Green Lawn...again.

I went back to Green Lawn Cemetery on Monday. I had about 24 names in 5 sections. I knew it wouldn't take long because many of them were families. I really only had to look for 12 plots. But you never know when there will be workers mowing or a funeral occurring in the precise area you're poking around in, so I wanted to get an early start anyway. As soon as the last child got on the bus, I jumped in the car. A quick stop at Tim Horton's and I was on my way.

The first half of the day was fairly uneventful. I found most of the headstones I was looking for. Although I did run into one mystery; the Phillip Van Fossan plot, where I had a request for three pictures. I found the plot, but there were no headstones on it. All I could find was a small square cornerstone with the initials P. V. F. I find it interesting that there was a cornerstone, but no headstones. I assume it was a cornerstone as it was not near the center of the plot, but closer to the next plot. Maybe the cornerstone was purchased and erected when the plot was bought and by the time someone died there was no money for the headstones. Or perhaps the headstones were destroyed somehow. Oh well,  I guess I'll never know.

I finished up that round of pictures just before noon. I had no idea where to get lunch, but I knew there wasn't anything near the front entrance. Since I had never been out the back gate before I thought I would give it a try. I never worry too much about getting lost. I'm pretty good with directions and besides, I had the iPhone. Lucky me, there was a McDonalds right on the next corner. I thought about it and decided to eat as quick as possible. After all it was lunch time and I wanted to go to the cemetery office to get 4 more maps. I didn't want to interrupt anyone's lunchtime and get the double-glare. It's bad enough just asking for the maps! I already knew which maps I wanted so I gave the man my sticky note and waited. I noticed a pamphlet for the cemetery which had an index of famous burials and interesting headstones. That could provide me with something interesting to write about and post pictures of, I thought; so I grabbed it.

Coral appearing monument

Indian Chief

I was happy to see that one of my favorite monuments was on the list. If you've ever been to Green Lawn you'll probably recognize it. The pamphlet calls it a "coral appearing monument". It reminds me of the kinds of little graveyards I saw in Mexico.
Also on the list of interesting monuments was one of an Indian Chief. I had seen it on the way in and made a mental note to take a picture of it on my way out.
I also took a picture of a bronze fisherman, just because I was in the area. I wish I knew more about the stories of these monuments, but the pamphlet only mentions the names and locations. There are more on the list, but I will save those for another day.

Bronze fisherman

I also passed by a nice little family monument and the sun was shinning from behind it right through a stained glass window. It was so beautiful, I had to stop.




Ok, back to the task at hand. I got the 4 new maps and was able to find about 10 more family plots. I did get side tracked on one. I saw an older couple walking around, map in hand. My first thought was letterboxers? But the papers didn't look like clues, so I figured they were looking for headstones. I asked who they were looking for just to make sure we weren't out taking pictures of the same headstones. As it turned out they were from Washington (state, not DC) and they were looking for a long lost great-grand father. Luckily someone had posted a picture of his headstone on the FindAGrave website, so we were able to find it fairly quickly. There were several family members in that plot, but the headstones were very hard to read. At first I was mortified when the husband went to the car for a scrub brush and 409 to clean the headstones! But I got over it. After all they were his relatives and how much damage was it really going to do? I was just glad he was able to find them at all. My husband asks why I do this, and there's the answer. The satisfaction of knowing you helped some one find a puzzle piece that was missing.

Lots of Work

I was surprised to find out Tuesday morning that the baby was going to Grandma and Grandpa's. I just planned to stay home and do laundry since it was raining. Then around 10:30 it started to clear up and I got the fever.

Camp Chase Monument

I wanted to go to Camp Chase, the Civil War prisoner encampment cemetery, but then what? I only had 2 requests. Even if I had to search each marker, there were only 2,000 something of them, it wouldn't take that long. I know, it sounds like a lot of markers, but this is a military cemetery. All the rows are nice and straight and the graves are close together. Most of them are uniformly printed, so the soldier's last name is always in the same place. But what would I do with the rest of the day?

Green Lawn was close by, but that cemetery drove me crazy last time I was there. First of all, it's huge! Over 100,000 headstones, and over 400 photo requests. Although, I did already have much of the information about where the people were. I got that during the spring when I spent 2 full 6 hour days in the downtown library, going through their cemetery records on microfilm, A-Z! 
The second thing that drives me crazy about Green Lawn is the office staff. You can get a map of the whole cemetery online, but that will not help much in tracking down the headstones. For that you need section maps. There are about 100 sections, so about 100 section maps I would think. Well, you can only request 3 or 4 section maps per visit. And even that few will get you an icy glare from the person at the front desk.
Lastly, Green Lawn is not a normal cemetery. I like order and symmetry. At Green Lawn the sections are not square, nor even rectangular. Some are round, some are oval, some are just a blob. This makes for very odd groupings of headstones; some this way, some that way...but nothing resembling normalcy. Just thinking about it makes my ADD brain hurt.
But, it was close by. And there were so many requests. And I had spare time.

