Compiled by Donna J. Johnson
This project came about as a result of the publication of the cemeteries and burial sites in the Town of Harmony. After doing some beginning research I found that little had been published to document the burials in the Town of Clymer. Armed with assorted tools of the trade, Wayne Leamer and I set out to read all of the cemeteries in the town.
In order to organize this into a working format, each cemetery was divided into sections and letter designations were assigned. Each headstone is now identified bya letter and number – the letter identifying the section and the number representing the row number in that section. Most rows were read from the nearest driveway into the section. A map of each cemetery is included showing the section layout which was used.
In the notes area for each headstone it became necessary to come up with abbreviations to include as much information as possible. In some cases vowels were dropped to make room for additional information. This is a list that I used:
w/o -wife of sis/o -sister of
h/o -husband of bro/o d/o -daughter of
c/o -child of s/o -son of
p -parents m/o -mother of
b-born ; f/o -father of
d-died srnm asmd -surname assumed
m -married unm -unmarried
ae -age unrdble -unreadable
abt -about
So much genealogical data has been gathered by people from the Clymer area that it was decided to include this as well under the information heading. If more information was available than what would fit into the space allowed it was carried over into a seperate section created for each cemetery titled Genealogical Information on Burials.
Each cemetery has four parts in this book. The first is the map of the cemetery showing the lettered sections, the second is the headstone reading, the third is the section of additional information which would not fit into our one-line format and the fourth is a list of lot owners. In the section of headstone readings any information gathered which did not come from the stone is printed in italics. We were able to find the names of many people who were buried in the cemeteries without headstones or with stones too weathered to read. In some cases a lot number was found and inserted. In others, unfortunately, the lot location was not found and this information was then inserted into the third section of notes. The sexton of each cemetery will be able to show the location of the lots that were identified.
The sextons of each cemetery provided me with maps and lists of lot owners as well as some burial information. This publication is possible only through the knowledge and time that so many people have generously given me:
Diane Einink -Clymer Center Cemetery
Alberta Conk -Holland Cemetery
Clymer Historical Society -Village Cemetery
There is no way this publication could have been nearly as complete without the help of three very knowledgeable people -Thelma Heil, Francis TeCulver and Frank Schruis. Frank is the one who first wanted this book to be done and set about helping to introduce me to the people who could best get it accomplished. Among the three, they have provided most of the genealogical information contained wherein. It was through the generosity of Darwin Damcott that much of the information on burials with no headstones was located. He opened his office and records to me and helped provide a lot of data on town burials.
Norwood Barris is responsible for the maps contained herein. There are many hours involved in generating these maps and I am thankful that he is so easy going and didn\’t get too excited every time I called with another \”small\” change needed.
