W. P. A. Cemetery Survey - Riverside Cemetery, Defiance, PART 1

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)

Riverside Cemetery

1. Name of cemetery:  Riverside Cemetery

2. Location, how reached:

     On east side of state route #111, at southern limits of city of Defiance, Ohio, and on the bank of the Auglaize River.  Easily accessible by auto from all parts of the city.

3. Name and address of caretaker:

     John Sherry, 916 Wilhelm Street, Defiance, Ohio

Riverside Cemetery at www.findagrave.com

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

Riverside Cemetery is situated on the high bank of the Auglaize River at the southern limits of the city of Defiance, Ohio, and across the road from the old Miami and Erie Canal.  It was laid out officially as a burial ground in the year 1848; however, eleven years before that time, it was used as a graveyard by the Langdons as a sort of private burying plot.  The old plot is directly on the river's bank and in the burial grounds on the north side of the ravine, which this first plot from the new graveyard established in about the year 1862 as a Catholic graveyard.

This beautiful, well kept cemetery in the whole, is divided into three separate parts.  The first part, as before stated, is on the north side of the ravine, the Catholic holy ground across the ravine and to the east of it,  and the part now called the New Cemetery comprises all the rest of the available space.  The whole acreage is 68 acres, twelve in the old part and the other fifty-six in the new.

In the old part are three privately owned vaults, owned respectively by Holgates, Lattys and Wells-Houghton.  These vaults are built of sandstone and marble.  

The whole cemetery is laid out in lots, each individual buying his own, while the city of Defiance keeps them up.  The Catholic burial ground is Holy and Consecrated by the Bishop of the Toledo, Ohio, diocese.  And there is in the new part what is known as Soldiers' Field, a plot of ground kept up by the G.A.R., Bishop Post of Defiance, Ohio.  Outside of these the rest of the cemetery is owned individually by persons purchasing lots in the cemetery.  One small part in the old cemetery is still owned by the city for burial of those too poor to purchase lots.

The whole grounds are interwoven with crushed stone drives and the lots terraced up from these drives.  The cemetery is heavily wooded with oak, pine, cedar and elm trees, also hundreds of imported evergreen bushes and shrubbery is placed throughout the grounds.  The ravine that cuts these two parts of the cemetery in half is called Culvert Run and is crossed by a small, rustic foot bridge.  The whole of the cemetery is enclosed by an iron ornamental fence.

There are two entrances to the cemetery, one to the old part, another to the new.  This latter is a beautiful gateway.  As one drives in one, to the left is a beautiful lily pond and fountain, placed in front of one of the most classic, unique, and picturesque chapels to be found.  It is Gothic in style and made of rough, varigated hewn stone with high pointed stained glass, Gothic windows and a pointed roof, all surrounded by evergreen shrubbery.  To the left of the driveway as one enters the gate is a magnificient new mausoleum built in 1927 at a cost of $28,000.00.  It is built of smooth cut, Bedford stone, is thirty feet high with a Spanish type roof and regular tomb style.  The inside is Italian marble.  This building is also surrounded by evergreen shrubbery.

This cemetery is watered with city water - hydrants are placed in the corner of every section for the use of the public.  In the new part of the cemetery is a rest house in center of the grounds.  Riverside Cemetery is by far the largest burial ground in Defiance County, but not the oldest.    

Persons of all denominations are buried in this cemetery including several of Jewish faith.  However, in the Catholic Consecrated Holy ground, only those who died with the last sacrament are buried.  One plot, or rather, one section is reserved for those of Catholic faith but who at the time for their death were not prepared.  The Catholic church also holds a plot of ground open for those who have committed suicide.  This is on unconsecrated ground; however, there are only five graves in it.

A lot of the graves in the graveyard, especially in the old, were moved here from the old Kahlo Cemetery on the east side across the river from the present cemetery, others from the old Methodist and Presbyterian Graveyards which use to be where the Presbyterian Church now stands on Washington Street.  Those in the Catholic graveyard whose markers date back before 1863 or about were taken up and moved from the old Catholic cemetery on the Maumee River bank near the Defiance Municipal Waterworks on U.S. #24 west of town.

Tombstones and markers in both parts of the cemetery are of all sizes and descriptions, ranging from the magnificent new and modern Romanistic and Grecian types on down to the old Mosiac marble slabs that were used a hundred years ago.   

5. Name and date of first burial recorded:

This graveyard was opened in 1848, however, before that time, it was used by the Langdon family as a burial ground.  The first grave in the cemetery is that of Mary Langdon, two year old daughter of Lyman and Fannie Langdon, pioneer settlers of Defiance County, who built and ran Langdon Tavern, the old house, six miles northwest of Defiance, Ohio.  This house still stands and this Mary Langdon died in this house in the year 1837.  Her youngest sister, a Mrs. Grace Langdon Reid, was buried in the new part of this same cemetery July 16th of this year, 1936, being ninety years apart. 

The next grave is that of Helen Langdon, died in 1848.  From this date on, the graveyard has seen an interment at least every month.

The new Catholic Cemetery was started in 1862, and consecrated in 1871.  The Protestant graveyard was taken over by the city of Defiance in 1871 and the new part plotted and laid out for use in about 1900.  

To be continued...

(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.)