I arrived at the Ashland Historical Society when they opened, at 10:00 am and found a few things of interest: Joseph was one of the first of the sponsors of the Brethren Church in the Ashland area, holding meeting in his house on the eastern edge of Montgomery Township, which is where the Dickey Church of the Brethren would eventually be built. When Joseph decided to move to Iowa, he took a considerable entourage with him, including one daughter and even Jonas Engle, who became famous enough as a doctor to be included in the 1880 History of Ashland County, went along. When Joseph died in 1865, Jonas brought his father’s body back to Ohio and he is buried in the Bloom Grange Cemetery, just north of Bloomville in Seneca County, Ohio. Susannah, who also died in Iowa, is also buried there.
After visiting both the Historical Society and the genealogy and history section of the Ashland Library, I drove out to Bloomville to find the cemetery. From the library I had a map that suggested that it was on High Street, and I found a High Street in Bloomville, but no cemetery.
So driving through town, I stopped a guy on a 4-wheeler and asked if he knew where the old grange cemetery was, and he said that it was on OH-19 north of town about a mile and a quarter. (That was the road I just traveled, so I back-tracked, and sure enough, I found it.) The Old Grange Hall had been converted into apartments, but the cemetery was still there. I parked off the road and pulled out my good camera and took pictures. Joseph, Susannah and young Joseph Norman are all buried there. The cemetery has a tree grown up over Joseph Norman’s grave and the picture I have is partly of the truck of that tree and his grave stone. Joseph’s stone in now horizontal next to Joseph Norman’s.
After that visit, I returned to Ashland to gas up and head for Dayton. Two and a half hours later I exited on Main Street, got a motel for the night, had dinner and will spend two nights here before heading to DC on Saturday. Tomorrow, Brookville, the Dayton Library, and maybe, if time allows, Preble County, where my Grandfather, Alonzo Baile was born.