Stories Uncovered in Fairport Burial Plots
© by Elaine Lillback
"Legends of Zion's Dead", an early Fairport cemetery history was presented by John Ollila and Ann Pohto at the May meeting of the Finnish Heritage Museum. Zion Lutheran Church established and does presently care for the one and only cemetery in Fairport.
Helen Kasari, who served seventeen years on the church cemetery committee provided helpful information regarding the early saints who have marched on into eternity.
Several earlier burial sites have been found in Fairport. One was an Indian area on East Street near the St. Clair Street bridge. It's been washed away by flood waters, but another has been explored on Walnut Hill, which dated about 1858, It was the area that is now the present site of our museum. Yet another site of seventy graves was found on Eagle Street near Third Street behind the school. Many families later built their homes on that land, some using the upside down gravestones as doorsteps.
Walnut Hill, known for its many walnut trees, has always created questions regarding the ancient bones found there by the P.L.E. Dock Company workers. Were these Indian remains, or were they those of dead sailors who had died of a cholera epidemic on a ship? Hasty burial could have been accomplished by the ship ascending up the Grand River to Walnut Hill, the nearest high ground.
Ohio's second governor, Samuel Huntington was buried near the Grand River between Fairport and Painesville. His body was later moved to Painesville's Evergreen Cemetery.
Zion Lutheran Church purchased two acres of land for the cemetery on East Street for $300. The chosen place was dedicated in 1903. Simon Iisakkila pondered as he and the other men prepared the site, "Who'll be the first one to be buried here?" Of course, he wasn't aware that he, himself would be the first one to be laid in Zion's soil. James Braemer relates that the stone is obviously a replacement and was not the original stone.
Eight hundred twelve bodies have been buried there. A Finn Hollow resident, Kustaa Nevanpera, is buried in the cemetery. His historical Finn Hollow home has been honored with a placque provided by a Finlandia Foundation grant. One of the Finn Hollow children, Arvid Sironen, who died at the age of three, is buried there. His sister Hilma's burial had to occur in Evergreen Cemetery since Diamond Alkali's waste salt water was filling in the grave sites. No more burials took place until the drainage problem was controlled.
Memorial flags mark the veterans' graves each year.
Niles Oinonen, one of Fairport's veterans, yearly places flags on these plots. Once someone wondered where all the flags were disappearing. The more flags that were replaced, the more they'd disappear. A church member decided to spend a night in a wheel barrow and sleuth out the mystery. Who were the thieves that would do such a thing? Suddenly he saw signs of movement. A flag began to move along, appearing as though it was moving on its own. To his amazement, our sleuth saw a squirrel sporting the flag to "his place". There at his nest site, he was building a home for his future family. I'm sure he'd pledged his allegiance to being a faithful papa! (Story also appears in Finnish American Reporter) |
