Day 7:

Today was a cemetery day. We went to 4 cemeteries.  I'm not going to talk about them in the order that we went but rather in the order of generations.....So we can keep all the information linear(ish). The 4th cemetery was a surprise.

As mentioned on day 3, when we got to (our 6 times great grandfather) Georg Christoph Horoldt's grave we did a libation ceremony to honor him. We have continued this practice at each cemetery. Here is the description of libation:

 "We gather to celebrate the unbroken chain between the past,

the present and the future; our ancesters, ourselves and those

unborn. Libation is as old as religious ritual itself, and in fact

was practiced in both the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible.

As the person leading the libation calls the name of an ancestor,

those present affirm that name by saying "Ase" (I-Shay)

and at that time, a little water is poured out either in a living plant

or on the ground. Libation is created to thank our God for those

ANCESTORS who have blessed hu-manity. 

Death alone does not make one an ancestor. You must have

lived life in such a way that you blessed and impacted those

you met in a positive way. Libation honors those who left 

humanity better than they found it. (because of theirs lives we 

have better lives and/or qualities of character)

Hocking  Cemetery also known as The Plains Cemetery:
All the records state that Christopher and Martha are buried here.  We walked all over, determined that the oldest graves were on the lower section. Many graves were unreadable and/or fallen over.  We found a few graves in the bushes basically sliding down the hill into the creek. They too were unreadable. Steve found one Herrold stone but that person died at 29.  We decided to believe they were there somewhere and said our blessing. (I will be following up with the Plains Cemetery people to get a better sense of where the plot is located).  Note: Bill thought he might have been here as a kid but something didn't seem right.

Union Cemetery sometimes known as West Union Cemetery in Athens, Ohio
This is the site for William C. Herrold, Martha & Christopher 's youngest child. William was 3 years old when his father died. Soon after, Martha married Silas Bigham.  Silas was influential in William's life as well as William's older brother Joseph Herrold. Martha and Silas had one son together, Hiram Bigham.  William's tombstone is the slanted one that is close. Notice that it is missing a flag and veteran marker. William served in the civil war.  (More follow up work......I will have to FIND the person in charge so that William can have recognition).

Character Qualities of William C.

• Resilience
• Determination
• Supportive

Greenland Cemetery, Athen ,Ohio

Next we visited Great-grandpa and Great-grandma (Christopher & Louisa Herrold) AND grandpa (William Clyde Herrold) and grandma (Mable Ingrham Herrold) burial sites. They are buried by each other. Finally an easy one to find!!

Bill remembers coming here....maybe when Charles died (grandpa's brother) and then when grandma died.  Bill escorted grandma's casket at the service. I only remember these tombstones from pictures my parents took when they visited.

Christopher Herrold and Louisa Katzenbach Herrold

Character qualities:

• Persistence
• Hardy
• Believers in education

Sorry that these are upside down, just can't fix on my pad.

William Clyde Herrold

Mable Francis Ingrham Herrold

.

Qualities of William and Mabel that they imparted to us:

• Love
• Generosity
• Responsibility
• Faith ( "God fearing)
• Role models
• Education and learning

After tramping around through lots of wet grass, we had brunch at Gigi's Diner then worked our way to the train station. The train was a two hour ride. It traveled from Nelsonville to Haydenville.  It was amazing to see the vast farmland and sad to see the poverty. (This is Appalachia).

This is a picture looking down the open car. Bill was following his uncle David's pattern of "chatting it up" with everyone. 😊

We walked across the bridge from the locks to where we suspect that Christopher and Louisa worked the Poston farm.  

This is a picture of a very old farmhouse far in the distance......might be similar to the Poston farmhouse.

Bill remembered going to the locks with grandpa and grandma. Grandpa use to take him there on the way to Nelsonville and talked about how he worked the lock as a kid. They used mules to pull the boat.  

This is the tree where grandpa and grandma had picnics with Bill. They ate ham sandwiches with mutard, deviled eggs and lemonade in the plaid thermos.

It's the end of a long day and we needed a cidar, so we headed to Athen to the West End Cider House.  This house was owned by Thomas Jefferson Herrold, Christopher Jefferson Herrold's first cousin. The building is on the Historical register.

Bill had a beer, Lorrie had the cider sampler, Steve had fresh squeezed lemonade and I had a cider mimosa with fresh squeezed o.j.

So.....you are wondering about the 4th cemetery......

Well, remember when I said the Bill thought he had been to the Plains Cemetery but something wasn't right?  As we were driving down Union St. in Athens, Bill yells "THAT'S THE CEMETERY!" .  This Union Cemetery is the one grandpa had brought him to as a kid.

We found lots of Herrolds (mostly cousins of great-grandpa Christopher). We all found Hiram Bingham.  We thought maybe we would find Christopher and Martha......maybe someone had the wrong cemetery written down or had moved them. But after consulting with the groundskeepers, and seeing the plot cards with decided that they were not there.

Maybe the Herrold family will have to get a plaque for Christopher and Martha Herrold for their cemetery to commemorate their incredible journey to Ohio and the legacy they left future generations.