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Progress of the Village -
Postoffice Established - List of Postmasters
- Incorporation of Findlay, and its
Subsequent Mayors and Clerks - The Old
Graveyard on Eagle Creek -
Maple Grove
Cemetery - California Movement of 1849 -
Underground Railroad - First Fire Engines,
and Organization of the First Fire Company -
The Fire Department Organized - Roster of
Chief Engineers - Development and Present
Efficiency of the Department - Town
Buildings - Advent of Railroads, Express,
Telegraph and Telephone Lines - Findlay's
Sewerage System and its Benefits -
Monumental Park - Organization of the
Hancock Monumental Association - Brief
History and Description of the
Soldiers' Monument - The Old Findlay Gas
Light Company - Erection of the Gas Works
and First Lighting of the Town With Gas -
The Works Closed Upon the Development of
Natural Gas - Growth of Findlay Since 1831 -
Her Present Appearance and Business
Interests, and Future Prospects.
One of the first
necessities of every village is a place of
public burial, and when Findlay was laid out
such a ground was selected on the east bank
of Eagle Creek. A tradition exists
that this old graveyard was started by the
garrison of Fort Findlay during the war of
1812. Mrs. Matthew Reighly was
interred in this ground in 1822, she being
the first white person who died in Hancock
County. Philip Strohl,
brother-in-law of John Bashore, was
also buried there about 1830, and, until the
opening of Maple Grove
Cemetery, nearly all who died in
the village or vicinity found a resting
place on this small gravel knoll overlooking
Eagle Creek. With the opening of Maple
Grove the old cemetery was gradually
abandoned and also neglected. In
February, 1871, the town council passed an
ordinance ordering the removal, by their
friends, of all the bodies then remaining in
the old ground to Maple Grove Cemetery by
the 15th of March following, and if not done
by that date the town authorities would have
them reinterred. There was some
opposition to this measure, and though the
great majority of the bodies were removed to
Maple Grove, a great many neglected the work
or refused to allow the bodies of their dead
friends to be disturbed. So the old
cemetery partly remains, and several
headstones on "the point" mark the resting
places of those once well known in ten busy
scenes of life.
Maple Grove Cemetery had its inception Dec. 25,
1854, when under an act of the Legislature
passed February 24, 1848, "making provisions
for the incorporation of cemetery
associations," the following gentlemen
effected such an organization: D. J.
Cory, William Taylor, Hugh Newell, Jesse
Wheeler, Aaron H. Bigelow, Benjamin Huber,
John B. Hull, Parlee Carlin, George H.
Crook, David Goucher, William H. Baldwin,
Hanks P. Gage, James H. Wilson, John Ewing,
Frederick Henderson, George W. Galloway, M.
C. Whiteley and Henry Porch.
On the 22d of January, 1855, the
organization was completed by the election
of John Ewing, Hanks P. Gage, and
Parlee Carlin, trustees, and William
Taylor, clerk; and "Maple Grove Cemetery
Association" was adopted as teh name of the
organization. The association
purchased of George Biggs twenty
acres of land lying in the northwest quarter
of Section 13 and the northeast quarter of
Section 14, Findlay Township, immediately
west of town for the sum of $2,200, which
they at once laid out as a cemetery.
On the 3d of August, 1860, the association
turned over its title in the cemetery to the
town and township of Findlay, said town and
township assuming an indebtedness of $982,
then owing to George Biggs.
Twenty-two acres lying south of the cemetery
were purchased of Jasper N. Lytle
November, 16, 1872, at a cost of $2,200.
A roadway belonging to Frederick Duduit
originally divided the two tracts, but
in April, 1875, the trustees of the cemetery
exchanged with Mr. Duduit 4:45 acres
off the southwest corner of the last
purchase for the roadway, which contained
the same amount of land, and thus the tracts
were united. In July, 1878, the
authorities resolved to authorize the
cemetery trustees to erect a "mortuary
chapel" for the reception of the dead before
burial, at a cost not to exceed $2,000.
The chapel was commenced in the fall of
1878, and the building was completed and
accepted by the trustees in May, 1879.
Ryland & Wykoff were the contractors,
and it is a very substantial, handsome stone
structure, with massive iron doors, and adds
considerably to the beauty of the grounds.
The cemetery occupies an elevated,
well-drained level site on the west bank of
the Blanchard, along which a winding
driveway leads from the village to the main
entrance. The newer portion of the
grounds surrounding the chapel are
handsomely laid out, and the whole cemetery
has a profusion of flowers, evergreens and
shade trees which furnish an inviting place
of rest to the casual visitor. Many
artistic and costly monuments attest the
devotion of the living, and prove at least a
fleeting reverence for those silently
sleeping 'neath the grass-covered mounds
dotting this beautiful city of the dead.
There are two notable circumstances so closely
interwoven with the history of Findley's
progress as to deserve mention in this
chapter - the California movement of 1849,
and the peculiar workings of the
"Underground Railroad." We are
indebted for our information on those
subjects to Willis H. Whiteley, Esq.,
of Findlay, who obtained the facts from
active participants therein, which we
ourselves have verified through the same
sources.
"The excitement," says Mr. Whiteley, "caused by
the closing scenes of
................................MORE TO COME
LATER OR UPON REQUEST.
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