Northern Ohio Rambles

 My great grandfather was born in northern Ohio. He was very young when he left, but old enough to remember and tell stories about his time there.  His grandfather and great grandfather lived there close to him.  They are buried there in Geauga County.

I went to find the cemeteries where these grandparents were buried.  John Smith was born in Massachusetts.  He served in the Revolutionary War.  He may have gotten land in Ohio for his service.  He had a bunch of children with a wife who died in Massachusetts.  His children came with him to Ohio.  I know this because some of them are buried nearby him.  It was a rainy, rainy day when we wandered through the cemetery looking for him.  He was toward the back of the cemetery.  I got thoroughly wet looking for him.

Then we moved on to find Orrin Knox, John's son in law. Orrin was a veteran of the War of 1812.  Orrin is buried with his wife Lydia Smith Knox in a very well tended cemetery also near the back. It was still raining.  Still wet.  The rolling hills of northern Ohio were easier to imagine farming and making a living.  The area is known for maple syrup.

For lunch we went to an Amish area of the county.  The Amish were not the original settlers, but these days they make up 20% of the population.  We ate at Mary Yoders.  The food was delicious.  It was homemade in the best sense of that word.

Northern Ohio seemed like a sweeter, easier life than the mountains of New York. I can see why they settled there.  I can see why they moved on.  The flat glaciated plains of Illinois became a better place to farm as agriculture became bigger than subsistence farming.  Andrew William Seger came to northern Ohio from New York, married Louisa Knox and had children there and then moved on to Illinois. He served in the Civil War Union Army as an older man and his sons also served.  One died at Andersonville.

Northern Ohio holds the bones of some of my people.  They lived and died and some moved on. I liked northern Ohio, but I did have to wonder how cold it gets in the winter.  I was glad not to be there to find out.