So perhaps you noticed that nobody posted last Friday. Well, I didn’t, because I was in Athens, the well-known most cemeteried area in this great state. Or at least the most haunted. Unfortunately as I was there for a Shakespeare conference, I didn’t hit any cemeteries. But we did go to some on Monday evening. As the weather is beginning to grow decidedly unfriendly to cemetery pursuits, I’m not going to rush through the four that we checked out. Plus, we got a lot of great pictures for each, so they basically deserve more attention than a four-at-a-time approach. So this is basically cemetery number one plus previews, in order of visit.

Jenkins in Autumn

So today, I’ll be taking you to Jenkins Cemetery, which is located on Yocum Road in Cable, Ohio. It is a beautifully mild autumnal day, and the Ohio sky boasts vivid blue. Ohio, as we all know, is populated enough with dinky little hidden cemeteries that odds are, if you throw a rock, it’ll bounce off a headstone (it helps to be aiming at the headstone and have good eye-hand coordination). The Cable area was necessarily one of our first areas of forray into the world of headstoning, as this particular headstone lives here (don’t bother trying to stalk me; the Cable area is massive). It’s a beautiful area with many narrow, hilly, winding roads, all belying Champaign County’s status as champaign (French, flat). This is all probably largely the result of the Cable Moraine, an area created by leftover glacial debris. So, I was talking about cemeteries!

Jenkins Cemetery has mostly been (erroniously) referred to as the “Yocum Road Cemetery” by us for the last few years, and in spite of early visits in 2004 (it was one of our inaugural cemeteries!), we didn’t have any pictures before this visit. However, I find it a beautiful cemetery of decent size. It is presumably associated with the church that it is nestled up and pretty cozy with.

The road in the cemetery

Now, it is actually a decent-sized cemetery for a largely-family-oriented church graveyard in the middle of nowhere. Literally in the middle of nowhere; this one is almost impossible for us to find even though we’ve been there like three times. You can park in the church lot, and there is only one road that goes around the cemetery. It is clean, nicely spaced, and seems well-maintained in spite of the massive sea of fallen leaves there on our visit. It’s October. Can you blame it?

Three Jenkinses

Typical last names are Blue (presumably somehow related to the local Blue Rd.), Black (of Black Rd. fame, no doubt); Yocum (of Yocum Rd., perhaps?), and the eponymous Jenkins (there is no Jenkins Road locally, however). Three Jenkinses are buried beneath this beautiful monument, dedicated to the memories of “Kittie” (wife of R. P. Jenkins), who died in 1886, and her two daughters, Wretha and Ada, who both died in 1892. One of the prettiest cemetery statues ever.

While this is really the only statue in the place, there are some unique and interesting gravestones worth seeing, including a pair of apparently homemade gravestones with cursive inscriptions. One of my favorites, belonging to a Willard Decker, ominiously threatens on the back of his tombstone to be “waiting for you in heaven.” In very tiny, rather creepy letters.

You may notice I’m giving you much fewer pictures about this cemetery, but this is because we are getting ready to move all our photos over to a new site, and I’m keeping things uncluttered here until we have an idea of how things are going to work there. (Keep tuned for that–btw–Kristine will have more info. The new site promises to display pictures much better than WordPress lets us. Sorry WP.)

A zinc headstone

Another eclectic addition to the cemetery is this very small zinc headstone, which includes a long flat marker, also zinc, with the name that lays over the actual grave. It is one of the smaller zinc headstones I have ever seen, and is thus kind of impressive.

Actually that’s all I can think of to say for the moment about Jenkins cemetery. It was a fine warm day for cemetery hopping and that may be coloring my affection for the place, or not. Like I said, stay tuned for the picture update, because there will be more.

Also for you to look forward to: The elusive and nearly invisible Cable Cemetery (on November 6), the bizarre monuments of Woodstock Cemetery (on Friday the 13th, appropriately), and the unlovely Broderick Cemetery (November 20)–our first venture into exotic Union County! See, aren’t I a good little blogger, posting when I say I will? Every Friday! Take note! Tell your friends! Also coming up for your reading enjoyment, the Headstoners’ first visit inside historic Green Lawn Abbey, established 1927. So be here for that!