Tag Archives: Franklin County

Genealogy, The Walking Dead, and a Proud Mom Moment

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My daughter and I both love “The Walking Dead” on AMC. When she was getting ready to head off to college, one of the things she sad about what that we wouldn’t get to watch “The Walking Dead” together. Skype to the rescue! Most Sunday nights will find us in front of our respective TVs and laptops, watching it “together.” (It’s especially fun when there’s a 4-second difference between our two TVs.)

She has also been to more cemeteries than most people her age. (Some moms take their little girls to Build-a-Bear. I took mine to cemeteries. Don’t judge.)

Confederate tombstones, Camp Chase Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 8 Oct 2004.

Confederate tombstones, Camp Chase Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio. Photo by Amy Crow, 8 Oct 2004.

The March 9 episode of “The Walking Dead” featured the characters Daryl and Beth. Early in the episode, they walk through a cemetery. (Yay! A cemetery!) They stop to look at a tombstone; all the audience can see is the back of it.

The tombstone they’re looking at appeared to be white marble and was shaped like the ones here at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. Wanting the zombie apocalypse to be historically accurate, I said, “That better be a Confederate tombstone they’re looking at.”

My daughter, via Skype, replied, “Yeah. Union tombstones would be rounded on the top.” She’s exactly right.

It was indeed a Proud Mom Moment.

[UPDATE: See this post for a quick primer on Civil War tombstones.]

The Kidneys and Their Stones

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Catharine and Jacob Kidney tombstones

Catharine and Jacob Kidney stones, Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus. Photo by Amy Johnson Crow, 12 Oct 2013.

It was probably impolite of me, but when I saw these tombstones at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, I giggled. (Quietly, of course. I was in a cemetery, after all.) When I saw them, it occurred to me what these are: the Kidney stones. :-)

You might have already seen this on the NSTS Facebook page, where I shared it for a Saturday evening chuckle. (Apologies to any Kidney descendants.) But I couldn’t let Jacob and Catharine just stay names on their tombstones.

Jacob and Catharine were born in New Jersey. They were in Franklin County, Ohio, living the 1st ward of Columbus by 1840. They were still there in 1850. Jacob listed his occupation as “carpenter,” though he was 82 years old. Their census entry has an usual note: “Married 60 years.”

Jacob Kidney household, 1850 U.S. census, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, p. 393B.

Jacob Kidney household, 1850 U.S. census, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, p. 393B.

There is some ambiguity about where Jacob was originally buried. Unlike Catharine, there is no burial record for Jacob at Green Lawn Cemetery. Donald Schlagel, noted Columbus historian, theorizes that many of those without burial cards at Green Lawn were originally buried in one of the Columbus city cemeteries and then reinterred at Green Lawn when the city cemeteries were closed. (It’s also possible that if Jacob was originally interred at one of the city cemeteries, he was never actually reinterred…  I’ll let you do the math on that one.)

Catharine’s father’s name was Henry Jacob, per her cemetery record.

Jacob’s will, written in 1843 and probated in 1854, lists the following:

  • wife Catherine
  • son John
  • daughter Ann Maria’s heirs
  • daughter Rachel, wife of Joseph Styler
  • daughter Sarah, wife of Asher Jacobs
  • daughter Esther, wife of Andrew Little
  • son Henry

I don’t know what other stories Jacob and Catharine have. But I do know that they gave me a story about the time I found “Kidney stones” in the cemetery.

References:

  • “Abstracts of Wills, Franklin County, Ohio” in Ohio Source Records From the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly. Baltimore: Clearfield, 2007. (Found on Google Books.)
  • Catherine Kidney burial record. Green Lawn Cemetery Burials, Columbus, Ohio, 1848 to 1981. Letter K.
  • Jacob Kidney household. 1840 U.S. census. 1st ward, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. Page 1.
  • Jacob Kidney household. 1850 U.S. census. 1st ward, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. Page 353B.
  • Schlegel, Donald M. The City of Columbus Cemeteries. Columbus: Columbus History Service, 1985. (Found on GenealogyBug.net.) [Jacob Kidney’s entry is on page 129.]

A Young Soldier’s Death, But Not From a Bullet

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Anthony Joseph Caito

Anthony Joseph Caito, photoceramic on his tombstone, Mount Calvary Cemetery, Columbus.

Anthony Joseph Caito was the son of Gatano/Gaemtino and Mary Caito. He enlisted to fight in World War I in July 1918. By October of that year, he was dead. He was just 23 years old.

Anthony (or Tony, as he was called in the 1900 and 1910 census) reported for basic training at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio. Camp Sherman opened in September 1918 in response to the rapidly-growing need to train Army recruits. The camp was the third-largest in the country and had more than 1,300 buildings, including barracks, a hospital, and a library. The Ohio Historical Society refers to it as “a small city.” Indeed, Camp Sherman nearly quadrupled the population of Chillicothe.

Tony arrived in Camp Sherman in the summer of 1918. Something else arrived at camp shortly after that: the Spanish influenza. The flu swept through the camp. Eventually, Camp Sherman was quarantined to prevent the illness from spreading further into Chillicothe.

Almost 1,200 men in Camp Sherman died from the flu. Anthony Joseph Caito was one them. He died 11 October 1918 and was laid to rest in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Columbus.

Anthony Caito tombstone, Mount Calvary Cemetery, Columbus. Photo by Amy Crow.

Anthony Caito tombstone, Mount Calvary Cemetery, Columbus. Photo by Amy Crow.

References:

  • Caito, Anthony death certificate, #39698 (1918), viewed on FamilySearch.org.
  • Caito, Anthony Joseph, tombstone, Mount Calvary Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio. Photos by Amy Johnson Crow.
  • The Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the World War, 1917-18. Columbus, OH, USA: The F.J. Heer Printing Co., 1926, p. 2433. Viewed digital image on Ancestry.com, “Ohio Soldiers in WWI, 1917-1918.”
  • Ohio Historical Society, “Camp Sherman,” OhioHistoryCentral.org.
  • Ohio Historical Society, “Marker #7-71 Camp Sherman,” RemarkableOhio.org.