Photography at the Cemetery

 Last week when I visited the Columbia Reservation of the Lorain County Metroparks, I also stopped at the Columbia Township cemetery which is not far from the park.  Now it may seem odd to go walking around a cemetery, but if you are into genealogy as I am, you know that part of the family research is to find the graves of your ancestors.  I had been to the Columbia Township cemetery before, and I had found the graves of several relatives.  This time I wanted to take pictures of their gravestones.

The reason why I have so many relatives buried in Columbia Township is because my great-aunt Hattie lived on a farm there.  Apparently she purchased a bunch of cemetery lots, ten altogether, for members of her family.  

Aunt Hattie lived to be ninety years old, and I remember her very well.   Ironically, her gravesite does not have a marker.  

Hattie's husband Myron died in 1919.  He drowned while swimming in a local quarry.

Hattie never remarried.  She and Myron had one son, Melvin.  I don't remember ever meeting him (he lived in Colorado), but I do remember going to his funeral. He predeceased his mother, and he is buried next to his father.

I assume that the unmarked space next to Myron and Melvin is where Hattie is buried.

Three of Hattie's brothers are also buried at the cemetery.  Two of them, Edward and Charles, share a grave marker.

Edward fought in Europe in World War I, and after the war had a very good job with General Electric.  He died at the age of thirty-five from kidney disease.  He had a wife, but they had no children.  After his death, she moved to Michigan where she had family.

Charles... my great-uncle Charlie... never married, and lived on the farm with his sister Hattie.  I remember him.  At the time of his death I was studying in Mexico.

Another brother of Hattie's was Leslie.  His marker is eroded and almost illegible.  He never married either, and also died young at the age of thirty-nine, in 1930.

Hattie had one other brother, Clarence, my maternal grandfather.  My mother bought some plots at a closer cemetery, and that is where he and my grandmother are buried.

The grave marker which I most wanted to photograph was that of my great-grandmother Susan Hepner (nee Marti).  I have frequently written here about my Swiss roots and my Swiss cousins.  It was Susan who immigrated with her parents from Switzerland when she was a young girl.

 I wrote about Susan in an earlier post (My Swiss Ancestor).  Her first marriage was to Charles Plau.  He also died young at the age of only thirty-three.  During their nine years of marriage they had five children... my great aunt, my three great uncles (only one of whom I knew) and my grandfather.