Sharing the latest report from "The Friends of the Old Burying Ground" in Greenfield, Highland County by John King.

"June 20th was a productive day at OBG. The rain had stopped, sun was out!

 Michael Anderson, Avery Applegate, and John King cleaned some gravestones, straightened a couple and began repairs on a large stone that was in multiple pieces.

One of the rewards of our cemetery preservation efforts is when people visit the cemetery while we are working and we can help them locate their relatives. 

A couple from Washington State, Rhonda and Patrick Clark, were traveling across the country looking for burial sites of Rhonda's family. In particular, they were looking for Edward Bryam, her 5X great uncle.

Would you believe we actually cleaned the gravestones of Edward and Rachel Bryam at our previous work session! Rhonda was thrilled to find them looking so nice. She also looked for some members of the Gibson family and at the cemetery in general.

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Our next tentative date for work will be Friday July 18th. We will start at 12:30 p.m., but it is likely that a couple of us will be there earlier than that. So if you have the time to help or just want to look at the progress, please plan to join us."

"Since 2014, the Old Burying Ground (OBG) in Greenfield, Ohio, has been undergoing work by a group of dedicated volunteers. Throughout each year, work sessions have been held by key volunteers." 

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Friends of the Old Burying Ground in Greenfield, Highland County, Ohio. 
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The Old Burying Ground on Find a Grave.

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

The W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of this blog for Marion County, Ohio, in .jpeg format, which is comprised of the following townships.:

Big Island, Bowling Green, Claridon, Grand, Grand Prairie, Green Camp,
Marion, Montgomery, Pleasant, Prospect, Richland, Salt Rock, Scott, Tully, Waldo

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Green Camp Cemetery has a notation for an unknown veteran stating the specific area of the cemetery where he was buried.:

"Unknown buried in old roadway"

Close up view of the red circled notations for the unknown burial in the "old roadway".:

Below is the full page view for the Green Camp Cemetery:

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The following cemeteries have American Revolutionary War Veterans buried in them. :
Union Cemetery -

Big Island Township - Page 78 - Frazer Gray
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Claridon Cemetery - Claridon Township - Page 11 - Andrew Hyde

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Old Caledonia Cemetery - Claridon Township - Page 88 - John Irey

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Smith Cemetery - Richland Township - Page 102 - Sgt. Israel Clark

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Deal Cemetery - Rock Township - Page 99 - William Stayner and John Lindsey

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Wyatt Cemetery - Waldo Township - Joseph Gillet - (currently there is a duplicate memorial for Joseph Gillet) and Nathaniel Wyatt

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Sharing the Special Edition of the "Scenic Ohio News" - "Historic Ohio Cemeteries" -

 "Scenic Ohio Awards"

"This year's awards program focused on recognizing Ohio's scenic cemeteries."

\

Gary Meisner, FASLA

President

Landscape Architect

 

Landscape Architecture

Land Planning

Urban Design

Planning

Green Roof Design

(513) 321-2796  OFFICE

(513) 312-5500  DIRECT

meisnerandassociates@fuse.net

www.meisnerandassociates.com

The Ohio Cemetery Grant Program for 2026 opens on July 1 2025.

"Please gather all information prior to entering the application online. Once you start the application, the information entered cannot be saved and if you exit out of the application you will lose all information previously  entered. The application site will time out if left open and inactive for longer than 6 hours."

 New cemetery grant program for 2026:

"The FY2026 cemetery grant application period opens July 1, 2025." 

"Cemetery operators can sign-up for our cemetery stakeholder email list here.

Once the application period opens on July 1st, the application can be found at https://cemeterygrants.com.ohio.gov/. If you have any questions or require additional assistance, please contact the Division at CemeteryGrants@com.ohio.gov.  

The Division’s cemetery grant program advances grants to properly registered cemeteries, except for-profit corporations, to defray the costs of exceptional maintenance or training of cemetery personnel in the maintenance and operation of the cemetery. A cemetery that has not had a burial in the last 25 years or is a family cemetery is exempt from registration and does not qualify for a grant.

Reasonable maintenance, pursuant to Ohio Revised Code section 4767.09, done in the day-to-day operations of a cemetery is not considered exceptional for purposes of awarding grants. Exceptional maintenance is construed broadly to cover non-routine, non-repetitive maintenance.

An operator may apply every other year for one grant of up to $2,500. Operators of five or more cemeteries registered with the Division may apply each year. Grant funds cannot be used for activities or purchases prior to formal approval of the grant application by the Superintendent and the Division’s receipt of a signed grant award agreement."

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https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/com.ohio.gov/REPL/repl_CemeteryGrantInstructionsFY26.pdf

Eli Allen of "Wandering Appalachia" creates "Polycams" of monuments at Ohio cemeteries.

Polycam of a monument by Eli Allen creator of "Wandering Appalachia"

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"Main Page of "Wandering Appalachia"

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"Wandering Appalachia - Cemeteries"

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"Wandering Appalachia - Youtube"

Lucas County, Ohio G.I.S. Cemeteries Maps Updates from Brian S. Miller - the Records/IT/CAD Manager for the Lucas County Engineer's Office.

