Free Cemetery

This cemetery is well known in Miltonsburg. Paul E. Young who grew up in this area explained, "The cemetery behind Billman's house is known locally as the "Free Cemetery" because, as I recall, it was "founded" by one of the families with members buried there that did not want to be buried in a church-related cemetery." The cemetery is located about 500 yards to the west of Ohio State Rt. # 145 at the northern town limit of Miltonsburg.  The way I accessed this cemetery was to go directly west from Rt. # 145 behind the home of Mark Billman (after requesting permission from Mr Billman to cross his property).  Mark's house is the last and northern-most house in Miltonsburg (going toward Malaga). 

This cemetery was apparently a larger cemetery at one time.  The area covered by it is around an acre.  But, there are now only 11 identifiable stones in it.  The finest and largest is the stone of Henry Menkel and his wife Caroline.  These were the parents of William Menkel who had the William O. Menkel Monument Store in Miltonsburg.  Two of his brothers established the Menkel Bros. Marble and Granite Works in Woodsfield -- both of these monument (tombstones) stores were in business in the early part of the 1900s.

The chart below is the approximate orientation of the cemetery. The top of the chart is approximately the north side of the cemetery. The numbers in the grids of the chart correspond to grave markers. The monuments in the cemetery are oriented, relative to each other and to the dimension of the cemetery, approximately as they appear on the chart below. The term "fuel" refers to the location of a fuel tank located behind a granary that is marked as "gry." A picture of this cemetery is given below the chart. You will notice what appears to be a couple of low markers that are not numbered. These are foot markers for the Menkel graves.

Below the picture, the numbers are repeated along with all of the readable information copied from the stones. The data were collected without the aid of tracings, shaving lather, or other techniques to aid the reading. In some cases, it would appear that with some aid, more data could be read.

This cemetery is located at latitude N 39^o 49.995' and longitude W 081^o 10.171'. This latitude/longitude reading was made at the Menkel monument. The elevation of the cemetery was 1313 feet above sea level.

Please direct any questions to richardharrington@cox.net

Free Cemetery

				10
				2
	9		3
				4
					5
fuel					6
		1
gry
					7
		11
					8

The trees at the far end of the above picture (beyond the grassy area) is the approximate northern boundary.

#	Stone Information
1	Henry Menkel (Jan 31, 1823 - July 29, 1889) and Caroline wife of H. Menkel (Dec 4, 1825 - Apr 7, 1890)
2	The name on this stone was unreadable without aid -- It could probably be read with the use of an aid such as a tracing to bring out the letters. Born 8^th April 1811 - 24 Fbr 1892 80 y 10 m 16 d
3	Doretha Frau von Jacob Klund 14 June 1810 - 19 Feb 1890
4	Jacob, son of M & E Baker Died Jun 14 1881 Aged 17 yr 11 m 17 days
5	This stone was unreadable without aid -- It probably can be read with use of an aid.
6	(First name not readable) Suffman (might have been Huffman) This stone can probably be read with the use of an aid.
7	Catharine Steel died Mar 6 1896 aged 82 yr 2 m 3 days
8	(First name not readable) Steel died Mar 11, 1845 76 yr 5 m 11 days
9	(First name not readable) M ller October 25, 1825 - ? 22, 1809
10	Mary Ladenburg 1848 - 1901
11	Unreadable

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