Wednesday's Child - Niles City (Union) Cemetery

This past Memorial Day weekend, I wandered around the Niles City Cemetery (or the Union Cemetery) while my mother and grandmother planted flowers at family grave sites. I was mostly looking for family members, but I took some pictures of other headstones that interested me.

The first child is my Great Grandfather's, Harrison Davies, brother. Howard and Harrison had a sister named Harriette and their parents were Gwylim (William) and Sarah Davies. No one knows anything about him except what is on his headstone. I'm hoping that I can at least get his birth and death records.

Howard Davies 1887-1887

Margaret Lou Randall is the daughter of a great great aunt, I believe.

Margaret Lou Randall
1944

I believe that Jonathan Woodford is another distant cousin on my maternal side.


Jonathan Woodford
1870-1872

 Another child is the sister of the 25th President of the US, William McKinley, Jr.


Abagail C.
Daughter of
William & Nancy McKinley
Died Jan. 26 1846
Aged 7 mo. & 26 Dy's



This child is a mystery child. Beyond taking a rubbing (which I had no tools for) all that I could decipher is "Little Willy." As the picture below shows, his headstone is behind Abagail McKinley and her maternal grandmother, Anne Allison. I can only guess that Little Willy is a member of the McKinley family somehow.

Little Willy



Abagail McKinley, Anne Allison, & Little Willy


These next group of head stones are in the old part of the cemetery, or what's left of it. On May 31, 1985, Niles, Ohio and surrounding areas had a F5 tornado go through the city and also the cemetery. All of the large trees were destroyed or damaged severely and most of the oldest part of the cemetery was wiped out completely. As you can see in the picture above, there is an open grassy area behind the headstones. There used to be many headstones in that area. If the tornado didn't go through the cemetery, more than 9 lives would have been lost in Niles that day; possibly my grandparents who live a few blocks SE of the cemetery.

Anyways these headstones were not only visually interesting, but genetically interesting too. There are Heatons in my family tree (although I'm pretty certain I'm not related to this family). These Heatons, particularly James Heaton (the father), are the founders of Niles, Ohio. To lose 5 children in 10 years must have been devastating.

John Heaton son of James & Margaret Heaton died Apr,l 10th, 1813 in the 9th year of his age. Also James son of James & Margaret Heaton died Sep,t 12th, 1816: aged 4 hours. And Owens Heaton son of James & Margaret Heaton died Au,g 11th, 1819: in the 12th year of his age.



Hannah Heaton daughter of James & Margaret Heaton died Fe,b 2nd 1806: in the 6th year of her age. And Shelby Heaton son of James & Margaret Heaton died June 8th 1812: in the 2nd year of his age.