A virtual cemetery walk. The next best thing to being there. No worries about uneven ground, walking distances, inclement weather, or getting tired.
I did the walking so you don’t have to.
Today, a virtual walk through Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Chattanooga, Ohio.
Land was purchased for Zion’s cemetery in 1866 from Michael Burger. Zion Lutheran Church was established in 1855 and members first met in homes until a frame church was built in 1860.
The old iron fence & gate, Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Chattanooga, Mercer County, Ohio
Zion Lutheran Cemetery today (2013 photo by Karen)
Let’s take a virtual walk through Zion Lutheran cemetery and learn the stories behind some of the people interred there.
Agatha (Kirn) Heintz, Zion Chatt
Zion’s oldest known tombstone in the cemetery is that of Agatha (Kirn) Heintz (1843-1868), row 5. Agatha died of erysipelas on 2 February 1868, at the age of 24 years. She was the wife of Zion Chatt’s first full-time minister, Rev. George Heinz. She was a German immigrant and left behind her husband and two young sons, aged 1½ years and 5 months. Her widowed husband later married Maria Elisabeth Germann from Van Wert County in 1869.
Rev. Karl Adam (1823-1889)
Rev. Karl Christian Konrad Adam Jr, (1823-1889), row 6, was Zion Chatt’s sixth minister. He was born in Swabia, graduated from Capital University, and was ordained to preach in 1850. Rev. Adam ministered at several parishes before serving at Zion Chatt from 1883-1889, where he died at age 66. He was married to Wilhelmine Philippine Rieger.
Eliza (Bobo) Edgington (2015 photo by Karen)
Eliza (Bobo) Edgington (c1848-c1877), row 1, was the wife of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edgington (1849-1930), a Chatt physician from about 1876-79. Dr. Edgerton, his wife Eliza, and their two young daughters Carrie Wren and Nettie D. lived in Chatt when Eliza took ill and died at age 30.
Carrie W. Friedell (2011 photo by Karen)
Carrie Wren (Edgington) Eichorn Friedell (1873-1965), row 1, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Edgington and wife Eliza (Bobo), is buried next to her mother Eliza.
John F. Bahn Jr, adopted son of Henry Trisel (2011 photo by Karen)
John F Bahn Jr (1865-1876), row 3, was the son of John F. Bahn Sr and Elizabeth Feldman, both German immigrants. John Jr. was born less than a month before his father was killed when a boiler exploded on the steamer Sultana in April 1865. John Sr had been released from Cahaba Confederate prison and was returning home on the overcrowded steamer. He perished with over 1200 other men. John Sr’s widow Elizabeth married Henry Trisel in Cincinnati in 1865. Henry was also a German immigrant and he became the legal guardian of John Bahn Jr. The Trisel family moved to the Chatt area about 1869, where John Bahn Jr died of typhoid fever on 9 Sep 1876, aged 11 years.
John F. Merkle (2011 photo by Karen)
John F. Merkle (1870-1895), row 7, son of Joseph & Lucinda (Kantner) Merkle, was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. John, age 25, drowned in Chicago’s Calumet River on 27 July 1895 when he was out sailing alone and his sailboat capsized.
Christian Miller (1880-1911)
Christian Miller (1880-1911), row 7, son of Jacob Miller and Margaretha Strabel/Strobel. Christian and his half-brother Jacob Miller Jr went West about 1906 to find work in the oil fields. He worked in Oregon, California, Oklahoma, and Texas and died of typhoid fever in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1911 at age 31.
Jacob Miller Jr (1886-1913)
Jacob Miller Jr (1886-1913), row 7, son of Jacob Miller and Christena Rueck. Jacob Jr left home with his half-brother Christian in about 1906 to work in the western oil fields. He worked in Oregon, California, Texas, and Oklahoma. In 1913 he left California and arrived in Drumright, Oklahoma, six days before he was killed by falling timber from an oil derrick following an explosion of shale gas. He was age 27.
Henry R. & Mary A. (Menche) Baker (2011 photo by Karen)
Zion’s south window, given in honor of Henry and Mary Baker. (2011 photo by Karen)
Henry & Mary (Menche) Baker, row 1. Henry (1851-1914), born in Piqua, Ohio, married Mary Menche (1856-1915) in 1874 and they lived in Black Creek Township. Zion’s south stained-glass window was given in memory of Henry and Mary Baker by their children. Henry and Mary passed away a couple years before the current church was built in 1916.
Andrew M. & Elisabeth Kallenberger
West Window, Zion Lutheran Church, Chattanooga
West Window, Zion Lutheran Church
Andrew & Elisabeth (Burkhart) Kallenberger, row 1. Andrew (1830-1914), born in Germany, married Elisabeth Burkhart (1841-1935) in 1870. She was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Zion’s west stained-glass window was donated in memory of Andrew and Elisabeth Kallenberger. Andrew’s first wife was Margaretha Kessler (1842-1868).
Edward J Kuehm & Harriet I (2014 photo by Karen)
Edward J. Kuehm (1892-1922), row 1, son of Jacob and Julia (Berron) Kuehm. Edward’s father died when he was seven years old and his widowed mother married William Betzel in 1901. Edward Served as a PVT in CO. A, 308th Ammunition Train, US Army, during WWI. Edward married Harriet Frey (1900-1968) in 1919 and they moved to Oklahoma, where Edward worked as a tool dresser in the oil fields. He drowned in an oil tank in Yale, Oklahoma, on 27 October 1922, when the tank deck gave away as he was walking across it. He was 29 years of age. He left behind his widow and a two-year-old daughter. A son, Edward Jr, was born a few months after Edward Sr’s death.
Albert & Ethel Heffner (2011 photo by Karen)
Albert Heffner’s military marker (2011 photo by Karen)
Albert C. Heffner (1888-1945), row 9, was born in Chatt, the son of Fredrick and Anna (Merkle) Heffner. Albert served in the 1st, 64th, 66th, and 52nd Balloon Companies during WWI and held the ranks of corporal and sergeant. He was a piano dealer/music salesman in Celina before and after the war. Albert married Ethel Olson about 1920 and they moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he was a salesman and where died.
It matters to most of us that we are not entirely forgotten when we die, but that our names are still spoken and we are remembered.
