New Maysville Cemetery

Description of Plats

The New Maysville Cemetery is in two main parts. The old cemetery is north of Co Rd 900N in Section 26

of Jackson Township. The old cemetery was deeded as a graveyard July 15, 1860.

To my knowledge, the old cemetery has never been properly platted. If it was, the records are long gone.

To give some order to my readings, I numbered the stones individually. I started in the southwest corner

and numbered the stones going north from the road along the fence to the northwest corner. Then I moved

over one row to the east and read that row from south to north, and so forth.

The new cemetery is south of Co Rd 900N in Section 35. This original part was deeded to the New Maysville

Cemetery Company by Harriet Long, widow of Dr. William Long, May 7, 1880. This plat contains one and

one-quarter acres. The legal description of this tract indicates it contains the area starting across the public

highway south of the southeast corner of the old graveyard, running west along the highway 140 yards, then

south 43 yards, then east 140 yards, then north to the starting point.

I could find no record of when the tract south of this original tract was deeded to the New Maysville

Cemetery Company. Part of this tract was deeded by Mary E. Naylor, daughter of William and Harriet

Long, representing the heirs of William Long, on November 13, 1900, which is described as 30 feet by

30 feet south of the William Long heirs lot. The remainder of the south portion of the new cemetery was

probably deeded to the New Maysville Cemetery Company by descendant of Dr. Long about that time as well.

For convenience, I am going to refer to the original part of the new cemetery as the 1880 tract. This is the tract

deeded by Harriet Long and runs the length of the cemetery along the road, and goes south from the road

130 feet. I am going to refer to the tract south of that tract as the 1900 tract. This 1900 tract begins 130 feet

south of the road and runs south to the south fence.

You can easily see where the 1880 tract ends and the 1900 tract begins. There are two or three distinct

instances where several rows run nice and straight from the road going south to a point 130 feet from the road,

then all of a sudden jump over a few feet to the east or west before continuing on south.

The new cemetery was platted out in three separate ranges. Range 1 is east of the east driveway. Range 2

is between the two driveways. Range 3 is west of the west driveway. The middle section, or Range 2 is 158

feet from east to west, measuring from the middle of the two driveways.

The 1880 tract was apparently platted to some extent. I reviewed the cemetery deeds that have been recorded

in the County Recorder's office. I found about 20 cemetery plat deeds in the 1880 tract. Some, but not all,

of these deeds indicate the Lot, the Block and the Range. The Range is consistent with the original plat of

the 1900 tract in that Range 1 is to the east of the east drive, Range 2 is in the middle between the two drives

and Range 3 is west of the west drive. The deeds are not all consistent, but the prevalence is that the Block,

if noted, seems to generally coincide with the rows, with Block 1 being the row to the extreme east in that

Range. For instance, in the middle part of the cemetery, or Range 2, which is between the driveways, Block 1

is usually the row to farthest to the east, or just west of the east driveway, with Block 12 being the row to the

extreme west, or just east of the west driveway.

When the 1900 tract was platted, it began 130 feet south of the public highway and ran 350 ft south to the

current south fence. This tract is divided into Ranges 1, 2 and 3, as described above, with Range 1 being to

the east of the east drive, Range 2 being in the middle between the two driveways, and Range 3 being

to the west of the west drive. The 1900 tract was then platted into (I believe) eight sections. The first

section is section number 1. It begins 130 feet south of the public highway and runs south for about 52 ft.

Section 2 begins south of the end of section 1 and runs south about 52 ft and so on to the end of

Section 8 at the south fence.

As described in the chart below, each section is divided up into individual blocks. Each block is 20 feet

east to west and is divided up into individual lots. Each block is twenty feet measuring east to west and

north to south. The blocks were generally sold by the east side or the west side, each measuring twenty feet

north to south and ten feet east to west. Since many families didn't need that much space, some blocks

were sold by the four quarter sections, each measuring ten feet by ten feet.

The blocks were set in two rows so that the blocks were numbered starting in the northeast corner of that

part and running west to the northwest corner. The next number jumped south and then ran back from west

to east. The section in the middle part, between the two driveways, are numbered in ten block sections.

There is four feet between the two rows in each section, then eight feet between the two rows of blocks in

each section. This numbering system apparently began after the 1900 tract was purchased. To give some

order to 1880 tract, the same plat system was used beginning in 1900, with the Sections being denoted as

Section 0 and Section 00, with Section 00 beginning at the public highway and running south about 52 ft,

at which point Section 0 began. This section ran south from that point about 52 ft to the point Section 1

began. There is an 11 ft buffer strip between the south end of Section 0 and the north end of Section 1,

which coincides with the south end of the 1880 tract and north end of the 1900 tract.

Sections 1 through 8 were originally platted to contain a 10 foot buffer strip at the end of each 20 foot block.

Some burials have occurred in these buffer strips. Some burials have also occurred in the 11 ft buffer strip

between the 1880 tract and the 1900 tract.

I also numbered the stones in the new cemetery going down the rows from north to south

This makes a clearer correlation to the stones in relation to their place in the cemetery.

The drawback is the new cemetery is not nearly filled up. So as time goes on, this system of numbering the

stones individually will more or less fall apart. So I have essentially created two numbering schemes. One

represents the stones individually numbered, and the other correlates to the plats as they were sold and used.

Layout of Range 2:

Layout of Ranges 1 and 3:

20 Ft

4 Ft

20 Ft

8 Ft

20 Ft

10 Ft

This original plat system continued until about 1950. It is believed that the plat maps were destroyed in a fire

at that time. A variety of numbering systems have been used to plat the new cemetery since that time.

It is interesting to note that this original system was used for many of the recorded deeds after that time,

the most recent being a plat sold in 1993. Roughly half of the burial plats sold since 1950 have used this

original plat numbering system and about half have used a variety of other numbering systems.

I have come into the possession of a plat map of the new cemetery, which is consistent with the numbering

system described above. I'm not sure when this map was created, since it is not dated, but it was

professionally done and contains the names of a number of individuals who had purchased burial plats

up to that time. The names match the tombstones for those locations, and coincide with those recorded

deeds that attempted to follow the original plat system.

Note that the recorded deeds indicate the New Maysville Cemetery Company was formed

December 27, 1898.

Some of the recorded deeds that did not follow the original plat number system refer to the "New Plat

of 1964." So there was apparently a new plat numbering system made up at that time. I found it difficult

to follow this plat system using the recorded deeds. It is a shame that the cemetery company trustees

did not review the recorded deeds as I have done. It would not have been that difficult to determine the

original plat numbering system by creating a pattern using the recorded deeds. If that had been done,

the cemetery would have had only numbering systems. It appears that the cemetery has been platted

using at least two formal numbering systems, and many deeds have been sold using other legal

descriptions for the burial plats. If it were up to me, I would abandon all plat numbering systems except

the original system developed around the time the of the 1900 plat. That system had the most order

and would have worked very well had it not been abandoned. At a minimum, the trustees of the

cemetery company should be familiar with all the different numbering systems. Otherwise, someone

will show up someday with a deed purchased many years ago wanting to bury old aunt Myrtle.

If the deed was made out using the original 1900 plat numbering system, but happens to have

a description that could fit the numbers in one of the other plat numbering systems in use, then

old aunt Myrtle may end up being buried somewhere other than where she was supposed to be.