W. P. A. Cemetery Survey - Blair Cemetery, Delaware Township

In this series, some of the general surveys of Defiance County cemeteries will be shared, transcribed as written on the original W.P.A. reports, with a few punctuation and/or spelling changes for readability.  The surveys were probably done around 1936.

For more up to date information on the cemeteries, check out this chart on our website:
 http://defiancecountygenealogy.org/cemeteries.html)

Blair Cemetery

1. Name of cemetery:

The old Blair Cemetery, claimed by some to be the old Delaware Indian cemetery; however, no authentic proof can be obtained.

2. Location, how reached:

One mile east of U. S. 127, at Porters Lane a mile south of Sherwood, Ohio.  It can be reached from Sherwood going south on U.S. 127 for one mile, turning left into a winding gravel lane and winding around on this lane for one mile until the Maumee River bank is reached.  Some markers are standing and it can be seen from the road on the rivers bank.  It is on the north bank of the Maumee River and about two miles west of Delaware Bend Village, but cannot be reached from that direction, as the lane it is on stops forty rods above the graveyard.

3. Name and address of caretakers:

It is kept up by some of the trustees of Delaware Township and Mr. A. J. McFeeters, Sherwood, Ohio is the caretaker.

Blair Cemetery at www.findagrave.com

4. General description, size, appearance, denomination, fencing, etc.:

This cemetery is in a very out of the way place and if one was not told about it, it would never be found.  Half of the people around Sherwood never heard of it.  It is in a wild spot on the high northern bank of the Maumee River between two ravines.  It sets high on a hill, is surrounded with an ordinary wire fence used only to keep the livestock out of it.  The markers are mostly broken and fallen over, many of them unreadable.  It covers less than an acre of ground.  It was a private cemetery for the Blairs.

History of this place, it being the highest point along the Maumee River and on loose black soil and the land rolling and well wooded, with the two ravines on each side, gives rise to the theory that at this spot was the old Delaware Indian Cemetery of the time before Wayne and Harrison entered the territory.  However, it is not proven.  Even Dr. Slocum, in his history of this district, does not emphatically state that this is the spot, but could be.

5. Name and date of first burial recorded:

Betsy Blair, 1808 - 1846, is the oldest marker left readable.  No one knows when the Blairs started burying here.

Betsy Hughes Blair at www.findagrave.com

6. Names of important persons buried there; for what noted:

Blairs and their close relatives (are) the only persons buried here - only two graves not marked as Blairs.  The Blairs were early pioneer residents of Delaware Township and are supposedly to have been part Indian; the descendants have left this district long ago.

Jane, wife of J Jewell, at www.findagrave.com

7. Markers of unusual appearance:

All markers are old, of the slab type and hardly readable.

8. Unusual epitaphs:  None

9. Is cemetery still used for new burials?

This graveyard has not been used for forty years.  The authority on this, such as it is, was gained from Mr. A. J. McFeeters and Levi Keegan of Sherwood, Ohio, who agreed that the graveyard was a sort of mystery.

C. Cadwallader and C. Gish, Reporters

(The Works Progress Administration was formed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in reaction to the Great Depression as a means of employing Americans and stimulating the economy.  Established in 1935, one of the projects of the W.P.A. was to conduct Historical Records Surveys, one of which included finding information on cemeteries and the graves of veterans.  The W.P.A. was disbanded in 1943, but the historical information provided on these surveys continue to be of interest and are, thankfully, preserved.)