One statement to keep in mind that stands out significantly in this news story is this will be the first time the Hartford Township Trustees are placing a cemetery levy on the ballot for voters to have their say -- to either pass or fail. This is a pivotal point to ponder considering there are 3 cemeteries in Hartford Township.
Most certainly each cemetery has veterans buried in it going back as early as the American Revolutionary War and several who served in the War of 1812 and Civil War.
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One resource that helps identify early veterans buried in these cemeteries is the W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps in the 1930s during the years of the Great Depression.
Below is an image of the ‘Legend of Wars’ listing of the names of wars, uprisings, and insurrections, with corresponding numbers. The proper number for the war a veteran served in are shown by his name on the cemetery's map page. The plat map itself reflects veteran burial locations by lot number, grave number, and their war number. The last known war at the time was World War I.
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The three cemeteries in Hartford Township, Trumbull County, Ohio are - with their respective W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps shown below their names.:
Hartford Township (AKA Hartford Center) Cemetery
By browsing through the Find A Grave memorials posted for any of these three cemeteries, several early 1800s marker photos, in particular, were included and can be viewed in an enlarged format that show just how severely deteriorated the gravestone has become. So much so that an inscription can now barely be read; if at all. One such example is for Chloe Waite Bushnell who died in 1832 at the age of 94 and was buried at the Hartford Township Cemetery. A close-up view of her slightly leaning marker photo posted in 2010 clearly shows long time evidence of surface erosion of the stone.
Once these markers and the stories they tell are gone; they are gone forever. If we are fortunate, at an earlier time, their inscriptions were read, correctly transcribed, and published. Perhaps earlier photographs exist of them in better more readable condition. These markers were erected to stand and mark a grave - a final resting place. A skilled stonecutter carved the deceased's name, age, date of death, possibly an epitaph and a befitting motif commemorating their life - all on a well-chosen sturdy stone.
The ill-effects of passing decades, including sadly vicious vandalism, have all taken their toll on these markers; but so did local apathy and neglect.
Passing cemetery levies helps provide the means for necessary duties to be regularly performed to keep the grounds and grave markers maintained as they should be. Funds from levies provide peace of mine for those who have purchased gravesites at their community cemeteries; and for descendants of ancestors long ago who found peace and rest on those local hallowed grounds.
Cemeteries are deserving of our utmost respect - they are integral to the vitality of the surrounding community - and reflect its unique heritage.
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“This is a Cemetery”
"Lives are commemorated - deaths are recorded - families are reunited - memories are made tangible - and love is undisguised.
This is a cemetery.
Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, historians seek information and our heritage is thereby enriched.
Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are carved in stone to pay warm tribute to accomplishments and to the life - not death - of a loved one.
The cemetery is homeland for family memorials that are a sustaining source of comfort to the living.
A cemetery is a history of people - a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth loving and remembering - always."
By
~ Mary Lou Brannon ~
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