W. P. A. Cemetery Survey - Old Rohn Cemetery, Richland 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)

 Old Rohn Cemetery

1. Name of cemetery:  Old Rohn Cemetery in Richland Township

2. Location; how reached:

Located on U. S. #24, four and one half miles east of Defiance, Ohio along the old Miami and Erie Canal and Maumee River, one mile east of Independence State Dam and directly across the highway from the last shelter houses in this park.  However, the graveyard, itself, sets back 40 rods or more from this highway to gain access to it.  One turns in the lane or driveway of Mr. A. F. Trubey, who owns this land.  These people, Mr. and Mrs. Trubey, welcome visitors very gladly.

3. Name and address of caretaker:  Mr. A. F. Trubey, R.F.D. #4, Defiance, Ohio

 

Rohn Cemetery at www.findagrave.com

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

This old, historic graveyard, which dates back to the first part of the nineteenth century, covers a plot of ground on a high bluff, in fact, on the Glacier Moraine Hill.  It is fenced in with wire, is kept in good condition by Mr. Trubey, who gets no pay for doing it.  

It has about a dozen good markers of granite and sand stone and as many more of not so good stones.  The most conspicuous marker is the one at the entrance gate that is in memory of Samuel Rohn, who died in 1884.  His happens to be the latest gravestone in the plot.

The plot contains today around a quarter acre, but in former times, before some of the graves were moved to the Independence graveyard two miles up the river, it was more than twice as large.  This graveyard was undenominational and was almost a family plot, very near all the people and settlers in that part of this township being related.

5. Name and date of first burial recorded: 

There is a flat stone in this graveyard that bears the date 1818.  The name is Mary Landis, beloved wife of Aberham Landis.  Now whether this grave was made here at the time of this woman's death or the marker put down in memorial to her years later, it is not known.

Mary Landis at www.findagrave.com

Also Indian, Jake Conky-pot's (Konkapot) grave marker is an old one.  No one knows when he died, but not as early as 1818, we are sure, because grandfathers of persons I interviewed had seen and talked to Indian Jake and Jake was over a hundred years old when he died, supposedly, in the house on this farm, and buried on the high hill back of it.  

Outside of Indian Jake, the oldest man lying here was William Rohn, father of Samuel Rohn, who was born in 1773 in New York State and died on this farm in 1855. 

6. Names of important people buried here:

William Rohn, 1773 - 1855, pioneer settler.

Samuel Rohn, 1812 - 1844, son of William and founder of the Rohn homestead and richest man in Richland township, owning at one time almost two sections of land.  The man about who Thos. A. Boyd wrote the fiction story called 'Samuel Drummond.'

Indian Jake Conky-pot, Old Indian Medicine Man, Christian and friend of white men.

7. Markers of unusual appearance:

The marker of Indian Jake is, of course, original, being a brown colored pointed stone, a little more than a foot high, and set in concrete recently.  The stone is old and worm eaten.  Another old Indian marker is also in this graveyard, but no one knows whose grave it marks.

And Samuel Rohn's tombstone is indeed very fine and stately to be setting out here.  Mr. Trubey tells me that before he got the farm, all these stones were tipped over and some broken.  We can see where he has patched up a lot of them.

8. Unusual epitaphs:

Nothing on the stones of anything original or unusual.  The Rohns were good, everyday Methodists, so the markers that have an lettering at all are verses from songs and the Bible.

9. Is cemetery used for new burials?

This graveyard has not been used since 1884, Samuel Rohn being the last to be buried here.  A Lot of the graves were moved along about this time to the graveyard on Independence Hill, two miles west of here.

C. Cadwallader and Chas. Gish, Reporters

Consultants: Most of this data obtained from Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Trubey, R.F.D. #4, Defiance, Ohio, and who live in the old house on this farm.

Mr. Al. Young, caretaker of the graveyard at Independence.

Bibliography: "Samuel Drummond"  fiction book by Thos. A. Boyd

(A photo of Jake Conky-pot's grave was attached to this original report, but was not with the copy used here.)

(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.)