Light Filtered Through the Trees Lead The Way

There it is, the stone that started it all. It's the cause of my obsession with cemeteries and tombstones.

It is a simple stone, nothing really special about it. It was the first tombstone I photographed. Maybe what I had to go through to get to it has something to do with it.

On a September morning in 2000 with only a camera in hand my husband and I set out to take a picture of the grave of John Anderson, my 3rd great grandfather. John was born in either North Carolina or Georgia and at that time the only ancestor I knew served in the American Revolution.

When I think back about this trip I realize what a novice I was. I was not prepared for the adventure which was ahead of me. I thought I was going to drive right up to the cemetery and with a few clicks of the camera I'd be on my way. You should see me when I go to a cemetery today. I can tell you one thing I am armed with more than a camera and tennis shoes!

After driving up and down McCumber Hill Road for the third time, I realized this was not going to be as easy as I had thought. Why? There was no cemetery in site; no matter where I looked or how many times we went up and down the short road surrounded on all sides by hills covered with trees and only a few homes.

Could the directions I have to be wrong?

Where's the cemetery and how was I going to find it? Surely it couldn't be too far off the road. They had to be able to get a casket and tombstone to the site of burial. I was about to learn I was WRONG again.

I told my husband to stop at the next house and I'd ask if anyone knew of a cemetery in the area. As he went around a curve a home came in view. The front yard was full of guys working on motorcycles. There was no way I was getting out of the car and asking about a cemetery. I had been warned by my uncles to be careful where I went and who I talked to, due to hidden growing locations of "Meigs County Gold" all over the country side.

Down the road a bit we saw another home about an eighth of the way up a hill and noticed a man by the barn. Looked safe enough to me; so up we went. As we went up the drive I thought it was a good thing I didn't have to walk up to this house. OH, little did I know I was soon going to be doing a lot of walking and most of it was going to be straight up.

As I approached him I thought, he is going to think me totally nuts. I took a deep breath and asked if he knew of any cemetery near by and added according to the directions I have it is supposed to be on McCumber Hill Road just east of Nicholason Hill Road.
He looked at me and said, "Let me get my wife; she came across a cemetery up there, as he motioned up the hill from where he was standing, when she was out walking one day." Relief! We found the cemetery. Then I thought, OH, my goodness he pointed up that hill! Not just any hill but the tallest one in the area. I told myself it could not be too far up, right? McCumber Hill Road, Nicholason Hill Road, there was a clue there I didn't see.

I learned just how far up after wading thru tall weeds and brush with only tennis shoes on to a semi flat location where several tall cedar trees were but no cemetery in view. This must have been where a home was at one time, parts of a stone foundation and steps were visual through all the weeds. I was told the cemetery was still further up the hill and from this point on it was about as straight up as it could be and still be able to climb. I wished I had started this adventure about twenty years sooner.

HOW did they ever get a casket up here?? There was nothing that indicated there ever was a road. What we were following had to have been a path deers used to go up and down the hill. This was the only semi cleared area around.

I don't know how long we were climbing but it seemed like at least an hour. Finally the ground started leveling out some and in the distance I saw a stone. Not just a stone; a HUGE stone. To this day I have no idea how they were able to get a stone of that size up that hillside.

After a few more minutes of climbing the trees became fewer, myrtle was covering the ground and we were standing at the top of the hill and the edge of the cemetery. Leaves were still on the trees and light filtered thru here and there. There were standing and fallen stones scattered around and several sunken areas indicated a burial but the stones were long gone. I don't think anyone had visited this cemetery for years, no road was visible leading away from the cemetery in any direction. Later I learned the last burial was in 1933, a few were laid to rest in the 1920s but most were buried from the mid 1800s to 1900.

With a sigh of relief, I looked around. This WAS a beautiful cemetery, so quite and peaceful. A wide ray of su light shining thru the trees caught my eyes as I glanced over the stones. It seemed to be shining on one particular tall rectangular stone as if to be pointing the way. Once I reached the stone and read: John Anderson Died Feb 24, 1847 Aged 76y3m27d, an overwhelming feeling came over me and I realize I had finally accomplished what I had set out to do that day. We spent the next hour or so photographing the complete cemetery knowing it was very unlikely I would ever be able to return.

I will never forget the climb nor how I felt when I realized I was standing by the gravesite of my 3rd great grandfather as many of my ancestors did in 1847.

Is She There Or Is She Here

Is She There, OR is She Here?

