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."

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Sharing a link via Facebook with a short video and news of an upcoming April 1, 2024 meeting with Ross County Commissioners regarding the neglected state of the Floral Hills Memory Gardens

Sharing this latest Video for Floral Hills Memory Gardens.

We'll be looking for updates as we move closer to the next meeting because this abandonment of an Active and once vibrant cemetery by those who should care but don't, should be considered a travesty because that is what it is and should not be happening in Ohio in the 21st Century!

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To keep up with all of the updates directly, please click on the Facebook Page for Floral Hills Memory Gardens in Ross County, Ohio.    




Sharing a link to Milano Monuments latest blog post "Your Guide to Cemetery Restoration Grants"

 Sharing this educational blog post by Milano Monuments located in Bedford, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.:

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Thursday, March 21st, 2024 - from 4:30pm. to 7:00p.m. - David Robertson will be present on the Ross County, Ohio Court House Steps to Discuss Floral Hills Memory Gardens and Answer Questions.


Sharing this March 18, 2024 news story.
"Information Session Offered on Still-Troubled Floral Hills Memory Gardens in Ross County" 
And
  You Tube video also from the "Scioto Post"
By 
Kevin Coleman 

Excerpt from the news story.:
"To help explain and publicize the situation, 
Robertson says he got approval to be
 on the steps of the Ross County Courthouse 
Thursday. 
He says he will be there alone, 
4:30 to 7pm on March 21st, 
to answer questions as best he can."
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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Clean Up Floral Hills Memory Gardens Most Recent Announcement for an upcoming public meeting at the Ross County, Ohio Court House - March 21 2024 - 4:30p.m. till 7:00p.m.

Sharing this announcement posted on the "Clean Up Floral Hills Memory Gardens" Facebook Page on March 17, 2024. 
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Sadly, although coming the closest ever to achieving an agreement with Huntington Township in Ross County to accept and assume responsibility and ownership of Floral Hills Memory Gardens, any agreement to do so fell apart before the end of 2023.  
Thus, leaving this Active and public cemetery in its decade+ long limbo that it has been stuck in through no fault of its own. 
This situation directly impacts lot owners of course and truly anyone who visits and cares about this cemetery!  
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There have been several posts per year appearing on this blog alone; as well as those by newspaper and TV reporters from many central Ohio news outlets about the plight of Floral Hills Memory Gardens in Ross County, Ohio bringing greater public awareness to this situation and alerting them that other cemeteries in Ohio could end up in the same or similar situation.
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This cemetery is now, in my estimation, Ohio's longest Abandoned yet Active Cemetery in the state - having no legal owner to maintain it or Register it with the State of Ohio for close to 13 years! 
This sad predicament should never happen to any Active Cemetery in Ohio. 
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"Anyone interested in a Public Meeting in an Auditorium complex with PowerPoint presentation to show what is happening with Your Cemetery?
This is the amount of paperwork filed with the Clerk of Courts since Dec 20th, 2023 (shown on the cemetery's Facebook Page) in an attempt to get $54,566.07 of Your Cemetery’s money.
I think the public needs to be aware of what is going on.
This needs to be Specifically in a Public forum with actual Discussions with the public and a truthful Question & Answer period.
Let those who know inform you…and you Will Not need a lawyer to be heard!
All money in the Trusts should only be allowed to go to Huntington Twp. so Your Cemetery has the best chance of Survival, Growth & Improvements."
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Thursday, March 14, 2024

Sharing a Call for Volunteers to help in Cuyahoga County to complete scanning projects of several types of cemetery records including W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps.

Sharing from Homer Taft of the Early Settlers Association of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio.:

"We have with volunteers through Monroe Street Cemetery Foundation completed scanning many record books of Monroe Street Cemetery, with over a Terabyte of data produced with a view to making maps, lot layouts, and all interment records publicly available soon.  

We have now obtained records for:

 Erie Street, Denison, and Brookmere Cemeteries, the other oldest Cemeteries, for scanning.  

These represent perhaps another 30-40 hours of volunteer time to scan.

Once these are completed, we can move on to some larger projects including.:

 Woodland, Harvard Grove, Alger, West Park, and Highland Park.  

There are also many other local cemeteries with records that could be scanned.

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In addition, we are working at obtaining scans of the fragile WPA maps of veteran graves at all Cuyahoga Cemeteries so they can be put on line.

Also, are discussing getting online access to all, including the oldest, Probate Court records that are a gold mine for genealogy.

If we try to do this with our first 8 volunteers who have been trained in the high speed, large format equipment at Cleveland Public Library, it will likely take many years, perhaps the lifetimes of the mostly retired who are helping.  

We could very much use help from another 16 or more.  

If we were to achieve even 20 hours a week of scanning, with average sessions of 4 hours and one volunteer session a month, we'd need 22 folks to do just the 8 Cleveland Cemeteries in one year.

There are also many tasks past scanning.  

These need to be put through an AI-OCR process to index and translate the records that requires at least one human eye on every resulting entry to assure accuracy and correct incorrect entries from the transcribed records.

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So we are asking for your help and for recruitment of folks you know who may be interested.  

With many more hands and eyes, we may be able to make these records available publicly in a year or so.  

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The first step is a training session on the equipment and records to know how to properly handle which takes about 2 hours for every group of up to 4 people at Cleveland Public Library.  

Then individuals schedule sessions with the large format scanner and continue the book being scanned until finished."

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Homer S. Taft
Monroe Street Cemetery Foundation
https://www.earlysettlers.org

The Early Settlers Association of the Western Reserve
P.O. Box 39291
Solon, Ohio 44139
https://www.earlysettlers.org/contact-us.html

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Pike County, Ohio's W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the blog.

 Pike County W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the blog.  

