09/03/2026
UNEARTH YOUR STORY! (a long, but exciting post)!
If you follow this page, you already know that a few Historical Society members have been cleaning tombstones at the Morrow-Bobbitt Cemetery, with fantastic results! (See first photo).
In the course of this project, one of our members, Connie, found a tiny bit of stone protruding out from the ground. Thinking it was part of a footstone, she continued to clear around it to free it of dirt, and discovered that it was instead a full headstone that had fallen flat and was completely concealed underground except for that tiny bit.
The inscription on the stone was difficult to make out, but one part was clear. Imagine her surprise and excitement when she saw her own maiden name on the stone!
She checked the McBride Cemetery book. If you don't know this book, it has become essential in research for local history and genealogy for Highland County. According to the book, there was no one with that last name buried in that cemetery. The McBride book was compiled in the 1950s by a husband and wife who went to every cemetery they could find in Highland County and noted and transcribed every grave. Did this stone's absence from the book mean that the stone had been underground for perhaps well over 70 years? And what did the inscription say? The last name was clear, but the first name, the date of death, and the age of the person were all partially obscured. There was no date of birth at all.
Some of our members also attend the Genealogy Club at the Lynchburg Library on Tuesdays at 2:30pm. Connie and three others were in attendance when a discussion of the rediscovered stone led to the idea: Why not have a field trip to Morrow-Bobbitt Cemetery? And why not take air-dry clay, left over from the library's Unearth Your Story summer reading club, and use it to read what the lost tombstone said?!! So that is what we did!
It was tremendously exciting when the air-dry clay was carefully lifted from where it had been pressed into the engraved stone! The clay showed the name, date of death, and age at death of a very young child. The stone also bore a verse of scripture: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
Another check of the cemetery book showed that the McBrides had indeed included a transcription for this stone, but during the book's compilation, the stone had erroneously been listed as part of the Henderson Cemetery, and not Morrow-Bobbitt. Since then, the stone had been lost underground--but not forever, as it turns out!
What an amazing thing to be part of: the rediscovery of a young child whose life may have been completely forgotten, had it not been for the dedicated work of people who cared about preserving history and tracing the family.
This is what both the Historical Society and the Genealogy Club are all about: Unearthing your meaningful stories! And just think! You can be part of that, right here in Lynchburg, Ohio! đź’™
Join us!
