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History buried in Paulding County cemeteries
October 25, 2009
PAULDING -- More than just earthly remains lie in Paulding County's 80-plus cemeteries, according to Paulding resident Kim Sutton. She credits the final resting places as reliable sources of history and an accurate record of religious beliefs, social class and culture.
"I'm fascinated by them," she said while standing under the towering oak trees in Paulding's Live Oak Cemetery. "You can tell by the dates and ages when an epidemic hit hard, like during the 1918 influenza outbreak. Names tell us when immigrants came.
"Our cemeteries tell us the history of the area," she added. "These are the people who built Paulding County. Did you know the Upthegrove Cemetery was reserved for blacks only? Another one, I believe in Washington Township, was also primarily all African-American. Through the names, symbols, epitaphs and inscriptions you can read so much about an era."
Sutton points out the beautifully carved symbols on many of the older headstones in the cemetery.
While many of the words inscribed are now unreadable, the stones still tell a story. The details symbolize the lives of those who are buried there. A sleeping angel lies atop a small monument for a child. Another grave, obviously that of a young girl, is a simple open book tucked into the earth, engraved with the words "Alice" and "Baby." According to the website, www.graveaddiction.com, carved lilies represent purity and ferns mean humility and sincerity. On another stone, a hand points down illustrating the hand of God descending from heaven. Not far away from it, a woman clings to a cross, symbolizing faith or lack of it.
A not uncommon type of an old cemetery marker is a tree.
"They were available through Sears and Roebuck," Sutton says, standing by an excellent example. In addition to the tree trunk, two accompanying stones shaped like logs bear names of those buried there.
What isn't engraved into the granite and marble markers are the twists and turns, the many little and little-known impacts on history made by the occupants when they were living.
Many visitors travel from all over the country, coming to the area seeking genealogical information with cemeteries and the library being the main source of data, Sutton says.
Sutton cites an example of how one person can change history is the life story of one of Paulding County's most venerable residents buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Wilson H. Snook. She found the story online while researching genealogical information.
Born in Antwerp in 1850, Snook studied law and ran a grist mill and farmed with his brother, John. He also sat as Paulding County Common Pleas Court judge from 1892-97. While engaged in farming, the Snook brothers traveled to Nova Scotia, Canada, to purchase sheep from a breeder who lived there. The man's name was Bell and, in addition to animal husbandry, was an inventor.
In 1876, Snook was selected to serve on a committee to help plan the United States sesquicentennial celebration. The committee selected Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, as an exhibition judge. During the exhibition, the sheep breeder and inventor had some of his experiments on display. His apparatus wasn't receiving much attention until Snook encouraged Dom Pedro to observe Alexander Graham Bell's scientific demonstrations. The emperor was so impressed with Bell's idea, Bell was awarded $10,000.
Later, when Bell was struggling in court to prove his patent on the telephone, the Snook brothers testified in his favor. In the 1880's, Bell, as a courtesy, helped the Paulding County brothers get started in the telephone business by furnishing wire and equipment for the courthouse and other offices.
"If we don't keep these stories," Sutton says, "our children and their children will never know how important these people were. Our graveyards are a legacy that passes from generation to generation."
Another catalyst of change is buried in Live Oak Cemetery, says Sutton.
"Probate Judge Calvin L. Noble lived most of his life in Paulding County. However, in his earlier days he was a newspaper publisher who founded the Cleaveland Advertiser. He couldn't fit the name of the paper all on one page so he dropped the 'a' from Cleaveland and it stuck, forever changing the spelling of Cleveland, Ohio.
"Many of the names on the stones are forgotten now," she says.
To support her convictions, Sutton, a Paulding councilwoman, and fellow Councilwoman Barb Rife worked hard to see that the Live Oak mausoleum was repaired, rather than destroyed.
A $26,000 project, the original clay tile roof is in the process of being replaced by a steel reproduction. More than 70 individuals are encrypted in the structure that was built in 1915, with the latest being interred in the 1950s.
"The mission is to increase public awareness as to the value of our cemeteries and to encourage communities to restore and preserve them as historic landmarks," she says.
"We have the responsibility to take care of them. It's a direct reflection of the pride of the community. When people purchased a plot or a crypt, they got a deed and we should honor that."
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