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Memorializing the forgotten
YOUNGSTOWN
The Tod Homestead Cemetery Association will erect a sign in honor of 1,800 seemingly forgotten burials, Sallie Tod Dutton, association president and Tod family descendant, has announced.
A 2-acre potter’s field – a burial place for unidentified or indigent people – lies along a bumpy pathway now overtaken by overgrown plants and low-hanging trees.
The bumps are mounds of earth outlining coffins weakened by time that have caved in. The divots between the mounds hold people’s ancestors.
According to Tod Cemetery records, the abandoned section once belonged to Youngstown Township.
Paul Dutton, Tod Homestead Cemetery’s attorney and Sallie’s husband, said he was grateful the issue was brought to the board’s attention by The Vindicator. He credited the lack of knowledge about the field to the age difference between the section of land and the board members.
“Honestly, none of the board members are old enough to remember, but after some searching we found we do have documentation saying that Youngstown Township could use the section for indigents.”
In the cemetery board’s meeting minutes on June 7, 1911, Volney Rogers, Tod Homestead Cemetery board president and acting chairman at the time, sold Youngstown Township trustees nearly 2 acres south of the present Tod cemetery for burials.
Ken Sommers, Tod Homestead Cemetery superintendent, said the cemetery’s ledger shows that the payment was made.
Beyond the ledger, Sommers said records were scarce, providing no other information as to where responsibility was left when the township was annexed to the city in 1913. But the burials continued until 1931.
A rumored dissociation from the property between the city and Tod cemetery in the 1930s is what Sommers said may be responsible for the unmaintained land.
“We were just ignorant of it all,” Sallie said.
After a Vindicator story in April brought the forgotten land and people to light, Tod Homestead Cemetery Association board members met with Youngstown officials to discuss responsibility and a possible solution to honoring the ancestors on the southern end of the cemetery.
They agreed on a sign, something both Duttons agree is the most-appropriate way to memorialize 1,800 people forgotten for so many years.
“We all just didn’t know,” Paul Dutton said.
In addition to putting up a sign, he said cemetery workers are going to clear the pathway so it is clearly defined for people to visit ancestors who may be buried back there.
The names from the hidden section were made available to find online at http://www.todhomestead.com/find-a-grave/youngstown-township-cemetery/.
The sign also will include the website information because all 1,800 names cannot fit on it. Information can also be found in the administration office.
“We hope it satisfies the community,” Sallie Dutton said. “People who have relatives up there have said this brings them peace.”
Because the land does belong to Tod Cemetery, Tod Cemetery is paying for it.
“We are glad to do it, and we will do it right,” she said.
Paul Dutton said other than the sign and a clearly defined walkway, he does not want to disturb the gravesites.
“It’s a burial site – a quiet repose,” he said. “When someone is buried in perpetuity it shouldn’t be disturbed. It is more of a green burial, no headstone, no markers.”
A green burial, or a natural burial, uses only biodegradable methods to recycle the body naturally back into the earth. It excludes chemicals or containers that don’t naturally decompose.
The Duttons said after the April news story, they and various board members went to the site to see what they had missed over the years.
Martin Hume, Youngstown law director who also went to the site, said it is not only interesting, but a beautiful display of a natural burial.
“We agree the current setting is appropriate resting place. It’s a part of our history,” Hume said.