Tucked away in a less-traveled part of Crawford County, Ohio, was Oceola #2 Cemetery, shown above. Since this week's #52Ancestors challenge by Amy Johnson Crow is all about cemeteries, I'm looking back at our time there.
Edward George Steiner (1830-1880) and Elizabeth Jane Rinehart (1834-1905) were my husband's maternal great-grandparents. They were born, married, and lived their entire lives in Ohio. Both are buried in historic Old Mission Cemetery, Nevada, Wyandot county, OH, a couple of miles away from Oceola #2.
Most but not all of Edward and Elizabeth Steiner's 9 children are also buried in Old Mission Cemetery. And yes, that's the cemetery where the famous gravestone for Christiana Haag is located--the stone showing her death date as February 31. (Of course, like everybody else, I took a photo as a reminder that gravestones are not necessarily correct!)
Once we left Old Mission Cemetery and located Oceola #2 (a bit off the beaten track), we found the gravestones for two other children born to Edward and Elizabeth. Sad to say, their eldest, "infant son Steiner," was born and died on October 23, 1852. Their second child, Elvaretta, was born some time in 1854 and unfortunately died on February 17, 1855.
As heartbreaking as those little grave sites were, we already knew that, thankfully, the next child born to the Steiner family was a son who lived to be 80 years old!
It is always comforting to me when whole families are in the same cemetery. I don't know why because I didn't necessarily know any of them personally.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the loss of children was to be expected back then. It is a bit sad, though, that most of their family is buried elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder about babies and young children who aren't buried in the same cemetery as some adult in the family. But, I guess it isn't always possible to make it happen. I have examples of children buried by themselves, children buried with grandparents and one family who bought a family plot where they buried a young daughter even though they eventually moved some distance away.
ReplyDeleteFredrick Schwartz was my grandfather
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving me a note!
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