This is a collection of the W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps for Pike County, Ohio. The maps exist at the Pike County Map office. 

The Pike County Recorder has the individual veteran's grave registration cards that are arranged alphabetically for each cemetery.  

The townships of Pike County are.:

Beaver

Benton

Camp Creek

Jackson

Marion

Mifflin

Newton

Pebble

Pee Pee

Perry

Scioto

Seal

Sunfish

Union 

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This Pike County W.P.A. Cemetery Map collection consists of maps that essentially are original drawings created early in the project with limited handwritten information in the Legend Box that is positioned at the bottom of a map page in the lower right-hand corner.  The map pages are numbered.  

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Unfortunately, only one of these map pages include the names of any of the veterans who were buried at any of the cemeteries in Pike County. 

The page is:

WPA CEMETERY PLAT MAPS - PIKE COUNTY - SEAL TWP - MOUND CEM #2 - SECTIONS A & B & C & D & & L - COL JOHN GUTHERY REV. WAR VET - PAGE 72:

Lt. Col. John Guthery on Find a Grave buried at the top of the mound.
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However, many of the maps do show the normal coffin-like symbols in the plot where a veteran was buried. 
Example below.:
WPA CEMETERY PLAT MAPS - PIKE COUNTY - MIFFLIN TWP - WASHBURN CEM - NO VETS NAMES - PAGE 85
Close up view.:
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Unlike the W.P.A .Cemetery Plat Map pages in other counties, there is only one instance with a map page having mixed townships for the cemeteries.  
Otherwise, it is uniform throughout with only one township name for any number of cemeteries on a page.  

Below is the image of Page 1 that has one cemetery in Camp Creek Township and the remainder of the cemeteries are located in Sunfish Township.:

WPA CEMETERY PLAT MAPS - PIKE COUNTY - CAMP CREEK TWP - MECHLIN CEM - SUNFISH TWP - ABBOTT CEM & MUSTARD CEM & RUSSELL CEM - NO VETS NAMES - PAGE 1:
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Pike County is a rural county in Southern Ohio and thus there are a great number of smaller size cemeteries that are located in it. Most cemeteries are on county or township roadways.

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Below are are some links regarding Pike County, Ohio Cemeteries as of February 25, 2024:

The Pike County Genealogical Society's listing of cemeteries organized under their respective counties.:

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Find a Grave Cemetery Listing for Pike County.:

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Ohio Gravestones.org –Pike County cemeteries burial listing.

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LDS Genealogy.

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Friday, March 8, 2024

Lake View Cemetery - Cleveland, Ohio - April 8, 2024 - "Angels in the Shadows" - The program ends prior to the total solar eclipse - $25.00 per person. A separate Total Solar Eclipse Watch Party follows for $50.00 per person.

 Sharing this upcoming event announcement from Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.:

https://www.lakeviewcemetery.com/events/2024/04/08/angels-in-the-shadows
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"Join photographer Ian Adams for a talk and demonstration on photography techniques and the effect of shadows during the Solar Eclipse.

This program will begin at Wade Pond, continue with a 1 mile walk on various terrain, and last approximately 90 minutes; the program will conclude prior to the Total Eclipse." - the cost is $25.00 per person.

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There is a separate Total Eclipse Watch Party that follows at Lake View Cemetery - the cost is $50.00 per person. 

"Join us at one of the highest points in Lake View for this multi-sensory experience - watch the moon eclipse the sun, hear the wildlife go quiet, and feel the energy shift around you. Eclipse glasses will be available for attendees to safely view the total eclipse, generously provided by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

VIP Experience – You can be one of the first to enjoy the newly reopened upper terrace of the James A. Garfield Memorial with the VIP Experience special seating to watch the eclipse unfold. 

VIP Experience tickets are $50 per person, get yours before this exclusive experience sells out! The upper terrace is accessed by circular staircase, please wear appropriate footwear."

This event begins at 2:30pm, eclipse totality begins at 3:15pm.

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Below are this author's October 6, 2020 photographs of the Garfield Monument at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland after it was professionally cleaned.  



Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Volunteer opportunities open up at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio - See Facebook Page

 Green Lawn Cemetery on Facebook.:

"Does your company, church or organization need a meaningful volunteer service opportunity?

With over 6000 veterans laid to rest in 7 military sections at Green Lawn Cemetery, we rely on the generosity of volunteers to give their markers the gentle cleaning they deserve.

We provide all supplies, cleaner, and instruction on how to safely and effectively do the job!

Contact us at 614-444-1123 to schedule your volunteer event. Groups of 10-20 people are ideal."

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Green Lawn Cemetery Association

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info@greenlawncemetery.org

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Green Lawn Cemetery on Find a Grave

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Monday, March 4, 2024

Sharing news of an upcoming presentation to be given by Mr. Paul LaRue - Monday, March 18, 2024 - 7:00p.m. entitled.: "Sam Lucas and Uncle Tom's Cabin" - 101 E. East Street Evelyn Pentzer Meeting Room (Center for Economic Opportunity Building) Washington Court House, Fayette County, Ohio

This presentation is being hosted by the Fayette County Genealogical Society - a Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society.
Please see the details provided in the poster below for the program's details.: 
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Mr. Paul LaRue is well known for his long career teaching at the high school in Washington Court House providing detailed programs that have brought about a greater awareness to the African American Civil War soldiers who were buried in Fayette County, Ohio.  
Mr. LaRue has taken his classes on numerous field trips that include the marking of soldiers' graves.  

Below are links that offer further information about Mr. LaRue and his work.:
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https://doughboy.org/ohios-black-world-war-i-sailors-forgotten-u-s-servicemen/
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https://www.ohiohistory.org/teaching-ohios-forgotten-heroes/
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