We had a busy weekend, but unfortunately, not as much time devoted to the blog as we would have liked. However, our (seemingly) never ending search for a house may have been concluded this weekend, so that is a HUGE positive note. Pending the stamp of approval from the Dads, we will hopefully be making an offer tonight, praise the Lord! We did get out and do some exploration, but only a little. We checked some awesome cemeteries off the Ohio landmark list, as well as a few other historical sites. I'm going to just touch on the cemeteries right now.
I apologize if you are getting tired of all of these cemeteries... It's kind of the nature of the beast... cemeteries just happen along the way. If you're sick of cemeteries, I will not be offended if you do not continue reading today's post, but stay tuned for the next post which will include trains :) I think I will try to separate cemeteries from other posts, just in case you get tired. I'm sure there will be some week where we will not have visited a cemetery, but they seem to be everywhere we go!
Okay, so cemeteries... we visited two. The first cemetery of the day was Chestnut Grove cemetery in Olmsted Falls (maker #101-18). This cemetery was a little tricky to find at first, as there was not clearly defined location on OHS Marker website... it just listed the street. I punched in "Chestnut Grove..." in my GPS. GPS asked if I wanted "Chestnut Grove Cemetery" and I said yes. It took us to "Chestnut Grove Cemetery" but it wasn't the one with the marker. As it turns out, it appears that Chestnut Grove Cemetery moved from its old location on Chestnut Grove Dr to a new location on Lewis Rd under the same name. We cruised through the new Chestnut Grove thinking "gee... this cemetery looks awfully new... how does this have an historic marker???" We soon saw a sign saying that included "New" with the cemetery name, then we realized that the old cemetery must be very near, so we kept on driving down Lewis Rd. We found the original cemetery just at the end of Lewis Rd, where Lewis dead-ends into Chestnut Grove Dr.
It's quite a neat little cemetery. According to the marker, some of William Bradford's descendants are buried here (there were very many Bradfords!), as well as many early settlers of the Olmsted Falls area and many soldiers from a variety of wars (including the Civil War and the Spanish American War). The cemetery is bounded by the Rocky River. The back portion of the cemetery overlooks the river with a steep ravine. It's beautiful.
The second cemetery we stopped at was Butternut Ridge Cemetery in North Olmsted (marker #8-18). This cemetery is quite large and quite old. In this cemetery, there are some original settlers and many veterans, including one from the Revolutionary War. This cemetery was an interesting mix of the very old and the very new... there were several newer graves there, including one from 2012, but then many from the 1800s. It's a very diverse mix. It was also evident to us that there is someone who is devoting a lot of time and funds in the upkeep of this cemetery. There were many old headstones that have been replaced with new ones. While we miss the old headstones, I think it's great that someone cares enough to preserve the memory of those who are interred. I have included photos of some of the new headstones, and also some potential candidates for replacement.
Alrighty, I think that's all I've got. As promised, there will be another post that does not include cemeteries next, so stay tuned :)
:)ABCS