 Updates to the Lucas County, Ohio Engineer's Cemeteries website.  Please see remarks by Brian S. Miller.: 

Main G.I.S. Map Gallery for Lucas County, Ohio.

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/c124b6564e1640d78040c39c39c155cd/
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Lucas County, Ohio main cemeteries maps.:

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b5e85dd2286446cdae5cc3d79becf863/page/Page

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Lucas County Ohio Cemeteries - Lucas County Ohio Engineer's Cemetery maps of cemeteries that no longer exist. (Polish National Cemetery - Example.)

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From Brian S. Miller:

"I have added some new features to the Engineer’s Cemetery Map.":

 

1. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, you will now see a GPS coordinates tool that reads the GPS coordinates on the fly as you move your mouse. You can also capture GPS coordinates of any location on the map by clicking the cursor icon button on the left side of the GPS tool, select the location on the map and your desired coordinates are saved to the GPS tool window. Once captured, you can then click the copy to clipboard button on the right side of the GPS tool. Now you can paste those coordinates to any desired application you need it for.
2. In the row of tools at the bottom, I have added the Share Tool icon, which allows you to copy and share a link to anyone of the map at the location you are zoomed into.
3. In the lower right-hand corner of the screen, I have added the Measurement tool, which can come in quite handy if you need to measure something on the map. It will measure in many different units. Measuring distances is in feet by default. Measuring an area is in square feet by default.

 

"These 3 new features can be quite handy in certain circumstances." 

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Lucas County Cemeteries on Find a Grave.

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From the "Record Herald" - "Explore Fayette County's Past in Bloomingburg Cemetery Tour" - Monday - June 16 2025 - 6:30pm with Mr. Paul LaRue

 

Mr. Paul LaRue left.:

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"BLOOMINGBURG, Ohio — Historian and educator Paul LaRue will lead a program called “A Walk in the Bloomingburg Cemetery” on Monday, June 16, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., giving a tour of prominent gravesites from Fayette County. The Bloomingburg Cemetery is located on State Route 38 in Bloomingburg."

"The “cemetery walk” is open to the public. LaRue’s tours provide history and genealogical facts about prominent people of Fayette County, and this tour will focus on Bloomingburg.

A former history teacher and researcher, LaRue’s tours are educational and informative. He thanked the Bloomingburg Cemetery Board “for allowing this tour to take place.”

The Fayette County Genealogical Society is sponsoring the tour. All are welcome to attend and learn from history, LaRue said."

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The Bloomingburg Cemetery on Find a Grave.

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

The Fulton County, Ohio W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the blog.  

Thanking Elizabeth Blakely-White, GIS Assistant - Fulton County Auditor for sharing the .pdf images of these pristine condition cemetery plat maps.  Scott Yoder is the Director of the G.I.S. Department of the Fulton County Auditor. 

Sharing the Fulton County, Ohio Grave G.I.S. Database.:
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The Pleasant View Cemetery (AKA Pleasant View Union Cemetery) has a Soldiers' Circle. 

Sharing from the Description provided for this cemetery as listed for it on Find a Grave.:
"The Pleasant View Cemetery is located west of Maple Street and south of Ontario Street in the southwest section of the village of Fayette. The older section of Pleasant View Cemetery was a family burial ground on land owned by John Gamber. By 1852 the site had been expanded to serve the local area. The first burial is difficult to determine as grave markers were moved to Pleasant View from abandoned cemeteries. The first burial may have been as early as 1836."

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The Fluhart Cemetery in York Township

Jacob Lozier was an American Revolutionary War veteran.: 

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Phineas Brown - American Revolutionary War veteran who was buried at the Jordan (AKA Edgar) Cemetery

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The Fulton County W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps collection is one that has been wonderfully preserved over many decades and is now available for public research; thus ensuring that this valuable information will not be lost! 

The Ashland County W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the Blog.

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

The original paper map pages are in a hard cover book at the office of the Ashland County Recorder. Erin Beebe is the Recorder and she has photographed them in their original condition.
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Sharing this example.:

Selser Cemetery in Milton Township, Ashland County, Ohio.: 

Find a Grave Memorial for American Revolutionary War veteran Frederick Selser / Seltzer / Selcer

The "Ohio Genealogy Express" lists his name as Frederick Sultzer. 

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Unlike most W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Map collections in other Ohio counties, Ashland County's cemetery map pages containing multiple cemeteries on one page are all of the same township. Thus there are no "Multiple Townships / Smaller Cemeteries" category in their collection. 

A new volunteer work session announced for the Old Burying Ground in Greenfield, Highland County, Ohio.

