and storehouse. In March of 1813 a violent storm blew the gable off of the small building and the stored grain, soaked by subsequent rain, swelled and burst its walls. The government paid to have the church replaced in 1815, but the new structure was built not in the graveyard but on the riverbank nearby.5
From a very early date the location of the
graveyard could have been considered less than desirable. It was bordered
on the north by the sawmill and the grist mill; it became even less
desirable when cut off from the center of Franklinton by the first
railroad, which was laid in 1851. However, it was protected and looked
after by the citizens of the community. Martin's history (1858) reported
that it "embraces a beautiful little locust grove, enclosed with a board
fence," but also noted that the remains of Lucas Sullivant and wife, Lyne
Starling, and General Foos and wife had already been removed to Greenlawn.
Martin continued, "But still the Franklinton graveyard is rather a neat
and handsome village cemetery, and is as well calculated to call up a
train of solemn and interesting reflections as any other spot of ground in
the county."6
The graveyard continued to be well cared-for
and used for some time. It is now impossible to be certain, but the care
of the property was probably in the hands of the trustees of Franklin
Township. Certainly this was the case after 1865, when the legislature
passed an act making it the duty of township trustees to take charge of
any "lands set apart, appropriated, or dedicated as public burying grounds
... not under the care of any incorporated company, benevolent or
religious society or association, or municipal corporation..." The latest
date in any tombstone inscription copied there was 1871, but one newspaper
account of 1906 reported a burial there about fifteen years earlier, or
about 1890. The wooden fence remained at least until 1881, when a post was
mentioned in a deed describing adjacent property.
By 1886 the graveyard was suffering some
neglect. A newspaper article of that year described it as "very
indifferently enclosed and in a distressing state of neglect. Cattle were
roaming among the graves, many of the tombstones were broken or
prostrated, and the inscriptions with which loving hands had undertaken to
perpetuate the memory of friends were in many cases illegible."7
The property was brought within the
corporate boundaries of Columbus in the annexation of October 27, 1890.
Interments were prohibited from that time, for a city ordinance, dated
September 29, 1890 prohibited interments within the city.8 It would seem that the township rightly gave
up the care of the graveyard at this time but the city, which had the
authority to take possession under the Ohio Municipal Code, neglected to
do so for some sixteen years. This resulted in the continuation of the sad
deterioration of the graveyard which was also worsened by construction of
the Toledo & Ohio
3