Holmes County Cemeteries

With a spinach and Guggisberg Swiss sandwich in my hand and a song in my heart (I think it was a hopeful song like Here Comes the Sun)  I headed east on SR 62 to the Longenecker Cemetery.  The cemetery is located on CR 186.  Be care to watch for signs right after you leave or right before you enter Winesburg because they are very small.  The Longenecker Mennonite Church can be seen from the road, and the cemetery is next to the church.

Google Map for Longenecker Mennonite  Lat. 40.638003  Lon.  -81.694212

Plot Map

An interesting gravestone was Jacob Kaufman’s.  It is the tallest and most elaborate zinc stone I have ever seen.  According to Zinc Sculpture in America 1850-1950 by Carol A. Grissom, “all but a few cemetery memorials made of zinc were imitation-stone products made of white bronze by the Monumental Bronze Co.” (p. 565)  These stones were popular during the late 1800′s and early 1900′s because they were less expensive than the other stones, and they had removeable panels to easily change out the inscriptions or decoration.  Although these stones are in much better condition than other stones the same age and thought to be beautiful today, they fell out of favor in the early 1900′s because people found them ugly and “tacky.”

I also tried to visit the Logsdon Cemetery.  After driving all around the area of TR 128 and TR 110, I stopped at two Amish Farms to ask for directions.  The first lady did not know where the cemetery could be, but after she directed me to the next farm, she told me that it was Logsdon land.  I asked the lady at the next farm, and she said that there were only a few graves that were sunk in the ground at the end of a gas road.  Since it was a cold and rainy day, I decided to venture back to this one in the summer.  This picture shows the hill it is on (Logsdon land.)

The whole time I was out in the cold, I kept thinking about a nice hot coffee and apple strudel at Kauffman’s Country Bakery on the way home.  Boy, was it good!