This roadside graveyard in Chester Township is probably the oldest in Geauga County, with burials dating back to at least 1811.  Old Settlement Cemetery contains the graves of Northeast Ohio's earliest settlers, who traveled here from Connecticut following the Revolutionary War. 

 

 

The existing tombstones planted along this burial hill represent no more than half of the people who are actually buried here. 

 

 
Mayfield Road abruptly cuts through this burial ground.  It is believed that many gravesites  are located on and around the nursery and private property across the street.  

In October 1983, several tombstones mysteriously turned up missing and were never recovered.

 

 

At right, the graves of Justice Miner and his wife, Mabel Plumb.  Justice Miner was a Revolutionary War veteran who served at West Point.  Mabel died shortly after they settled here, in 1811.  She was 50 years old.  Justice died in 1859, at the ripe old age of 88.

 

Many tombstones lie piled around a tree near the rear of the cemetery.

 

On top of this heap of discarded tombstones, we found this sandstone marker for an infant (name unknown) with this loving inscription:

Gently rest thou precious darling.  Sweetly sleep thou precious one.  The Master now hast called thee.  Thy work on earth is done.

 

Below, the graves of Alice and Antoinette Johnson (2nd row back, one marker disintegrated), sisters, who both died in July 1843 at the young ages of three and four respectively; Sabrina Pratt (front row, left), who died in 1862 at the age of 33; and Lydia Ann Spencer (black marker, front row, right), who passed in 1867 at the age of 50.

 

 

Crumbled tombstones of the Wright family.  Major and his wife, Aurilla, both died in 1844, within 6 weeks of each other.  Their daughter, Caroline, died in 1813, at the age of 18.

 

Below, the well-preserved sandstone marker for James and Nancy Gillmore.  James died in 1825 at the age of 79.  Nancy passed in 1833 at the age of 77.

 

 

Leaning against this tree trunk is the ornate marker for Samantha Gillmore. She was the young wife of Reuben, son of James and Nancy (above).

Samantha died at the young age of 22 in 1824.   Her inscription (probably written by her grieving husband) reads:

Death, like an overflowing stream, sweeps away our life, a dream. An empty fate, a morning flower, cut down and withered in (an) hour.