Memorial Day Weekend Waymarking

Overview of Phillip Dreyer Cemetery
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0

Up in Marion, Ohio is a cemetery that Dewgrl and I have been wanting to visit for several years now. The problems is that it is only open by appointment, or on special days....such as Memorial Day weekend. Marion Township, and those who worked so hard to locate, and repair the cemetery are very protective....and rightly so. They basically don't want people to go back there unattended and damage the place again.

During our visit today we spoke with the folks responsible for finding and fixing up the cemetery. They shared with us the great history of the area, and their adventures in trying to find it.

In addition one gentleman had a set of dowsing rods. I had always been skeptical about water witching, and dowsing rods, but it worked. I was quite surprised. Since I was actually using the dowsing rods I can say for a fact that I wasn't turning them intentionally....since I wouldn't have known where there was water underground there anyhow. I still can't explain if it was a subconscious thing, or what, but it was interesting just the same. So it was a cool extra to visiting the cemetery.

From my Waymark description:

Phillip Dreyer Cemetery is unique to the area and very historic. The cemetery was just recently rediscovered and fixed up.

In the early 1990's, this cemetery was known to have existed, but it was assumed that it was gone. A couple of gentlemen, who had relatives buried here, went on a quest to find it. The searched the fields and woods for miles around, as they only had a vague description of where the cemetery was. They finally found it in 1992. In talking to them today, they said they literally had to enter this patch of woods on their hands and knees, but soon began to find headstones. Over the years they worked to find the headstones, and clear out heavy brush and trees. They estimated that the cemetery hadn't been cared for in nearly 100 years. They replaced, and fixed the headstones they could find.

They have found about 50 of the headstones here. They estimate that there are still about 50 more stones that have been buried over the many years, and hope to use radar technology to locate them.

There are 10 families buried here, all of who are related. They arrived in the state of Delaware as indentured servants from Scotland. They eventually moved to Ohio in the late 1700's. The area where they lived, and where the cemetery is located was, at that time, north of the Greenville Treaty Line. It was uncommon for European settlers to try to establish themselves in this area. Essentially this land was part of lands set aside for the Native Americans, and was extremely wild then. Not only were the woods very thick and full of bears, bobcats, and many other dangerous animals, but many of the native tribes living here were hostile toward the settlers.

All but one of the headstones found so far have been made of limestone. Directly behind the cemetery was a limestone quarry that these people started. They also used the stone to make their headstones. The earliest burial found was that of an infant girl in 1800.

The cemetery is only open by appointment with 48 hours advance notice. The number to call is listed on the cemetery gate. They also have opened it the past couple of years on Memorial Day Weekend.