This weekend, I was really excited about working on a story and video project about the Sylvania Township Association Cemetery. The cemetery is located on Convent Blvd., right across from Lourdes, but it's fairly easy to miss if you're driving by. But that was exactly how I learned about it in the first place. There's only one entrance, and you drive down a paved road to get into the area.
Sylvania Township Association Cemetery
I enjoy reading about history, so I was completely excited when I approached Tedd Long from the Sylvania Area Historical Society, about my interest in reporting about the cemetery. Tedd contacted others from the society – Mimi Malcolm, Polly Cooper, and Gaye Gindy, and they met up with me and Blade photographer Katie Rausch on Saturday afternoon, for a tour.
Ms. Gindy is quite a wealth of knowledge. I would wager that she knows just about everything about Sylvania history and if anyone has a history question, contact her and I bet she'll know the answer or find someone who does.
Both Ms. Malcolm and Ms. Cooper knew much about the cemetery as well. Something that struck me as interesting was the fact that these women had a lot of knowledge of the cemetery and key details dating back to the 1830s. I'm glad that information has been documented and passed along, so that it can be known today.
Ms. Malcolm reading one of the grave markers
Ms. Cooper was also kind enough to give me a paper where she wrote out the names of the previous owners of the cemetery, before the township bought it in 1861.
My interest in history taking over, I admit I got to the cemetery about 15 minutes early, so I could have a walk around and think of some questions. This also gave me time to snap a few photos and see some of the grave sites of notable Sylvania residents, like Dr. Uriah Cooke.
It's difficult to read!
I collected something like 6 pages of notes, 13 audio recordings, 7 video recordings and 10 photos, during the hour long tour and interview. Quite a lot!
Upcoming story: Next Monday, Jan. 21, I plan to have a story about the association cemetery in the Ourtown Sylvania section of The Blade. Katie Rausch and I are also putting together a video, that will be up on the site on the same day, that will feature more about the cemetery's history and interviews we took from that day.
Stay tuned.
Looking forward to the story. One summer during college, 1986 I think, I worked for the Township Road Department which was responsible for the cemetery. We had occasion that summer to prepare a plot for burial. Since there are many wooden coffins and records have been lost over the years, it was a manual process to dig the grave. Also, prior to digging, a rod was pushed into the ground to make sure nothing was hit before digging--since records are scarce, you can't be sure there isn't already someone buried there. I have to believe that there aren't many people left today that have manually dug a grave!!
I grew up on Brinthaven and as a child we played in the cemetery looking for old grave stones--like that of David White, founder of Sylvania--and wondering about the "Unknown" grave stones in the back corner.
Posted by: Nicholas Ray | 01/14/2013 at 12:05 PM