Kelleys Island History Blog

THE FIRST BURIAL S IN THE KELLEYS ISLAND CEMETERY Discover the earliest burials in the Kelleys Island cemetery. In my last post I shared the history of our cemetery which was established in 1854. Now we can explore some of the earliest burials. In 1854, the year the cemetery was established. John McDonald, who died on January 14, 1854 at age 26, was the first burial and his headstone still stands. Norman Hills told an interesting story about McDonald, who had been employed in preparing the new cemetery for burial purposes.   He was taken to task for carelessness in his work and his reply was to the effect that he did not care, for he did not expect to be buried there. It so happened that soon after completing his work in the cemetery, McDonald was accidentally killed and became the very first person to be buried in the cemetery he built. McDonald’s death appeared in Datus Kelley’s Ledger. “A letter from Mr. Addison Kelley informs us of a sad accident which occurred on Kelley’s Isla

IT’S 1854 AND OUR ISLAND CEMETERY IS ESTABLISHED by  Leslie Korenko This is the history of our Island cemetery, which is quite old. It is a source of meditation, interest, research and an occasional lawsuit. In fact, Ned Williams and a couple of others, are combing through old newspapers to locate and add obituaries for of our Islanders who have passed on. These can be found FindaGrave.com; a great place to find interesting items about Island family members. The Island Cemetery was  officially established in 1854 with this deed. “Know all men by these  presents; that I Elizabeth K. Webb of the County of Erie and State of Ohio in consideration of the sum of $18.00 in hand paid by J. E. Woodford, E. Ward, Chas. Carpenter, as Trustees of the Kelleys Island Cemetery Association…do hereby  grant, bargain, sell and convey unto the said Woodford, Ward and Carpenter and  their successors in office forever, the following Premises, situate in the county of Erie, in the State of Ohio and in the