My 3rd great grandmother, Margaret Arion-Rainey Phelps spent the last 6 months of her life in the Athens State Hospital in Athens, Athens Co., Ohio.

Margaret's life as a child was a bit of a tragedy in itself. According family oral history her parents were French Huguenots and were killed or separated from her when she was very young; thus the name Arion, and raised by a Rainey family from Meigs, OH or a nearby county in WV. The story goes the Indians took the Arion family canoes or boats down the Ohio River.

I found a John Reny listed living in Salisbury Twp., Meigs Co., Ohio on the 1840 census but no further information has been located on him. I was never successful in locating the name Arion or a variant spelling in either Ohio or West Virginia

That's all I know about Margaret before her marriage on May 15, 1834, in Meigs Co., Ohio to Conrad Phelps. She would have been about age 17 or 18 years old; probably 18 since no one had to sign for the marriage.

With Ohio and West Virginia being a wilderness in the early 1800s it is unlikely she had any form of formal education. The 1880 census however shows she could read but could not write.

She says she was born in various locations, 1850 VA, 1870 OH, 1880 in West Virginia and her parents were born in France. When I found her on the 1900 census I learned she was in Athens State Hospital listed as an inmate. This census was taken only days before her death.

I first tried to contact the hospital but they never answered my letters. So I turned to probate court records at the Meigs Co. Courthouse.

From the probate records I learned the reason for her being committed:
"Manders[sic], and is never satisfied. Her mind is unsettled." Plus she had been committed previously off and on over the last three years before her last stay. When she died no one claimed her body. I thought that so very sad as she still had children living in the area.

A few years later I learned one of my uncles worked at the Athens State Hospital in the 1960's and thru him and his contacts he was able to obtain what records were still available. The only information was the number on her grave marker, date committed, date she died -- all other records had been destroyed.

She was 76 years of age when she was committed to the hospital by court order and died almost to the day within 6 months.

To this day I am not sure exactly where she is buried. According to the file my uncle got from the hospital she is buried in grave #181 on the grounds of the State Hospital in Athens. However, according to two other accounts I found, an obituary and info from a distant relation's diary, she is not buried there.

Her obituary states she was brought back to the town & county she had previously lived and was buried -- no location given. There are several possibilities as to which cemetery. The diary states she was buried in a specific cemetery, which is possible as there are many unmarked graves in the Robison Cemetery. Now to add to this confusion one of the papers in her probate court record says her body was not claimed by any family members and signed by a judge plus the fact the hospital says she was buried in grave #181.

I don't know what to believe. Should I go with the probate court records and the paper signed by the judge? Or the obituary and diary?

Could the obituary and diary information all just be a smoke screen to save face with the community and family?

Feathers, Hammers & Saws to Baptisms, Marriages & Funerals

Harrisonville Church, Scipio Twp., Meigs Co., Ohio

Left Photo: Taken abt. 1880

Right Photo: Taken 2000

This little church in Harrisonville, Ohio is a special place for me. It's the church my ancestors and others formed in the 1820's. At first they met in their homes and later in a log church. They were there too when the first plank board church was built.

I have been fortunate to have found clippings and diaries of my ancestors who attended this church which reveals some of church's history.

Mary Wells Bradfield's, wife of Zachariah Bradfield, obituary of 1872 states: "She has been an acceptable member of the Methodist church for three-quarters of a century."

From a copy of a clipping regarding a letter sent by Grace White to the Leader, a Pomeroy Newspaper, Jan 19, 1907 ..... Robert Turner and his wife were among the most devout pioneer Methodists. When the first church in this place [Harrisonville] was built near where the house of Wm. Cray now stands [1907]. Aunt Betty [Elizabeth Bradfield Turner wife of Robert E. Turner] , on horseback, solicited feathers with which to buy glass for the windows of the church. She also spun, wove and assisted in making a suit of clothes for the minister, Uncle Jimmy Hopkins. This she made a present to him. Uncle Robert [Turner] was our honored class leader as long as he lived.

From the obituary of Robert E. Turner appearing in a Meigs Co. newspaper April 1886.................. "Indeed the whole community feel that they have sustained a loss, for he was one of the best men and best Christians to be found in any community. He was a leading member of the M. E. Church for 68 years, and was appointed class Leader at the early age of seventeen."

In 1868 they built the building you see in the photo on the left.

