Those of us who like cemeteries have a number of motivations - mine is the history contained there. I enjoy finding the graves of people whose names I've seen in historical descriptions of the settler days of Delaware and Union Counties Ohio, and other stones that tell stories.
Thursday I visited Newhouse Cemetery (2964) in Scioto Township, Delaware County. I'll describe the cemetery in a separate post, but I found myself puzzling over the personal history of the people in three graves I found close to each other there: Nancy Darrah, her son William H. Darrah, and Henry Darrah.
I saw Henry's gravestone first, one of my favorite types, the deeply-engraved slate-grey rectangular stones from the mid-1800s. It is starting to be blighted with the black growth (mold?) that obscures many stones of the era. Here it is (Died Sept 22, 1847, Aged 22Y 7M 22D):
Just in front of this grave was Nancy Darrah (Died Aug 12, 1847, Aged 22Y 5M 17D):
I noted that Nancy was the wife of "Absalom Darrah", and not Henry, and that they died within a month or so of each other.
Next to Nancy's grave was a smaller stone in the same style, her son William H Darrah. I noted first 1847 as the year of death, and said to myself "Ah, a death in childbirth", but a closer look shows that William H was 14 months old when he died (Died Aug 22, 1947 Aged 1Y 2M 9D):
So, the three of them died within 40 days of each other in 1847, first 22-year old Nancy, then her 14-month-old son 10 days later, then (her brother-in-law?) 22-year-old Henry a month later. What was going on in Union County Ohio in August/September 1847? There were no other Darrah graves seen: where is husband/father Absalom Darrah? Was there some intrigue here, or just illness running through the family?
When I got home, I loosed Google on the job, and found references to "Nancy Darrah" on a "Newhouse Surname Project" web site:
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http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Newhouse/"a. NANCY NEWHOUSE (16 Feb 1825-12 Aug 1847) born and died in Delaware County, Ohio. She is buried in the Newhouse Cemetery. She married ABSALOM DARRAH 4 July 1843 by J. Prior in Delaware County. According to the early Newhouse History Nancy was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Absalom was the son of JAMES & ANN DARRAH from Harrison County, Ohio. The Darrahs were originally from Virginia. Absalom was born April 3, 1820 in Ohio and died December 31, 1880 in Blandinsville, Illinois. Absalom later married Minerva Ann Mealey October 18, 1848 in Delaware County. Absalom and Minerva had fifteen children. They moved to Illinois sometime in 1852 or 1853.
1’ MARY JANE DARRAH was born about 1845 in Delaware County and died April 9, 1887 in Prairie City, Illinois. She married THOMAS BRADLEY in Illinois. He died in the Civil War. They had one child. She later married WILLIAM BENTLEY.
THOMAS BRADLEY born in Illinois.
CHARLES BENTLEY born 1869
HATTIE BENTLEY born 1871
LILLIAN BENTLEY born 1873
GRACE BENTLEY born 1875
ORA BENTLEY born 1878
FRANK BENTLEY born 1880.
2’ WILLIAM HENRY DARRAH born July 1846 in Delaware County and died 22 Aug 1847 in Delaware County. He is buried in the Newhouse Cemetery. "
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So, Absalom and Susan Darrah had a son William H. and also a daughter Mary Jane, who lived to age 42, and died in Illinois. Google didn't reveal any kind of widespread plague in 1847, but clearly something deadly was infecting the Darrahs! Susan died in time to avoid bearing another 15 children to the obviously-oversexed Absalom Darrah.
The three graves together at Newhouse Cemetery.
Three stories from the millions in the "Naked Country"!
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