W. P. A. Cemetery Survey - Lost Creek Cemetery, Farmer 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)

Lost Creek Cemetery

1. Name of Cemetery:  Lost Creek Cemetery in Farmer Township

2. Location, how reached:

Located in Section #29, Farmer Township, on state route #2, two miles west and two miles south of Farmer Center, also seven miles northeast of Hicksville, Ohio by going northeast on State Route #2 out of Hicksville.  It can be reached on the concrete road.

3. Name and address of caretaker:

Perry Hand, Farmer Center, Ohio, is the caretaker and he also is of the Farmer Center graveyard.

Photo from www.findagrave.com

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

This beautiful cemetery is one of the oldest and in it is buried some of the most distinguished people in the district.  It sets on a small knoll across the road from the old Evangelical Church.  It is fenced in with an ornamental wire fence, has numerous fine and stately markers.  It is dotted with many fine, old trees of pine and maple and has two tall arborvita trees.  Its shrubbery is well trimmed, the grass mowed and the graves and markers kept up perfectly.  

It contains five acres, and is one of the best known cemeteries in Defiance County.  It is kept up by the trustees of Farmer Township.  Although it was formerly attached to the Evangelical Church which stands across the road, but is not now used.     

5. Name and date of first burial recorded:

John Bercaw, who died in 1844, is the earliest tombstone.  It was the first graveyard in the western part of Defiance County.  Many of the markers date back into the 1840s and may more into the 1850s.

John Bercaw at www.findagrave.com

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

Henry Wonderly at www.findagrave.com

 Henry Wonderly, pioneer sheriff of Defiance County, 1863 - 1871, he was one of the youngest sheriffs Defiance County ever had and used to ride horseback from this district to Defiance, thirty miles to the southeast.

 Miller Arrowsmith, 1808 - 1893, first surveyor of this district and first surveyor of Defiance and Williams counties.  He was mentioned in the History of Defiance County, along with Hon. A. P. Edgerton in the writeup about Hicksille.

 George Ridenour, founder of Ney, Ohio, born in 1812 and died in 1891, is also buried here.

 Peter Tracht, 1803 - 1898, one of the rich land owners and saw mill men of the county and his father,  John Tracht. 

Ira Brown at www.findagrave.com

  

Ira Brown, 1804 - 1905, the oldest man to live in Defiance County, being seven months past one hundred years of age when he died.

Rev. Peter J. Spangler, 1815 - 1895, one of the old pioneer circuit preachers of the county who traveled from community to community on horseback.

Jared Hulbert, 1798 - 1877, another pioneer settler of this western part of the county and Johnathan Waldron, 1790 - 1867.

All of the above mentioned persons settled in this district when it was still Williams County, county seat at Defiance, Ohio.  

Rev. Peter Spangler on www.facebook.com

The above sketch is taken directly from the tombstones in the cemetery.  Some of it is also recorded in Beers History. 
(*No sketch was attached.)

Another important fact is the markers of the five Huber children buried side by side who died in July of 1890.  Children of Herman Huber.  

Herman Huber, wife and children at www.findagrave.com

7. Markers of unusual appearance:

The markers in this graveyard give more explanations of the people than any I have found yet.

There are very old, white, faded slabs and some very modern granite ones.

The Ridenour family seem to have the most expensive ones, also the Ensign marker is fine, of red granite of the heavy modern type.  

There is also quite a few of the stately pedestal type with the obelisk shafts.  

All these markers are kept clean.  I did not find a dirty or muddy one in the  whole graveyard

8. Unusual epitaphs:

The readings on these markers, especially the older ones, is mostly biographies of the persons buried here, in memory to them.  There is very few verses and such like on the stones.

9. Is cemetery used for new burials?

Yes, this cemetery is still used.  In recent years it seems to have been renovated and replanted with shrubbery.  It is historic in that it is the oldest in the west end of the county and because it has many and more than usual its quota of famous settlers.  However, another fact might be mentioned - there are very few Civil War veterans buried here, as there are in most other cemeteries of this age.  

Most of its early burials were of older men, born in the late 1700s and the early 1800s, too old for the Civil War.  This is due to the fact that for about twenty years - between 1905 and 1925 - the graveyard was not used very much.  But now today again, it is used as much as any other rural cemetery.

C. Cadwallader and C. Gish, Reporters

Consultants: Harry Metz, R.R. #2, Hicksville, Ohio and Perry Hand, Farmer, Ohio

Bibliography: Beers History of Defiance County, 1883 and Readings on the Markers.      

(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.)

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