My father, his father and mother plus all of her ancestors attended this church. Going back in time you will find her Turners, Wells, Bradfields and Gotschalls were among those first members.

When it came time to build the present building and all future additions plus changes made to the church over the years my Gotschalls, Turners, Wells and Bradfields were right there with hammers and saws in hand. The timber used for the church built in 1868 came from their land and was brought to the building site by teams of oxen.

My grandmother, Oleva Gotschall Cotterill, played the piano here for nearly 50 years. I can still see her wearing her "Sunday go meeting" hat and sitting at the piano playing and singing. Today my cousin's, James Cotterill, wife, Rebecca Kay Windon Cotterill, plays the piano for all the services.

When the church was first formed, it was a Methodist Church and continued so for over 150 years. Over the past 30 years due to being in a small country side community the attendance dwindled and new members have been far and few. For a while it became a Community Church and shared a minister with three other country side churches in the area. They only had services once a month in Harrisonville. About 20 years ago it became a Presbyterian Church and began weekly services once again.

All my ancestor's baptisms, marriages and funerals took place in this before burials in the near by cemeteries of Shipman, Wells and French.

In 2005 a social hall was added to the west and north side of the church and again my Cotterills were involved in the organizing and planning this addition. By this time the direct lines of my Turners had moved or passed ways, no Gotschalls in the area at all, a few Bradfield descendants are still in the area and as far as I know there are no Wells living. However the Cotterill line strongly lives on.

Wordless Wednesday

This truly is a wordless photo for I only know the name of one person, Oleva Elizabeth Gotschall Cotterill, my grandmother. Oleva is holding the umbrella.

Photo was taken June 23, 1911 and taken about 8 years before her marriage to Jonah Rush Cotterill.

Oleva Elizabeth Gotschall Cotteril

01 Sep 1895 -- Harrisonville, Scipio Twp., Meigs Co., OH

02 Apr 1987 -- Pomeroy, Salisbury Twp., Meigs Co., OH

Buried Wells Cem., Scipio Twp., Meigs Co., OH

Dau. of Jereimah Gotschall and Elizabeth Ann Turner

Tombstone Tuesday

Miles Cemetery is found near the little village of Rutland, Meigs Co., Ohio. It's located a few miles west of town on a country hill side. In this cemetery are many of my ancestors and related side line.

Early today I posted to this blog a photo of Anne Jeannette Cleland and her history. It was not until just now I realized this is the day of her death. That's a little scarey in itselfs since I chose her by chance to talk about today.

I find it only appropriate to post a photo of her gravestone in Miles Cemetery on this Thombstone Tuesday.

Anna Jeannette, 1928-1946

Returning from the recent Cleland family reunion in Danville, Meigs Co., Ohio I realized just lucky I was. I had so few Cleland family photos and now I have a memory card full of copies of several very old family photos.

I've always been very envious of those who have albums full of family photos, probably because I am not one of those. Several years ago after my grandmother Olvea Cotterill passed away my Aunt Bessie, her daughter and my father’s sister, told me I could have anything that was left of her things. Of course all the other children [6] and grandchildren [23] had already taken what they wanted since they all lived locally, so very little was left.

When I walked into her parlor I noticed a stack of old photos, a few papers and letters. To me those were priceless and I deeply treasure having them today. One of the pieces of paper gave the marriage date for Oleva Gotschall to Jonah Cotterill, something that I didn’t have [their marriage date has already been a bit of a mystery] and I’m still unable to verify it since she did not give the location where they married. More on this at another time.

I have side tracked myself again, which you will learn over time that is one of my bad habits. This blog is about my Cleland Photos and Anne Jeannette Cleland.

This year I requested everyone to bring family photos to the reunion; something as far as I know had never been done in the past. My Aunt Anna Circle Cleland [09 Dec 1926 -- 21 Nov 2007] had always been in charge of the family reunion for as long as I can remember. She never changed what she did from year to year. With her untimely death in 2007 there was not much of a reunion in 2008. This year her daughter, Linda Louise Cleland, my mother, Frances Cleland and I tried to put together something a little different.

I added two things; the picture request and a Family Trivia Game.

Both were a great hit. Plus I now have new photos to add to my files and working on next year’s questions for the trivia game.

The reason I had so few photos for the Clelands is in 1946 their home and contents were destroyed by fire plus the cause of death of Anna Jeannette Cleland. Years ago I asked my mother about photos and was always told everything including the Family Bible was lost. I should have, and believe me I will be, more persistent in the future and ask others.