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Adding a few photos from Linda's collection from a 2016 visit to the Old Burying Ground in Greenfield, Ohio! :

"2024 marked the completion of our mapping of the cemetery. By working in 50'x50' sections we identified the burials in each section, took pictures of the gravestones and updated the Billion Graves website and our Master List of Burials and Working List. A map was also created showing the individual sections that we created. Mike Anderson and John King looked over the cemetery in late April to see if winter had caused any damage, etc. There is plenty of work ahead of us for 2025. We will have a "Cleaning Session" to improve the looks of the gravestones of military veterans prior to Memorial Day. So on Friday, May 23rd, 1:00 p.m., we hope many of you will join us in this effort to honor our military veterans whose final resting place is in The Old Burying Ground.  The work will not be difficult. We will just use water and soft bristle brushes to clean the stones." ******************** "If you think you can join us on May 23, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., please email to let us know. You can stay as long as you want."  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As mentioned in our April email, The Old Burying Ground was recognized by Scenic Ohio as one of the recipients of this year's Scenic Ohio Award.    Scenic Ohio's awards program recognizes the work of organizations, agencies, and individuals that conserve, restore, maintain and manage Ohio's scenic places.     Our Historic Cemeteries are treasures to be honored as true "Gardens for the Living".  The restoration work at Old Burying Ground Cemetery is exemplary and an important example of what many historic cemeteries need. The work of restoration, preservation and maintenance of historic cemeteries is work of the highest order and to be encouraged throughout Ohio.  Six other cemeteries in Ohio were awarded:   1.  Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland   2.  Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus   3.  Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati   4.  Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield   5.  Mt. Tabor Cemetery, Mingo, Champaign County   6.  Old Burying Ground, Highland County   7.  Stratford Cemetery, Delaware County Thank you all for being supporters and volunteers to help make this happen!

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Spotlighting Lorain's Elmwood Cemetery - its history with snapshots of various markers and monuments that grace its grounds.

 Lorain, Ohio's Elmwood Cemetery from the City of Lorain's website.:

About Lorain Elmwood Cemetery

"Established in 1900, Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest active cemetery in Lorain, Ohio. Encompassing 326 acres, it is a classic example of a garden cemetery, featuring a park-like setting with sweeping vistas, shady knolls, large stands of ancient trees, and magnificent monuments. Elmwood Cemetery is home to a variety of wildlife, including deer, rabbits, and squirrels, and is a popular spot for birdwatching and photography. Many notable people are buried at Elmwood Cemetery, including veterans, politicians, and business leaders. It is also a member of the National Register of Historic Places."

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Elmwood Cemetery on Find a Grave

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Sharing some information regarding the "Ohio Veterans Revolutionary War Graves Project - Ohio History Connection"

The links below do not cover all of the information connected to this Project.:
"Contact Us"
Or:

Diana Welling, Director State Historic Preservation Office
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"Ohio Veterans Revolutionary War Graves Project - Ohio History Connection"
"Grave Survey Form"
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"America 250-Ohio Revolutionary War Veterans Graves Project  

A Guide to Field Collection for Public Researchers"
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"Revolutionary War Veteran

 "Burial Identification"
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"Images and Mapping"
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"Veteran Identification"
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"Monument / Marker Identification"
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"Recorder Information"

The "Recorder Information" Section is where the participant provides their name, email address, and any comments and/or notes prior to their submission of the form. 
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The Auglaize County W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the blog.

The Auglaize County W.P.A. Plat Maps have been added to the right sidebar of the blog.
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Auglaize County, Ohio is comprised of the following townships.:

Clay

Duchouquet

German

Goshen

Jackson

Logan

Moulton 

Noble

Pusheta

Salem

St. Mary's

Union

Washington

Wayne
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The Auglaize County Ohio W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps are in pristine condition!  The pages are numbered and the maps are in very good readable condition. 

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The originals for these map pages are at the Auglaize County Recorder's Office in the .pdf format.
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As is the case with these W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Map collections from other Ohio counties, the highest number of veteran burials are for those who served in the Civil War - Number 19.  

There are veterans who served in other wars as well and are noted as such with their number in a circle. 

Fort Amanda Memorial Park is the resting place for two known Revolutionary War veterans.:
Peter Sunderland
Willian Taylor

(age of William Taylor on Find a Grave shows 110 -111, and thus is being investigated.)
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Some map pages present with the veterans names in the more traditional format of listing the veteran's burial location - Section Lot Grave War Name - while other maps show the veteran's name by his gravesite inside the map itself.  

This is a finer point to keep in mind. Below is a side-by-side example that actually occurs on the same map page.: 

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Mentioning that the name for Fort Amanda Memorial Park AKA Fort Amanda Cemetery in Logan Township has been corrected for it on Find a Grave to reflect this name. 

Previously, it had been erroneously identified as being a National Cemetery.  Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that this cemetery is not an official National Cemetery.

When the W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Map was created for it, the word (Military) was included for its name.:

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The Walnut Hill Cemetery in Goshen Township has a penciled in date at the bottom of some of its pages of 3/28/40 which I take it to mean March 28, 1940.  1940 is among the later years when these cemetery plat maps were drawn up in the W.P.A. program which began in the mid to late 1930s during the Great Depression. 

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Thus, if you are researching veteran burials in Auglaize County, Ohio, these W.P.A. Cemetery Plat Maps would be a wonderful place to start!