Figure 23 Beautiful sky over the cemetery. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 22 150 years later, Clarrissa's name is still clear as day. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 21 Field stone or grave marker. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 20 Field stone or grave marker. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 16 W.H.H.E. Photo taken 4/14/15.

Grave #8 Text (Broken): of [?] / Died / Mar. 21 1832 / [Aged?] 24 Y[ears?]

Figure 15 Unknown grave. Photo taken 4/14/15.

Grave #6 Text: Infant / Dau of / N. & S. Acker / Died / Oct 8 1842

Grave #7 Text: Nancy M. / [wife?] of / Darwin Perry / Died / Jun 5. 1864. / [Aged?] 2[5 or 7] Yrs. 11 m. 11 d.
[rest of inscription is illegible]

Figure 14 Nancy M.

Photo taken 4/14/15.

Figure 11 Ellen L.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 10 Clarrissa's broken tombstone.

Photo taken 4/14/15.

Figure 9 Clarrissa F, front.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Grave #3 Text: Clarrissa F. / Born June 12 1842 / Died April 5 1862
[rest of inscription is illegible]

Grave #1 Text: In Memory of / William Henry Harrison Eggleston / who Died Feb 27th 1843 / Aged 1 Year IV Months XV Days
The lovely babe has gone to rest / No sin to cause A sigh / Its taken from its Mothers Brest / To dwell with God on high

Figure 6 The Egglestons.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 5 William Henry Harrison Eggleston. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Unfortunately, every single tombstone has witnessed severe weathering. Many of the epitaphs and names are unreadable. Likewise, some of the markers are broken or completely illegible. There is also the presence of several field stones that may or may not mark the location of other graves.

Figure 4 A shadow fixes a broken headstone. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Cemeteries, however, were sometimes impermanent. Family farm plots could disappear, as Larkin concludes, “Family graveyards were sometimes “delicately kept” at first, but they often fell into neglect or obliteration within a few decades as farms passed to new owners.”[2] Parma’s Early Settlers Cemetery seems to have embodied this conclusion, as the cemetery disappeared from public consciousness and was engulfed by the surrounding woods. In the late twentieth century, local residents rediscovered the headstones and the city cleared the area and built a fence and gate around the graves. Since then the City of Parma has maintained the area.

Figure 3 Large power lines dominate the sky. Photo taken 7/26/13.

[1] Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1989. Print. p. 102.

[2] Ibid., p. 102.

Figure 2 The cemetery is fairly small. Photo taken 7/26/13.

The Early Settlers Cemetery was the burial place for either a small neighborhood or, most likely, a family farmstead. Just like today, gravestones were important markers of the deceased in the early years of the Republic. Jack Larkin, discussing this period, writes that “More permanent than mourning clothes as reminders of those who had died were the graves themselves and their markers, set in the daily landscape.”[1]

Location:
Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. State Road.

History:
In the midst of a section of residential housing is a very small and rural cemetery called the Early Settlers Cemetery. This cemetery, which dates back to at least the 1830s, is owned and operated by the City of Parma. It is located underneath large transmission towers and a small creek, perhaps unaltered, flows near the cemetery’s southern and western border.

Figure 1 Parma's Early Settlers Cemetery. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Early Settlers Cemetery, Parma, Ohio

Figure 19 Field stone or grave marker. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Grave #10 Text: [No inscription detected]

This grave features no inscriptions. If it once did, it has worn off some time ago. It also has a severe lean that should be fixed or restored soon, in order to prevent it toppling over like the nearby W.H.H.E. gravestone.

Figure 18 Overhead power lines.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 17 Unmarked tombstone.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Grave #9 Text: W.H.H.E.

Figure 13 Infant.

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Grave #4 Text: Ellen L. / Dau of / J & M.C. Rob[b?] / died / June 29 1860 / AE 9 years
[rest of inscription is illegible]
Stone below: R.S.

Grave #5 Text: Josephine[?] / [?] Perry / died[?] / Aug 27 18[62?] / Aged 1[0?] [?]

[rest of inscription is illegible]

Figure 12 Josephine[?]

Photo taken 7/26/13.

Grave #2 Text: In Memory of / Julia Marta Eggleston / who Died Jan 29th 184[?] / Aged V Years VI Months and XXV Days
Remember me as yo[u] [?] / As you are now so onc[e] [?] / As I am now so you mu[st?] / Prepare for Death and foll[ow] me

Figure 8 Shadows appear over the Eggleston graves. Photo taken 7/26/13.

Figure 7 Julia Marta Eggleston.

Photo taken 7/26/13.