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."

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Scott Andersen Shares Photos of His Winter Exploration of Ancestral Gravesites at the Greenfield Cemetery - Greenfield, Highland County, Ohio


Scott took advantage of the break in the weather today and visited some of his family's gravesites at the Greenfield Cemetery.  
 Here he shares his story of just one of them, Judge Alfred Stephenson Dickey:
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     "Judge Alfred Stephenson Dickey is my 4th Great Uncle.  He was born 6 January 1812 in Giles, Tennessee, and died 22 August 1873 in Ripley, Ohio.  He is buried at the Greenfield Cemetery with many members of his direct family. 
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     The following is from "The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio, from the earliest days, with special chapters on the bench and bar, medical." Pg. 180-181
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      "Judge Green was succeeded in 1857 by James Sloan of Highland, and he in 1858 by Alfred S. Dickey, of Ross, an eminent jurist who sat upon the district bench until 1872. 

     Judge Dickey was born in Tennessee in 1812, of a sturdy Scotch-Irish anti-slavery family, and when four years old was brought by his parents to South Salem, Ross County. There he grew to manhood, accustomed to the log cabin life of the pioneer, obtaining his education in the pioneer schools, and teaching in early manhood. 

     When he was of legal age he entered upon the practice of law, and being appointed prosecuting attorney of Ross County in 1838 he soon established a handsome practice. 

     In 1847 he removed to Greenfield, but after his appointment as a comon pleas judge by Govenor Chase in 1858 he resided in a beautiful home at Lyndon, Ross County. He died not long after his retirement, August 22, 1873. 

     Judge Dickey was pronounced by Judge Chase an eminent judge and worthy of the great esteem in which he was held. Personally he was kind, tolerant, genial, and with rare powers of social entertainment. While upon the bench he also practiced in some cases. The last case he argued was the noted "Ross County Railroad Case," before the Supreme Court, and he was successful in securing a ruling that the "Bosel Act" was unconstitutional."

Photographs below of the obelisk monument for Judge Alfred Stephenson Dickey: