Two Newspapers, Two Cemeteries and Two Cousins

Grave marker of Cornelius and Mary Sexton, St. Patrick's Cemetery, London, Ohio (see more detail below)

 visited Ohio a few days in advance of the Ohio Genealogical Society conference and was lovingly welcomed.  One branch of my husband’s ancestors first settled in London, Ohio.  Hoping to do some research, I contacted the Madison County Genealogical Society (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohmadiso/), and even though they’re closed on Mondays, Grace Yerian was kind enough to meet me there, and spend half a day with me!  She pulled out all sorts of resources – city directories, county histories, newspaper indexes and more.  I was in hog heaven! 

I had a chance to read the two local newspapers on microfilm and finally learn the fate of Patrick Roddy.  Seven years ago in a digitized paper I spied “Fatally Carved,” (dateline South Charleston, O., Aug 25, 1896) an article in the Xenia Daily Gazette and Torchlight.  Seems “Patrick Roddy, a noted tough of this place, and Harry Crampton a tough character of Selma, quarreled in front of James Mooney’s saloon… Hot words were passed between the two, when Roddy struck Crampton with his fist, whereupon Crampton drew a large knife and slashed Roddy three times, one cut nearly severing the jugular vein, another nearly disemblweling him, and the third making a terrible gash in his arm.  Roddy lies in a very precarious condition.”[1]  But I couldn’t find the next edition of the paper on line.  Seven years of wondering, did Roddy die?!!!!   And yesterday I got my answer in the,,, not online, not digitized!... Madison County Democrat – “Paddy Roddy who was so badly carved up by Crampton of Selma, a few nights ago, and who was believed to be fatally hurt at the time, is, we are glad to say, in a fair way to recover.  May this prove a lasting lesson to Paddy.” [2]  I’m glad for Paddy, but my job as a genealogist might be a bit easier if he had died, however, because nothing I have yet seen tells me who this Paddy is.  I’ve got a suspicion but it will take a bit more digging to confirm.  I’ll keep you posted.

The best part of my visit with Grace Yerian, however, was discovering that her husband (God rest his soul) and I are cousins!  His 3rd great grandfather and my 4th great grandmother were siblings!  I haven’t researched that line enough before to find that my Anna Dorthea had any siblings.  I didn’t come to Ohio to research the Yearyan clan, but I’m leaving with some “bonus” research!  Score!

I left the genealogy society and headed for St. Patrick’s church in London where Mark’s great-great grandparents, Bartley Roddy and Alice Barrett were married in 1869.[3]  They’ve got a nice little historical museum in a loft above the sacristy.  I made it to the parish office just before they were ready to close the doors and the administrative assistant there gave me directions to the cemetery but they had no take-away map, only some cut-out pieces of paper in a case.  I took a picture of one section of it with my phone, but geographic orientation was sorely lacking and I was pretty lost once I got in the cemetery.  I did know I was looking for old stones, so at least that helped.  I looked for the stone for Patrick Roddy, who I believe might be Bartley’s cousin, but it was so worn as to be unreadable.  Luckily, I stumbled upon one important stone, not on my sketchy cell-phone picture and it was in great shape.  I found the gravestone of Cornelius and Mary Londergan Sexton, Mark’s 3rd great grandparents.   Many years ago when we lived in Ireland, I dragged my kids to the cemetery in Powerstown in County Tipperary on an ultimately unsuccessful search for the grave of Cornelius’ father.
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If one cemetery’s good, two must be better and I got a chance to stop at St. Charles Borromeo cemetery in South Charleston to pick up a few more ancestral graves of Bartley and Alice as well as Edward Patrick Roddy and Josephine Corrigan Roddy, Mark’s great grandparents.

I rounded out the day with a lovely dinner with Rita Tobias, a first cousin to Mark’s grandfather, Jack Roddy.  Though Rita’s dad, Frank Corrigan, and Jack’s mom, Josephine Corrigan Roddy were siblings, Rita is only six months older than Jack’s son, David (Mark’s dad.)  Talk about a looong generation there.   Rita told me some interesting bits about Jack.  David’s parents were married for about two seconds and he never knew any of his Roddy relatives.  It’s really tragic to think of the relationships that were missed in that family.  But I’m glad to be able to make some connections and bag some live ones on that branch of the family tree.
 
[1] Xenia Daily Gazette and Torchlight, 26 Aug 1891, page 1
[2] Madison County Democrat, 2 Sep 1891, page 8
[3] "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDLG-Q6D : accessed 27 April 2016), Bartley Roddy and Alice Barrett, 23 Jan 1869; citing Madison, Ohio, United States, reference p 9; county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 545,133.

Grave marker of Cornelius and Mary Sexton, St Patrick's Cemetery, London, Ohio