Claibourne Cemeteries Tour

The Claibourne Cemetery is on Bethleham Road at Route 37, two miles south of Richwood. It began on the land of Henry Swartz when he buried two small children. The Sidle Methodist Protestant Church was built on this farm. The burials of Mr. Garner, John Logue, Mrs. Ira Bennett and Mrs. Rose were among the first. When Jacob C. Sidle became the proprietor of the farm, he donated an acre for a cemetery. Afterward, it came within the charge of the Township Trustees, and they made additions to its limits. The grounds are located on rising land, and currently receives the remains of the departed from Richwood and the surrounding country.

The Old Richwood Cemetery is located on Ottawa Street behind the Richwood Chapel. This cemetery was the first one erected during Richwood's settlement in 1832. The first person buried here was Jane Mary Brookins, daughter of Dr. John P. Brookins. She was only 6 years old when she died in 1833 due to a fire accident. Henry Swartz burned his hands in trying to extinguish the fire. Philip Plummer helped to clear off the ground and dig the grave for said child. The first reverend of Richwood, Rev. John Carney, was also buried here in 1838 in an unmarked grave. L. Myers came to Richwood in the spring of 1842, and buried his children in the lots. It fell out of use and was largely abandoned by 1869.

Philip Plummer owned the land and said at the time that he would not disturb the lots; that he had given them to the people with permission as a burial ground. A few years after the site was abandoned, Asa Langstaff was a Trustee and as such made the lease of the lots (there were originally three lots) to the church. However, there was a petition to the Legislature to have the lots donated to the town in the original town plat to revert back to Plummer was most likely written by C.S. Hamilton in the fall of 1948. Joshua S. Gill got the field east of town and the lots west of the graveyard and fenced them all as one piece of land and used the graveyard lots as a pasture field to connect the field and his house and lots.

In the spring of 1864, William Hamilton bought Gill out. Hamilton did not own the lots and lands long before he sold them to Edward Norris. Norris abandoned the field and laid it off in town lots. From this on, the graveyard was neglected, and it became an immense weed patch up till it was leased to the Baptist Church. In December of 1889, a trial was held in Marysville to determine what was to happen to the burial grounds. The Plummer heirs claimed that the ground, since it was no longer used, reverted back to the original owner, Philip Plummer. They brought a suit to compel the Baptist Church, which was recently built there at the time, to pay $200 for the land. The case was decided that the church will still hold possession of the lots. Since the church moved, however, the cemetery has remained largely abandoned once more.

Stony Point Cemetery is located on Zook Road, about four and a half miles west of Richwood. Not much is known about this cemetery other than it was used for burial by those who lived in the western part of the township. The oldest known legible gravestone was found to be 1838.

Hamilton Cemetery is located on LeMasters Road a mile from the North Union School district. At the Lenox Schoolhouse, William Hamilton donated a lot for a cemetery which is no longer used. Only a total of eleven people were buried there.