The first order of business was to look at my spreadsheet from the info I got at the library. What sections had the largest concentration of photo requests (6 months ago!)? How many of the requests were still open? After checking on the FindAGrave site, I found that about 90% were still open! What? Doesn't anyone go to Green Lawn? That sealed the deal. I felt compelled to go.

Camp Chase Monument

Since I didn't know how long it would take at Camp Chase, I went there first. It was just beautiful! All nice and neatly laid out. Being a Southerner at heart (and by birth) I got a little weepy walking all those rows. I saw a couple of sir names that I recognized; like Corley and Sease. They were both from South Carolina, so it's possible we could be related.
I didn't find the names I was looking for, which is sad. One of the requests even had a grave number listed for it, but that grave was missing a headstone. I don't know if the person was really buried there or not. Either way there was nothing to take a picture of. The other name, I just couldn't find. I took some pictures of the monuments anyway, just so I would have something to post here.

At Green Lawn I had about 29 names in 5 sections. Last time I was there it was for a letterboxing event and I had asked some friends to go in and get me a few maps, since I had already used up my daily allotment. So I already had several of the ones I needed, but I went in a got a few more anyway. I didn't think there was enough time to get all the pictures I wanted. Better to have too many planned than not enough right? (Kind of the same with letterboxing clues.) Somehow I managed to get them all! It wasn't nearly as hard following the section maps as it had been 3 months ago. I guess having more experience at this has given me more intuition as well , and I didn't give up as easily as I used to. I took the last picture, drove home and still had a few minutes to relax before the kids got off the bus.
Since it went so well, I like Green Lawn much more now. Requests are pretty well taken care of in my neck of the woods; only 1 or 2 requests in several cemeteries. I think I will make Green Lawn my priority for now. I'll try to get over there on my free days until the weather gets too bad. Then I can spend some time at the library researching the newer requests.
Bad news for my readers; spending so much time at the same cemetery is really going to make for a boring blog! Oh well. Maybe I'll find something interesting to write about.

Military Tribute

Since Monday is a holiday, and all the kids will be home, I probably won't get out to any of the cemeteries. To make up for that, I decided to post some pictures that I had previously taken.

Several weeks ago I was in the vicinity of the Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial. I really love visiting that little park. (I even planted a letterbox in it, but it's gone now.)  The memorial was established in 2005 as a tribute to all of the men and women in uniform from Ohio that were killed in the Global War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001.

Ohio Fallen Heroes Memorial

Eternal Flame

The most recognized name in this park is Sgt. Keith Matt Maupin, from Batavia Ohio.
April 10, 2004- Maupin was captured near Baghdad,  Iraq,  when his convoy came under attack by individuals using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
April 16, 2004- Maupin was listed as MIA.
June 28, 2004- Arabic-language television network, Al Jazeera, aired a low-quality video purportedly depicting Maupin's execution.
June 30, 2004- an Army spokesman said the video was "totally inconclusive."
March 29, 2008- an armed forces medical examiner confirmed that human remains recovered in Iraq were those of Sgt. Maupin.


Since I only have a few pictures of the memorial, and I have a military theme going, I will also post some pictures of veteran's markers taken in Westerville cemeteries.

War of 1812

Revolutionary War

Civil War

I had to look up what SAR stood for. At first I thought it was ASR, but that didn't bring up any results that made since. So I tried some other key words and realized it was SAR; Sons of the American Revolution.











 I also had to look up GAR. It stands for Grand Army of the Republic. Being in Ohio all of the Civil War markers I have found are Union Soldiers. I will have to make a trip to Camp Chase soon  so I can get a picture of a Confederate marker.

Spanish American War

I haven't seen any of the Spanish American War markers on actual graves, but there is a war memorial in Otterbein Cemetery and this is one of the markers featured. Now that I know what it looks like I will be able to spot its unique shape from a distance. I'll keep on the look out for a veteran of this war.  






    

World War I

World War II

Korea

Vietnam

Ok. I didn't think I would have any free time to go to a cemetery, but I realized I didn't have a Vietnam War marker. I just couldn't leave the list incomplete! I had to try, right? At least Blendon is really close so it's a quick trip. This was a tricky marker to find. It is similar to the WWI marker so it's hard to spot from a distance. I drove around for a few minutes before I spotted one. Then I realized that there is also one in the veterans memorial area. Next time, I'll look there first.

When I got home and started posting the pictures and writing about the Fallen Heroes Memorial, it dawned on me that I didn't have any markers from the Persian Gulf War, Iraq War or Afghanistan War. I did some quick research and found that there are at least 2 Iraq War veterans buried in Blendon Cemetery. So off I go...again. Unfortunately, the office is closed on Saturdays and if I wanted to find them I would have to drive up and down. That's like looking for a needle in a haystack! Blendon is a large cemetery. I actually found one of the two men, but he did not have a marker. A military plaque, 4 American flags, lots of flowers and little tchotchkes, but no marker. Oh well, I know there is another soldier buried in Berkshire Cemetery and he has a marker; I saw it on his FindAGrave memorial page. Next time I am in that area, I'll have to stop in and take a picture. Maybe I can get a complete set of military grave marker pictures.