A family researching their German Township heritage recently surfaced a nearly two-century-old connection between the School District and a cemetery on Eby Road.
Valley View School District’s ownership of the Sunbury Cemetery came to light at the June German Township Trustees meeting. Trustee Jake Stubbs shared that he had received a call from the school after they were approached by a family wanting access to the cemetery.
Deeded to the School
According to Stubbs, the County located the deed, which dates back to 1836. A notation in Find a Grave said that Christopher and Catharine Emrick deeded the land to the Board of Education of German Township for $5 on November 26, 1836. The land was to be used as a burying ground. A one room school likely stood near the cemetery for a few years.
Documents on the Montgomery County Auditor website confirm the District’s ownership of the property. County auditor Karl Keith’s office did not provide further information on the situation in response to a request.
The cemetery is now mowed and maintained by German Township. Trustees said at the meeting they were unaware of the school’s ownership.
Stubbs said he had spoken to District treasurer Valorie Hill, “Valley View would like it to not be theirs, and I think it needs to be the Township’s.”
Access is available through a right-of-way, but the cemetery is behind a residential property and not easily viewed from the road.
In the Board of Trustees meeting, the Township Police agreed to help the family gain access to the cemetery. TWIN CREEK TIMES editor and publisher Holly Michael accessed the cemetery by parking down the street and walking on the grass right-of-way to the fenced-in graveyard.
“We have been approached regarding this land by a private citizen who wanted to access the land to visit family graves,” Valley View superintendent Andrea Cook said in a statement.
“We are working cooperatively with the municipality of German Township regarding the ownership of the land. The Township has agreed to escort the citizen to visit his family graves.”
“At this time, we do not have any plans for the property,” she added. “The question of ownership is being investigated by the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office.”
Under Ohio law, the county prosecuting attorney serves as the legal advisor for all township officers, boards, and commissions. Trustee Jake Stubbs said at the meeting that he had contacted Anu Sharma, assisting prosecuting attorney in the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, to review the issue.
Cemetery History
The Sunbury Cemetery is the final resting place for Revolutionary War veteran Michael Emrick, who died in 1820. See Revolutionary War Veterans in the Community
A sign at the cemetery dates it back to 1805. Many of the stones date to the 1850s, when the land had already been deeded to German Township schools.
The Find a Grave entry on war veteran Emrick includes an interesting observation about the condition of the cemetery that dates possibly to the 1940s, “At the time of writing this Emrick genealogy, the Sunbury Cemetery is in a deplorable condition. A number of years ago, pigs owned by the tenants of the adjoining old schoolhouse that was converted into a home, played havoc with the grounds, up-rooting many of the tombstones.”
At some point, possibly in the early 1950s, metal plates were added to the back of most stones in the cemetery. This has helped provide more information on those buried as the stones deteriorate and the etchings become more difficult to read.
German Township will continue to maintain the cemetery. Ohio law says the board of township trustees is legally obligated to own, protect, maintain, and regulate public cemeteries located in unincorporated areas.
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