Brecksville Bicentennial Cemetery Tour Multi-Cache
RexC: This has had a nice run. Time for new caches.
Brecksville Bicentennial Cemetery Tour
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(regular)
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This cache will take you on a driving and walking tour of four burial sites in Brecksville. The cache is designed to showcase some of the early settlers and share some of the history of Brecksville in honor of the city’s Bicentennial. You will also visit the graves of 3 revolutionary war veterans. Please be considerate of all residents and neighbors while doing this cache. ABSOLUTELY NO NIGHT CACHING at any portion of this cache.
Our tour starts at the Riverview Road Cemetery at the coordinates listed above. You may park in the cemetery and turn around carefully in the back. When Brecksville school kids are in 3rd grade they learn the story of Granny Timons. Granny Timons came to Brecksville in 1812 with Andrew Dillow. Andrew’s family was killed in an Indian massacre when he was a boy and he was taken in by Mary Timons. Our family is glad she did as Andrew is our ancestor and the reason our family still lives in Brecksville. The above coordinates take you to the large stone which has information on Andrew Dillow and Mary Timons. In fact Granny Timons gave the city this land for use as a cemetery. When Andrew came to town he also brought along his wife and father in law Richard Farrar who was a revolutionary war veteran. His plaque is on the rear of this stone and you will use his information to get to your next stop. Add the last 2 digits of the year of Richard Farrars birth to 41.18.450 and add the last 2 digits of his death to 81.37.570.
Your second stop is at a single grave just north of the Squire Rich Museum on Brecksville Rd. Parking is available 200’ south of the monument at the museum. Benjamin Waite was another revolutionary war veteran who settled in Brecksville. Benjamin Waite served in two regiments in Massachusetts and New York during the Revolutionary War. He brought his family to settle in Brecksville in 1813 and built a log cabin in what is now the Metroparks area for his family. You will meet some more of his family in a little while. There is only the date of death on Benjamin Waite’s gravestone so we will use this for both coordinates. Add the last 3 digits of the year to 41.17.166 and add the last 2 digits to 81.39.346. These coordinates will take you to another cemetery in Brecksville.
Our third stop is at the Rice Cemetery on Barr Rd. Parking is available on a gravel strip on the east side of the road. Here you will find many older families including the Rice, Wilcox and Oaks families. Josiah Wilcox served in the Continental army in the Lake Champlain and Saratoga areas. He moved to Brecksville with his 3 sons in 1816. A Children of the American Revolution group researched and located his grave in 1991 and had this veteran marker placed. Of course Josiah Wilcox will help us get to our last driving stop. Add the last 2 digits of his year of birth to 41.19.153 and the last 2 digits of his year of death to 81.38.024.
Our last stop is the Brecksville Cemetery on Highland Drive. This is the largest cemetery in town and will include two graves plus the final cache. I would suggest parking next to the old stone mausoleum in the center of the cemetery. All of the stages here are an easy walk from this spot. Your first stop here is at the Lemuel Bourn grave. Lemuel and his wife Delia arrived in Brecksville in 1813 with Delia’s father Benjamin Waite. Lemuel had built a cabin in Brecksville the year before. Upon arriving his wife Delia ran ahead to see her new home and found a rattlesnake on the front stoop. Rather than wait for her husband she killed it herself. For our math let’s change things up a bit here. Subtract the last two digits of the year of birth from 41.19.302 and Subtract the last two digits of the year of death from 81.38.089. Take a short walk to the family plot for the most famous name in town.
Colonel John Breck purchased the land and named the town but never lived here. His 3 sons came to the town in the 1820’s. His descendants John and Theodore are listed on this stone. Theodore Breck practiced medicine in the family house which still stands on the west side of the town square. One of the people who work in that building is a descendant of the Bourn and Waite families we just visited. One more bit of math and you are ready for the final. Let’s use Dr. Theodore Breck for this addition. Add the last 2 digits of his year of birth to 41.19.131 and add the last 2 digits of his year of death to 81.37.926.
The cache is a short walk in the cemetery, on the way you will pass the rest of the Dillow family including my grandparents. The cache is a regular sized container with some cammo tape. Lots of fun swag including a set of unactivated travel bug tags and some Bicentennial magnets plus a couple of our recent path tags. No need to bushwhack but kneeling down may help.
Thank you for taking the time to do this cache. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit of the history of the early settlers of Brecksville.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tebhaq yriry nccebnpu sebz gur tenff fvqr naq xarry qbja.
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