Mt. Gilead County Seat of Morrow County, Ohio – Est. 1848

Morrow County was in the title of my last post but I didn’t really mention it.  It stands on its own even though it is right next door to Knox and a portion was part of Knox.

Morrow County was created from four other counties.  Bloomfield township was part of Knox County and is now South Bloomfield.  Morrow was established in 1848 but apparently it takes time to create a county and it was formally a county by 1849.  Where are the records?  Well the volunteer at the Morrow County Genealogical Society Library https://morrowcountygenealogy.org/ told me that the original books are still at the courthouse in Knox County.  So if you are researching ancestors from 1803 to 1848 you will need to include Knox in your Morrow County research on your list to study both counties and there records or other counties that were parents of Morrow like:  Richland, Delaware, Knox and Delaware.   I asked several times about records and whether they had been moved to the new county but it was not a clear cut answer so check the parent counties as well.

Mt. Gilead Center round-about

I visited Mt. Gilead on August 30th a Tuesday during my trip.  The center of Mt. Gilead has an obelisk in the center yet it is still a lovely town.  I found it easy to drive from Mt. Vernon up Hwy 13 and then turned left onto Hwy 95 heading west to Mt. Gilead.  Mt. Gilead is the county seat of Morrow County.  The road took me through Chesterville where I stopped at the Maple Grove Cemetery to search out a Keller Monument.  I found the Keller tombstone in the far back area to the right.  Maple Grove is huge with this very large brick entrance which you cannot miss.  They do have a map on the board at the entrance but the writing is very tiny so bring your magnifier.

Morrow County Genealogical Library Annex

After parking in the back of the Genealogical Library Annex in Mt. Gilead, I discovered that the Morrow County Genealogical Library Annex was open a bit earlier than 10 am so that was cool.  I spent a great time studying their family histories, Morrow County sources, and other county information.  There was a Sells/Lacy book that was new (not there in 2007) and I found Harriet Keller who married John Lacy in this book but not their children.  This is a very nice library with a nice collection and publications.  I found several obituaries one for Martha (Kees) Keller and another for Peter Keller.  Not all the newspapers in their collection are on microfilm.  A lot of the same publications and information is at this library that I had found for Knox so it made it nice for double checking something if I wanted. I like one stop shopping.  I tried to find the burial location of Harrison and Amarilla (Keller) Barr but they were not showing up in Crawford County information.  I did find some of their children?  More on this in a future post.

Morrow County Library Annex – next door to Main Library

After I finished up at the genealogical library I headed to Sames and Cook for lunch and had French Onion soup and homemade cherry pie which was delicious.  They are located on the main street in Mt. Gilead.  They are on Facebook so click the link on the name.  The proprietor wanted me to sign their guest book because I had come a long way.   They had the most wonderful tin ceiling.

Sames & Cook Restaurant (A little fuzzy)

Well, I got lost and headed west instead of east back to Mt. Vernon and couldn’t figure out why I was entering Marion County.  Giggle…I finally righted myself.  I seem to do that when I get tired.  I found the Rivercliff Cemetery tucked in off Center Street at the west end of town.  It is huge.  I was again looking for Keller monuments and found one this time with no writing on it.  However there were two tombstones in front of it about 3 feet or more?  This is a very big cemetery and you need a map which I found in a cemetery publication.

On the way back from Mt. Gilead I turned south on Hwy 314 in Chesterville and headed south to Hwy 229.  I wanted to take a picture of the area that was John and Mary Keller’s land and John and Lydia Spracklin’s land.  I found John Keller’s off of Hwy 194 down to the Keller Road which was unmarked but a deadend.  I might be slightly to north but it is the general area for John and Mary’s land.

John and Mary Keller’s land approximately!

John Spracklins land was more tricky.  I east and back up Cochran off Hwy 229 and about the middle before the Wayne Township sign I took several photos.  Green Valley Cemetery is in Wayne Township while John and Lydia’s land is just on the border of Liberty and Wayne townships.

Wayne Township Sign – Cochran Road

John and Lydia Spracklin’s Land – approximately!

I will share my findings for Maple Grove and Rivercliff in a future post with more photos.  I am on the trail of Keller’s trying to see if I cannot figure out who John Keller’s parents are and collecting more information.  I was told by a man doing research at the Morrow County Genealogical Society Library that finding parents in the early 1800’s in Ohio was very hard to do?  Sigh!