Bellevue's (Ohio) Sinkholes

Bellevue, Ohio

 

The City of Bellevue, a large part of Thompson Township in Seneca County, most of York Township of Sandusky County and the south-west part of Groton Township in Erie County have no other drainage than sinkholes. The whole district has an underlying strata of carboniferous limestone. Seneca Caverns in Thompson Township have been a show place for years. Some of the sinkholes are natural, others artificial, being constructed by drilling and testing until a crevice or fracture capable of taking a sufficient quantity of water to be useful is found. 

Some of the sinkholes are connected underground. Tests have been made to determine whether the Kinney sinks have any connection with the underground river emerging from the Blue Hole at Castalia which tended to prove they did not. Sinkholes in the lower areas have been known to spout water during flood times, which could only have been caused by pressure through connected fractures from higher land. The lowest land not provided with surface drainage in Groton and York townships was the last to drain. Water from the June flood laid in certain low areas until October. If the water from the region south of Bellevue can be taken care of by surface drainage facilities much of the trouble existing in the low lying sinkholes area around Bellevue will be eliminated.

[Excerpted from a report by Myron T. Jones, engineer and attorney, published in the Bellevue Gazette, April 1, 1938.]

This article about Bellevue's Sinkholes appeared on the Sandusky County Scrapbook website which no longer exists.  The site was a local history cooperative effort of the Sandusky County (Ohio) Libraries. 

Oakwood Cemetery, Sandusky County, Fremont, Ohio

 

Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont, Ohio

Courtesy Find a Grave

Oakwood Cemetery was established in 1858 when James Vallette from Ballville Township sold twenty-six acres of beautiful oak woods to the newly formed cemetery association.  The location met the needs of the growing city of Fremont, Ohio and its surrounding area. Oakwood Cemetery was located two miles from the center of Fremont on the road to Tiffin along the Sandusky River.  The first recorded burial at the cemetery was Benjamin Munson on October 6, 1860.  Since that date more than 25,000 burials have been recorded. The cemetery has expanded as needed over the years.  Records can be viewed at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museums.

Oakwood Cemetery,  GAR Circle

Courtesy of Find a Grave

The Hayes Circle is located at the main entrance of the cemetery where sons and one daughter of President Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes are buried.  Webb Cook, and his wife,  Mary Miller Hayes are buried at Spiegel Grove near the burial site of the President and First Lady who were reinterred in 1915 by second son Webb Cook Hayes.

Oakwood Cemetery,  1915

For the complete story of the removal of the bodies of President Rutherford Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes, please read the earlier Ohio's Yesterdays blog post (January 1918) by Meghan Wonderly-Kolbe, Annual Giving and Membership Coordinator at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums.