Oak Grove Cemetery, Marietta, Ohio

 Entrance to Oak Grove Cemetery

Oak Grove is the other cemetery that I passed on daily walks.  It is a large cemetery comprised of 33 acres, covering a hilly area in the town of Marietta, Ohio.  I walked up the hills and around the hills and wanted very much to get to the top of the main hill where there was a monument of some type but it had been snowing, the ground was slippery, no stairs or paths led up to the top, and it was steep so while I was fairly confident I could climb up to the top I was worried about getting back down without falling or slipping.  After I returned home my son and his wife did climb up to the top and took a couple of photos for me. 

Q standing by the monument at the top of the hill Oak Grove Cemetery

The front of the monument erected for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the cemetery

The plaque says in part:  “50th Anniversary of Oak Grove Cemetery, 1860 Mayor 1910 William A. Whittelson, Solicitor Franklin Buell, Clerk John Tash (?), Treasurer John A Grimm (?), Civil Engineer Alexander L. Haslun.  Council—1st Ward, 2nd Ward, 3rd Ward” with names not clear enough to read.

 

Views from the top of the hill

The town purchased land for the cemetery in 1860 or 1861 with the first two burials being little children.  The first adult buried here occurred in 1864.  I did see one poignant tombstone that simply said “Little Maude” infant daughter of . . .” with the date.   Many of the stones are so old and made of limestone so the inscriptions are either worn or covered in moss and lichen making them at times difficult to impossible to read.

Unlike the Mound Cemetery this one does have an office and also a mausoleum and this other building above that looked as if it may have at one time been a small chapel.  The grounds are nicely kept but the road and path surfaces could use a little help as is evident from the picture at the top.  Many of those buried here are Civil War veterans but there are few of the Revolutionary War star markers as well. 

The size of this cemetery in such a small town is amazing.  Although I meandered around several times taking different routes I never did walk the entire grounds. 

This view gives a little bit of an idea of the hills and also the snow was still on the ground in places. 

There were labels by some of the trees including this large Hickory tree.  Elms and Hickories are not common in the Northwest yet references to them often appear in books so I was curious and a bit sorry that the leaves were not yet out so I could see what the tree would like in its “summer dress.” 

 

The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) is an organization that Civil War veterans and their descendants can join.  Thomas LeRoy Ford who was the husband of Margaret (Maggie) Lorig, was a member as was his son Ralph Ford. 
 

Civil War graves