I ventured up a big hill and on to private property to find a walled cemetery. The gravestone for my fifth great grand uncle was to be there in Magnolia, Ohio in Stark County, yet no photo was online.
Stark County is my native home county, and I was intrigued to find if a stone still existed for my relative for whom a predecessor town to Magnolia got its name in 1836--Downingville.
What I quickly found, though, was that the 191 years since the stone was placed had not served it well. I could tell the death year was 1822. I could read 72 years as his age. Nothing else of note was still there, including his name.
James Downing and his brother, John, my fifth great grandfather, served in the Revolutionary War. If it weren't for the metal star commemorating his war service, I would not have been able to believe, with any certainty, that it was his grave I was photographing.
Nonetheless, I was the first person to post a photo of his stone on FindaGrave.com to share it with the World. I couldn't find a stone for his wife, Sarah Laughlin Downing despite a listing saying she was there.
As I would find out two months later, I wasn't the first person to take a photo, though. Forty years earlier, in May 1972, researcher Edna Conrad snapped a couple of black and white photos and got them developed. A relative of hers kindly put copies of the photos in an application for the First Families of Ohio lineage society of the Ohio Genealogical Society.
That's where I made a find I'll credit to keep-on-lookingness. I found that member file, numbered 35 out of list that now stands over 4,000, during a recent visit to the OGS library.
Albiet quite damaged, a much-more readable, and mostly-intact gravestone for James Downing was the find in the 1972 photo.
Also in that 1972 photo was a stone for Sarah Laughlin Downing. There in the back is the tall monument stone for their son James and his wife, Nancy too.
The 1972 photo captured a portion of the stone for Drusilla Miller, the Downing's daughter and wife of the founder of Downingville. Her stone isn't standing anymore so this might be the last such photo, portion or not.
Credit keep-on-lookingness again.
In the black and white photo of James Downing's stone, it appears as if there might be a metal strap holding the stone together. It looks like the part with his name be be two separate pieces. In your recent photo the pieces with the name are obviously missing. I wonder if the pieces are underneath the portion you photographed. Unfortunately the stone may be too fragile to even look under it. Glad you found the old pictures.
ReplyDeleteI am jealous that there are so many cemeteries with a day's drive of your house. I can't do that from a home base here in California.
You are right, in more ways than one. Now that I know what was there, a repeat visit might help find what is there. There's more stones there too so I have a future trip in mind. I will want to get the property owner's permission this time.
ReplyDeleteRick,
ReplyDeleteI was directed to your blog by my sister Elizabeth. You've been communicating with her on Ancestry about our Downing ancestors. How thrilled I am to read your post and find our 5x great grandfathers were brothers! Then to see you have visited and photographed our James Downing's resting place is amazingly wonderful! Would you mind if I downloaded these photos for my own genealogy records? As my sister mentioned to you this find call for a field trip!!
Cindy Freed
www.genealogycircle.com