Where the Marietta Wildermuths lie — the cemetery superintendent's reply, 1985

A page of ruled paper in a careful hand, from Donald Morrow, Superintendent of Cemeteries at Marietta, dated 5 December 1985. It is the only document in the archive that says where the Marietta Wildermuths are actually buried — and that most of them have no headstones.

“Dear Mr Wildermuth: Our records do not keep any records on the family. All they list is the person buried, age, date of burial, and location.”

What the register holds

	Age	Buried	Location
John M. Wildermuth	72 yrs, 6 mos, 16 days	9 Feb 1903	Section 11, Lot 1 — lot full
William C. Wildermuth	77	12 Sept 1943	Section C, Lot 30
Flora Wildermuth	50	23 Nov 1919	Section C, Lot 30 — beside William C.
William Wildermuth	53	14 Oct 1971	Section 32, Lot 144

Of Section C Lot 30, Morrow writes: “Just (2) on the lot, it is (2) grave lot, lot is full.” And of both lots, the same three words:

“No stones on lot.”

William Clifford and Flora — Robert Earl’s own grandparents — lie in a two-grave lot with nothing on it. His great-grandfather Johann Michael, the emigrant, lies unmarked in Section 11. Morrow adds that Johann Michael’s lot owner is Edward Wildermuth — the emigrant’s youngest son, Edward Frederick (1873–1964), who outlived his father by sixty-one years.

The age that settles an old question

The register gives Johann Michael’s age at burial as 72 years, 6 months, 16 days.

Seven years earlier, Robert Earl had written to the Washington County Probate Court about the death certificate, which recorded the dead man’s age as forty — an impossibility, since his son William was thirty-eight at the time. The cemetery register is independent of the certificate, and it agrees with a birth in 1830, not 1863. The “40” on the certificate is an error, exactly as he suspected.

(The register’s arithmetic is not perfect either: 72 years, 6 months and 16 days before the 9 February 1903 burial points to late July 1830, about a month off the Familienregister’s 23 August 1830. Cemetery clerks computed these ages by hand and roughly. The order of magnitude is what matters.)

Two small discrepancies

Morrow gives Flora’s burial as 23 November 1919 and her age as 50; the archive has 21 November and 49. She died 18 November 1919, three months after her forty-ninth birthday. Both readings are close enough to be clerical, and neither is obviously better sourced.

And a living cousin

The last paragraph is not archival at all. Morrow, who evidently knew the town, volunteers that the fourth William Wildermuth’s widow is still around:

“I know his wife Betty. Her address is Mrs. William (Betty) Wildermuth, 412 Hart Street, Marietta, Ohio 45750.”

A cemetery superintendent answering a stranger’s letter by handing over a neighbour’s address and phone number. Whether Robert Earl ever called is not in the file.

Still open: Catharina Boeshar’s burial, which Morrow does not mention — she was buried 19 October 1933, presumably at Oak Grove, but the letter answers only the names asked about. And whether the two unmarked lots have been marked in the forty years since.

Source: Donald Morrow, Superintendent of Cemeteries, Marietta, Ohio, 5 December 1985, filed by Robert Earl Wildermuth as DOC #100 / WILD-8; photographed 2026. Part of his letter campaign.