~by Denise Van for the Greene County Historical Society
The Greene County Historical Society’s annual cemetery walk begins at the museum, 219 E. Lincoln Way in Jefferson, at 2 pm, Sunday, Sept. 22.
Museum co-director Dianne Piepel will begin the program with a brief history of Jefferson’s city cemetery, which is located at the east end of town on land sold to the city by Mahlon Head, a local banker who served as mayor several times. He’s buried just inside the cemetery’s gate.
Piepel will display several museum artifacts related to the cemetery, including a drum used for many years in local military parades that was constructed by Berlin Meyers who rests there. His three sons served in the Civil War.
Then those attending can walk or drive to the cemetery where Piepel will draw attention to the artistic details of a dozen tombstones, all in the original north section.
“I’ll point out unique stones, such as the marker for Peter and Elizabeth Lawton, whose monument is a tree-like monument carved of sandstone, decorated with vines and leaves,” says Piepel. The Lawtons were pioneer Greene County farmers, whose descendants still till the soil near Cooper, south of Jefferson.
Grave markers on the tour will include that of C.T. and Sarah Blake, who erected the city’s first brick building, the Mansion House that stood for more than a century just east of the Slininger-Schroeder funeral home.
Other notable grave sites include Berlin and Mary Meyers’, and O.J. White’s and his wife Sarah’s. White roamed the world in sailing ships before settling on land in Jefferson and opening a shoe store on the west side of the courthouse square.
