TOWNSHIP: York
ALTERNATE NAMES: none
LOCATION: north side of Wolff Rd. (TR-94); west of Abbeyville Rd. (CR-47). It is not visible from the road; it is up an unmarked drive: Abbeyville Cemetery Drive (TR-234). Between 5653 and 5633 Wolff Rd.
CURRENT OWNER: Trustees of York Township
ACCESS: public – use driveway and pull off onto grass just in front of cemetery
STATUS: inactive
SIZE: 1.25 acres
ROWS: the cemetery likely once had rows but they can no longer be used as a reference point
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF BURIALS: 42+
EARLIEST KNOWN BURIAL: August 23, 1834 – Mary Fenn
MOST RECENT KNOWN BURIAL: September 17, 1898 – Hannah M. Fenn
GPS: N 41° 11’ 44.8”; W 08° 53’ 24.0”
PERMANENT PARCEL #: 045-05B-09-007
(Medina County Engineer’s Overhead View)
ORIGINAL LOT #: Tract 5, Section 7, sublot 42
TOWNSHIP, RANGE: T3N: R15W
VETERANS BURIED IN ABBEYVILLE CEMETERY:
Stephen Holcomb – War of 1812*
John H. Wass – Civil War
* – there is a stone here for an S.F. Holcomb who could have fought in the War of 1812 but his first name was Solomon, not Stephen. It is unclear if Stephen is another person buried here – without a marker – or a mistake in the WPA map. The location attributed to the grave of Stephen Holcomb is in the same proximity as that of S.F. Holcomb.
CEMETERY HISTORY
In 1831 a man by the name of Levi Janes would purchase 600 acres of land and the following autumn he built the first cabin in what would become the village of Abbeyville. The village, at one time believed so full of promise, would attain the height of its greatness by 1840 and eventually give way in prominence to York Center.
The cemetery is on land that was purchased by John W. Allen from Thomas Sill on July 5, 1830 (Volume E, page 198). This purchase was for the entire 145 acres that comprise Lot 7.
The earliest date found on the remaining headstones is August 23, 1834 for Mary Fenn. A few months later, on November 10, 1834, we see that Mr. Allen sold the cemetery land to the Trustees of York Township for the sum of one dollar as recorded in Volume I, page 209 of the Medina County Land Records:
“…beginning four chains 63 links N 54° W from a post standing on the east side of Lot Number 7, eight chains 25 links N of the SE corner of said lot; thence N 54° W along the bank of Rocky River five chains; thence S 45° one chain fifty links west; thence S 18° East, one chain seventy-four links – thence S 45° E three chains 20 links – thence N 45° E three chains 25 links – to the place of beginning – containing one acre & 40/100 of an acre be the same more or less, but subject to all legal highways. To have and to hold the above granted and bargained premises, with the appurtenances thereof, unto them the said Trustees & their successors for the purpose of being used as a burying ground forever…”
Much of the cemetery is curiously empty; with all of the remaining headstones being on the west side. While there are remnants of rows still visible, they are too sparse and scattered to be used as a point of reference – or to determine much about the layout of the cemetery.
The driveway to the cemetery is actually a dedicated township road – appropriately named Abbeyville Cemetery Drive (Township Road 234) – although it is not marked or paved. Nowadays, while it still serves to access the cemetery, it is mostly used by the owners of the house behind the cemetery and neighboring properties.
It is important to note that the driveway is actually situated in the middle of the cemetery. While the land on the east side of the driveway is dedicated cemetery property and owned by the township, it is not known if burials were ever made on that side. The WPA’s map of the cemetery does not account for that half of the grounds.
CEMETERY RECORDS
No original cemetery records exist for this cemetery. The burial information included here has been compiled almost exclusively from the remaining headstones. The WPA did a map of the cemetery but that map gave only the location of two veteran graves and nothing pertaining to other burials or the cemetery layout.