery's main gate also is getting covered by weeds that have grown tall on both sides of it.

Particularly these older areas are in the most need of better care.

It is also unfortunate that so many gravestones have now sunken out of sight while others are lying on the ground broken in pieces. Dead grass sits on top of some of the flat markers making them impossible to see until cleared away.

In 1999, when the Fayette County Genealogical Society conducted a tombstone inscription transcription of the Walnut Creek Cemetery, (pages 40 - 58 of the publication: "Tombstone Transcriptions Perry Township, Fayette County, Ohio 2001") it was stated (on page 40): "It is the oldest cemetery in the county that is still in use." I am reasonably sure that is still the case today. This distinction is indeed an honor for the Walnut Creek Cemetery making it truly deserving of receiving routine good maintenance care.

I am willing to bet that there are veterans buried at Walnut Creek Cemetery from every war that America has fought in going back to the American Revolution. Thankfully, a veterans' group is going out to place flags at the gravesites. The flags can be seen peeking through the weeds at many of the older burial sites.

  Many of us do have ancestors buried at Walnut Creek Cemetery, and some of us live further away and are not able to do more than clean up around our own ancestors' gravestones during a short visit to Fayette County.

Hopefully, a way can be found to restore regular maintenance at all of the gravesites located at Walnut Creek Cemetery; so visitors walking anywhere on its grounds will enjoy being there and feel proud that their ancestor's final resting place is at Walnut Creek Cemetery. Thank you.
 Random scenes below of the pioneer burial areas of Walnut Creek Cemetery: