THE COLUMBUS CITY GRAVEYARDS; CONTAINING HISTORIES OF THE FRANKLINTON, NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, AND COLORED GRAVEYARDS OF COLUMBUS, OHIO WITH A CONSOLIDATED LIST OF ALL KNOWN LOT OWNERS, BURIALS, INSCRIPTIONS, AND REMOVALS by Donald M. Schlegel, © 1985 (Columbus: Columbus History Service, 1985) Reprinted here with permission from the author. The original permission slip is on file with the Webmaster <llgbug @ genealogybug.net> All copyright is held by Donald M. Schlegel and his heirs. Use of any portion of this document exceeding "fair use" or for commercial purposes is prohibited. i CONTENTS 1. The Franklinton Graveyard (1799) 1 2. History of the North Graveyard (1813) 7 3. Arrangement of the North Graveyard 31 4. The East and South Graveyards (1839 and 1876) 37 5. The "Colored" Graveyard (1850) 46 6. Notes on Green Lawn Cemetery 49 7. Consolidated List of Lot Owners, Deaths, Interments, Removals, and Inscriptions 52 8. General Index 214 Illustrations The Franklinton Obelisk Cover Franklinton Church, 1811 2 Map of the Franklinton Graveyard 4 Map of Downtown Graveyard Sites 9 The North Graveyard 14 Final Division of the North Graveyard 27 Reconstructed Plat of the North Graveyard 33 Map of the East Graveyard 36 Map of the South Graveyard 42 Location of the Colored Graveyard 48 Map of Green Lawn Cemetery 50 ii FOREWORD This book was written out of a desire to prevent the feeling of frustration experienced by researchers when they learn that an old graveyard and its records no longer exist. I have experienced this with regard to early graveyards elsewhere, in Philadelphia and Houston, for example, and I hope that this effort will mitigate the feeling to some extent among those researching ancestors who lived in Columbus. My goal has been to replace such lacking official records and history for the graveyards owned by the City of Columbus, primarily the North and East Graveyards. The Franklinton Graveyard, which is now owned by the City, and the South Graveyard, which was owned by Franklin County but in which the City of Columbus had burial rights, are also included. The "Colored" graveyard in Franklin Township is also briefly discussed, since it was owned and used by residents of the city and it was established at least in part because of the treatment which black residents received from the city. The old Catholic and Jewish graveyards are excluded because they were privately owned and have been adequately discussed elsewhere. (See Raphael and Schlegel in the bibliography.) In replacing a portion of the missing graveyard records, greatest thanks are due to the Green Lawn Cemetery Association, which through the years has kept one of the best sets of interment records known (a fact acknowledged by researchers as far away as New Jersey). The Association kindly allowed me to search through several of its books for notes of removals from the city graveyards. The Association is also to be commended for their care of the old tombstones and monuments which were moved into Green Lawn from the City graveyards over a century ago. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii Various other sources of newspaper notices and miscellaneous records and historical data, as noted in the Bibliography and Sources, were supplied by the Ohio Historical Society, the Franklin County Genealogical Society, the Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County, the County Recorder's Office, County Engineer's Office, the Franklin County Clerk of Courts, the City of Columbus Engineering and Construction Office, and former Clerk of Council Vince Tumeo. It was possible to identify some 2,210 interments in the North, East, Franklinton, and Colored graveyards, broken down approximately as follows: 440 known and 550 probable at the North Graveyard; 110 known and 335 probable at the East Graveyard; 135 known and 40 probable at Franklinton; 25 probable at the Colored graveyard; 575 probably interred at the North or East graveyards, but which one cannot be determined. In addition, names of 59 lot owners at the North and 12 at the East Graveyard were found. Even after many hours and much effort, this total is a small fraction, perhaps one-quarter to one-third, of all of the interments in the City graveyards. It is unfortunate that none of the sexton's records (or even John Graham's report of lot owners at the North Graveyard) could be found for use in this compilation. None would be happier than the author if the publication of this work would cause the private holder of some of these missing records to come forward and share them with researchers, even though too late to be included here. - - - - - - - On the evening of Friday, December 2, 1881, while the last removals were being completed in the Kerr tract of the old North Graveyard, a boy watching the workmen was observed to pick up something from the dirt and quickly put it in his pocket. Subsequently, he cautiously pulled his hand partly out of his pocket and a gentleman saw a heavy gold ring in his hand. One of the workmen, suspecting that the boy had found something of value, spoke to him, but the lad pretended not to hear and a minute or two later ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. Those who delve into the past are, like the boy, searching for a treasure, an experience or lesson to make their own life easier or more meaningful, but without the suffering which may have accompanied the original experience. May each find his or her own "gold ring." iv v BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES A consistent set of reference names has been used in both the notes to the text and in the source listings in the Consolidated List. The full references and their repositories are listed below. - Annual Report. Reports of the Various Departments. .City of Columbus, publish- ed annually by order of the City Council. (Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Card file. The card file of interment records at Green Lawn Cemetery. A microfilm copy is available at the Franklin County Genealogical Society. - Cent. Biog. Hist. A Centennial Biographical History of the City of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1901. - Citizen. The Columbus Citizen, newspaper. (Microfilm at Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Co. Journal. Franklin County Commissioners' Journal. (Ohio Historical Society) - Co. Recorder, Venerans[sic.] File. Card file of veterans graves at the County Recorder's Office. - Col's Gazette. Columbus Gazette, newspaper. - Col's Sentinal. Columbus Sentinal, newspaper. - Complete Record. Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Complete Record. (County Clerk of Courts) - CRS BULLETIN. BULLETIN of the Catholic Record Socity, Diocese of Columbus. (State Library of Ohio) - Deed. Franklin County Recorder, Deed Record. - Dispatch. The Daily Dispatch, or Columbus Dispatch, newspaper. (Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Franklin Chr. Franklin Chronicle, newspaper. - Franklin County Infirmary, Register (1866-1882). Ohio Historical Society microfilm GR-1245. - Freeman's. Freeman's Chronicle, newspaper. vi - Holy Cross Church. Burial register of Holy Cross Catholic Church, South Fifth street in Columbus. - Hooper, Osman Castle, History of the City of Columbus; Columbus: Memorial Pub- lishing Co., 1920. - Intelligences. The Western Intelligencer, newspaper. - Journal. Journal of Columbus City Council. (Clerk of Council or Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Lee, Alfred E., History of the City of Columbus; N.Y. and Chicago: Munsell & Co., 1892. - Letter Book. Letter Book (equivalent to the later Journal) of the Columbus Borough Council. (Clerk of Council or Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Lot book. Lot-by-lot record books of the Green Lawn Cemetery Association. - Martin, William T., History of Franklin County; Columbus: Follett, Foster & Co., 1858. - Ohio Monitor, newspaper. - ONWGQ. The Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly. - OSBuletin [Sic.]. Ohio State Bulletin, newspaper. - OSJ. The Ohio State Journal, newspaper. (Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County) - Plat Book. Franklin County Recorder's Office, Plat Book. - Probate Ct. Comp. Rec. Complete Record of the Franklin County Probate Court (Ohio Historical Society) - Raphael, Marc Lee, Jews and Judaism in a Midwestern Community: Columbus, Ohio, 1840-1875; Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1979. - Road Record. Franklin County Engineer, Road Record. - Schlegel, Donald M., The Columbus Catholic Cemetery: History and Records, 1846-1874; Columbus: Columbus History Service, 1983. - Statesman. The Ohio Statesman, newspaper. (Ohio Historical Society) vii - Studer, Jacob H., Columbus, Ohio: Its History, Resources and Progress; Columbus: Jacob H. Studer, 1873. - Taylor, William Alexander, Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio; Chicago-Columbus: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909. - Westbote. Der Westbote, German language newspaper. (Ohio Historical Society) - Williams Bros. History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties, Ohio. [Cleveland]: Williams Brothers, 1880. viii The Franklinton Graveyard "In the year 1796, or early 1797, Lucas Sullivant, from Kentucky, then a young man, with his corps of chaincarriers, markers, etc., engaged in the surveying of lands and locating warrants, in the Virginia Military District, west of the Scioto; and in the month of August, 1797, he laid out the town of Franklinton." Thus begins the first History of Franklin County, that of William T. Martin published in 1858. The first settlers of Franklinton, which was the first settlement of whites in the Scioto Valley north of Chillicothe, arrived in the fall or winter after its platting. With their arrival came the need for a place of burial. According to documents provided by a descendant of Lucas Sullivant at the time of the Columbus sesquicentennial in 1962, that burial place, still known as the Franklinton Cemetery, was dedicated to public use in 1799. The largest part of the selected site was on a northward-jutting portion of the relatively high ground on which the town was laid out, bound on the south by Water Street of the town plat and on the northeast by the Scioto River.