W. P. A. Cemetery Survey - Old South Ridge/ OLD St. Stephen's Lutheran Cemetery, Highland 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)

1. Name of cemetery:

The Old South Ridge Cemetery, Highland Township, so named from the South Ridge Glacier Moraine which passes through here.  This graveyard is in connection with the St. Stephen's German Lutheran Church, which is a quarter mile southeast of here.  Another new cemetery is now kept up by this same church, a half mile south of the church on the Ridge Road, called St. Stephens.

2. Location; how reached:

This cemetery is situated on a hill just off the south ridge road and is in section one, one and one half miles straight east of the hamlet of Ayresville in Highland Township and is reached on good, gravel roads.  It is also a mile and a quarter from the Henry County line.

3. Name and address of caretaker:

This graveyard is not kept up now, only that work which is done by relatives of those buried in it, since the new cemetery was started south of the church on the ridge road in 1898.  For information, see Rev. Schroeder, pastor of St. Stephens Church or John Boda, both addresses New Bavaria, Henry County, Ohio, Route #3.

 4. General description, size, appearance, etc.

South Ridge Cemetery sits on a small knoll near the road.  It is fenced in with wire and has an iron gate, but the grounds are grown up with weeds and shrubs.  It is not wooded - one tree only standing on the lot and covers about three quarters of an acre.  However, it has many nice, fine granite markers.  Also a lot of old mosiac slabs; most of the stones are inscribed in German.  Since the establishment of St. Stephen's Cemetery to the south of the church, this graveyard has not been kept up.  It is German Lutheran in denomination.

5. Name and date of first burial recorded:

The first grave was made in 1853 for John Troeger, one of the early German settlers of Highland Township. 

6. Names of important persons buried there:

Perhaps the most known persons are the Troegers.  A grandson of the first man buried is Fred Troeger, Auditor of Defiance County.  Other well known people are the Hohenbergers, Marchhouses (Marshaus), Schadts and Orts. 

7. Markers of unusual appearance:  None

8. Unusual epitaphs:

Most all of these stones are inscribed in German, even in German script, which is unusual in this county.  We have found quite a few inscribed in German, but most of them were in English script and German words only.

9. Is cemetery used for new burials?

We are told there are to be two more persons buried in this graveyard, relatives of one already resting here.  Otherwise, it is not used.

Cecil Cadwallader and Chas. Gish, Reporters
Consultant: Al. Logan,R.F.D. #6, Defiance, 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.)