Cherry fork Cemetery

The following of the first buriels in Cherry Fork Cemetery, Adams County, Cherry Fork,Ohio as recorded by Maynard L. May and David May of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.

In 1849 a cholera epidemic prevailed in three places in Adams County; in West Union {county seat}, in Jefferson Township and in Wayne Township. It had been fourteen years since the epidemic of 1835, and although little was known about combating the disease, the people felt safer. The epidemic was brought to the vicinity of North Liberty in the summer of 1849. The germs were brought in the body of Samuel F. McIntire, who had visited Cincinnati. He took the disease and succumed in a few hours. His father Col. Andrew McIntire, aged 63, died of it the next day, and his mother , Elizabeth McIntire, aged 62, died of it within thirty minutes from the death of her husband. Three more of the McIntire family had it, but recovered. They were S. Dyer McIntire, Jane McIntire and L. Lindsey McIntire, two sons and a daughter of Col. Andrew McIntire.

John F. Wasson resided on a injoining farm to that of Col. McIntire. He and his wife and sons and daughters attended the family of Col. McIntire during their sickness of cholera. Sanuel H. Finley and Margaret Wylie, a maiden lady, neighbors, were at the house of Col. McIntire during his sickness and on the occasion of his death. Finley was aged 22 years and Miss Wlie about 40, Samuel C. Wasson, aged 45, a brother of John F., took the cholera and died August 11th. His wife Jane, aged 42, died of it on the 14th. John F. Wasson and his wife Rebecca, both had it and recovered. No precautions were taken at this time to destroy the germs or prevent the spread of the disease. It is remarable that there were not more cases in the vincinity of Cherry Fork, Ohio. Resource: The Adams County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 231, West Union,Ohio.

Also The People's Defender, Newspaper of West Union,Ohio, ran this article in it on Wednesday May 17, 2000: Lore, Legends & Landmarks of Old Adams under "History Cherry Fork Cemetery documented" Reads like this:More than a century ago, Adams County historian Emmons B. Stivers wrote, "The Cherry Fork Cemetery at the village of North Liberty is the oldest burial place in {Wayne Township}. General Robert Morrison has stated the he dug the grave for the first interment here, the little son of William Davidson killed by lightning in the year of 1802."

Only two years later, a group of Scots-Irish Presbsssysterians immigrat from Rockingham County, Virginia, erected a small log church near the Davidson's child's grave and shorthly thereafter gegan burying their dead there, also. With in a few years, the site became a community burying grounds and contimues as such today.

Here, then, are buried many of the pioneer families who first settled up and down the Cherry Fork and Grace's Run branches of the West Fork of Ohio Brush Creek. These include the Wrights and Marlatts, the finley's and KirkPatrick's the Pattons, McNeils and Morrisons, the Fosters, McIntires, Caskeys and Wassons.

Here, too, are the families who founded the village of Cherry Fork and who became its business and social leaders of their day. Here is buried Jacob N. Brown who operated a large mercantile establishment on Main Street and William and Jacob Kleinknecht - brothers who bought out Brown and operated his store for several decades. Here too, are interred Thomas B. Gustin who owned a furniture store in town and A.D. Kirk, the villages tailor. Here lie the remains of John M. Kepperling who operated a hotel in Cherry Fork for many years. And here is also W.S. McCormick who owned and operated the North Liberty Floring Mills until his violent death in 1879 when he was caught in the moving gears of the mill's machinery.

In 1899, historian Stivers desrcibed the newer section of the Cherry Fork Cemetery as a "prettily arranged and beauitfully ornamented 'city pf the dead'. Perhaps he was referring to the "forest" of highrises obelick monuments that were still being erected at that time. It seems that there might have actually been a rivarly between several prominent families in the area when, between 1870 and 1910. more than a dozen of all the tall monuments were placed in the cemetery. Although each one is unique, the overall design is basically the same with most soaring between 12 and 15 feet in height.

Some of the tallest were erected for the Gibboney, Potts, Wasson, Cross, Morrison, John, McClung and Helmley families. No other cemetery in Adams County has the same concentration of high monuments as does Cherry Fork. More on this old burying ground next week. Stephan Kelley is a coluumnist for The People's Defender.

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This Page Was Modified Wednesday November 17, 2004