Aunt Janice [Erma Janice Cleland Hampton], mother’s older sister brought a lot of photos to the reunion. I told she’d become my new “best friend” -- LOL.

I now have copies of photos that I thought no one had. I am trilled to have them but especially delighted to have photos like the one of Josephus C. Carpenter [Bet. 10 Dec 1827 & 10 Dec 1834 - 10 Feb 1907] and his wife Phoebe Ann Dailey’s [05 Apr 1849 - 24 Jun 1925] my 2nd great grandparents.

However there were two particular ones that stood out -- the photos of Donald Rodger Cleland [01 Jan 1943 - 22 Nov 1945] and Anna Jeannette Cleland [04 Nov 1928 - 29 Sept 1946] . All I had before the reunion for either of them were photos of their tombstones and the newspaper articles telling of their very tragic deaths.

Anna Jeannette, I love her name. It just rolls off your tongue and has a nice ring to it. It is a name if I had known when my daughter was born I would have given her. Anna Jeannette was given the first name of her two grandmothers. Something in it's self that is very special.

Anna Jeannette was born 04 Nov 1928 near Dexter, Salem Twp., Meigs Co., Ohio to my grandparents Floyd Cleland [18 Jul 1894 - 21 Apr 1985] and Neva Blanche Romine [04 Nov 1896 - 26 Apr 1951]. She was their 9th living child at the time. Neva had lost a child in miscarriage between 1917 & 1920. Seven more children would be born to her before she died in 1951.

I was only 1 at the time of the fire. We had recently moved from Rutland to Columbus before Anna Jeannette’s death. I of course would not remember her or the fire. However my Aunt Anna told Mother took the death of Anna Jeannette very hard and that she really had not recovered from the lost of her little brother, Donnie. To this day she is very reluctant to talk them. The few things she has mentioned about Anna over the years are how much fun she was; she was always smiling and joking around and liked by all who knew her.

Aunt Janice brought two photos of Anna Jeannette. I grabbed both of them as soon as I saw them and took digital pictures my camera. I was like a little kid in a candy shop who couldn’t stop eating all the candy. Unfortunately one of the two pictures did not turned out. The smaller one with her brother Weyland [07 Feb 1926 - 30 Mar 1994] is very burry.

Just looking at the photo one can see what mother meant from the way Anna Jeanette is standing and the look on her face. I am sure she was a fun sister and would have been a great aunt. Anna is standing in front of the Cleland hill on Cleland Hill that was lost in the fire.

In September of 1946 Anna would have been almost 18 years old. She had "just" graduated from Rutland High School in Meigs Co., Ohio and was planning to move to Columbus to live with us and attending OSU. All those plans came to a tragic end that September afternoon when she picked up the wrong can and added gasoline to the stove instead of oil.

According to the newspaper article the explosion was heard by neighbors some distance away. This occurred on Friday afternoon and she suffered until she passed away Sunday evening.

I can’t imagine how I would have reacted or how it would affected me to receive a phone call telling me the home I had grownup in was destroyed by fire and everything in it plus learning your sister was also in the home at the time and was not expected to live.

This was the second tragic loss of a sibling for my mother in less than a year ..... that had to have had a definite affect her.

Why this blog

Last month I started a blog on my Childhood Memories and decided I should also do one that covers my ancestors. After all they are more than just a leaf on my tree.

Right now is not really a good time for me to spend time writing on either of my blogs as the fall is always a busy busy time for me. However, I thought I should at least start. All I have to do is figure out which one of my many branches I want to start with. The names attached to my tree are many, no different than anyone else.

I will start with listing the main lines than I descend.
From my father's side
Lallance
Roush
Nease
Circle/Zircle
Woodruff
Cotterill
Hughes
Hayhurst
Gotschall
Stahl/Stall
Shilling
Angel/Engel
Knouff
Turner
Stevenson
Bradfield
Ellzey
Thomasin
Stone

From my mother's side
Aleshire
Phelps
Rainey/Aaron
Pierce
Braley
Romine
Anderson
Walters
Cleland
Glover
Cutright
Searles/Searls
Dailey/Daily
Winget/Wingert
Day
Clutter
Carpenter
Graham

Those are my main lines and luckily for me they all came to Meigs Co., Ohio and for the most part all stayed. Hopefully I haven't left any of them out.

From where did they come? Mainly Germany and England; a couple lines from Scotland and Ireland and one line from France.