W.P.A. Cemetery Survey - Six Corners Cemetery

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)

Six Corners Cemetery

1. Name of Cemetery:  Six Corners Cemetery

2. Location, how reached:

At Six Corners, a rural community and three road crossing on state route #2, four miles northeast of Hicksville, Ohio, and in Hicksville Township.

3. Name and address of caretaker:

Harry Metz, R.R. # 2, Hicksville, Ohio

Six Corners Cemetery at www.findagrave.com

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

This cemetery comprises four acres of very level land, lying directly along route #2.  It is only fifty feet deep, but over 2,500 feet long along the south side of the road.  It is not fenced in.  It is kept well, mowed; the grass is very green, the shrubbery and trees well trimmed and the driveways are of gravel.  The trees are mostly maple.  Two pine trees are on the lot, and numerous small evergreen bushes.

It has a caretaker who spends half of his time here.  This graveyard is different because it is kept up by the Six Corners Cemetery Association, an organization founded among the wealthy farmers of this district for this purpose alone.  The plot is laid out in lots which are sold to individuals, the money being used to keep up the cemetery.  A few years back, as with the Lost Creek Cemetery, it ws just a small country graveyard, almost forgotten.  But about fifteen years ago, some land was donated to the community to be used as a new part for the cemetery.  Now it is a much used burial ground.

5. Name and date of first burial recorded:

Margarette Lawson, 1847; second, Jacob Warner, 1850.  

 

Jacob Warner, died 1850, at Six Corners Cemetery on www.findagrave.com

Its real beginning was not until 1860 when the Millers started it as a private graveyard.  Elizabeth Miller, wife of Henry Miller, born in 1784, died in 1860, the mother of twelve children, was the first official burial.  Henry, her husband, died in 1865.  Then these twelve children, all but three living and married, started the cemetery.  Even yet today, a lot of the persons buried here can trace their ancestry to this Henry Miller family.

Henry Miller at www.findagrave.com

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

Besides the above mentioned Miller family, the next in importance were the Fickle family who have three very fine granite markers in the graveyard.

John W. Foust, 1853 - 1923, one time sheriff of Defiance County and former mayor of Defiance, Ohio, is buried there.  Also the father of Fred Warfield, recent sheriff of this county.

Valentine Lybarger, of near Hicksville, an old Civil War veteran, who died recently, is buried here.  As yet, his stone is not dated.

Valentine Lybarger at www.findagrave.com

7. Markers of unusual appearance:

There is one outstanding and different marker here.  It is over the grave of W. M. Wilson, is white granite, and is seven feet high and on its top is an urn draped with a shroud.  There are also many fine modern granite markers erected in the recent years.  The old time markers are of the white slab type and are worn, but clean.

Winfield S. Wilson at www.findagrave.com

8. Unusual epitaphs:

The reading on the marker erected on the Miller lot to the memory of Elizabeth Miller, which says, "Mother of twelve children, nine living and three dead, life's work well done" is the only one that is different.

9. Is cemetery used for new burials?

This graveyard is now being used extensively, since the organization of the Six Corners Cemetery Association.

C. Cadwallader and C. Gish, Reporters

Harry Metz, R.R. #2, Hicksville, Ohio 

(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.)