52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 44

Since we just celebrated Halloween, this week’s writing prompt is Frightening. Though we just had a television show with ghosts filmed in our house, we have not experienced any paranormal activity here nor have I heard of any ghost stories in the family. I did have a creepy experience in a cemetery when I was young though.

Price Hill United Jewish Cemetery

My Grandma and Grandpa Crusham lived on the north end of Rosemont Avenue in Cincinnati. The area was known as West Price Hill. Not too far past my Uncle Charlie’s house, which was easy walking distance from my grandparent’s home, was the entrance to Price Hill United Jewish Cemetery. Going through the cemetery was a short-cut to Rapid Run Park. As there was not much to do at Grandma’s, my brother, cousins and I would head to the park to play.

One day we stayed a little too long at the park, and it grew dark. As we were walking through the cemetery, one of my cousins began telling ghost stories. All of a sudden we heard a strange noise, and it wasn’t coming from any of us. Tha-wunk, tha-wunk, tha-wunk! What in the world could it be?

We began to walk faster, but it seemed we were heading towards the noise and not away from it. Our imaginations ran wild as we envisioned grave robbers opening a crypt, or murderers digging into the ground to dispose of a body. We began to run.

As we rounded a corner we came upon several boys approaching us. One of them was using a baseball bat like a walking stick. Tha-wunk, tha-wunk, tha-wunk! We laughed nervously as we passed them, and made fun of each other for being scared in the first place. But after that we made sure we were always on the way back to grandma’s house way before it got dark.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 17

Kubler family stone

With the writing prompt being Cemetery this week, I immediately thought of the cemetery plot that has me the most puzzled. My second great-grandfather, Vinzenz Josef Kubler, died 19 September 1886 and is buried in the Connersville, Indiana cemetery aptly named City Cemetery. When I went to Connersville many years ago to research that branch of my Kubler family, I headed first to the local library.

It was there that I found a newspaper article describing the death of Joseph Kubler, which is the name he went by in America. He died in the St. Gabriel's Catholic Church following Mass one Sunday morning at the age of 38. The librarian indicated that most residents of the town who died during that time period were buried in the City Cemetery. Unfortunately (at least at that time) no records existed to show where he was buried within the cemetery.

Alfred Kubler

After driving through the cemetery I did locate the tombstone for Joseph. It is to date the largest monument of any of my ancestors. On one side of the stone was listed Joseph V. Kubler, along with his death date and how old he was at the time of his death. On the other side was Alfred, son of J.V. & J. Kubler along with his death date of 3 October 1885 and the fact that he was 8 when he died. That is clear enough, but there are four other small stones on the plot: Father, Mother, Alfred, and Henry.

Alfred and Henry (my great-grandfather) were both sons of Joseph and Josephine Kubler. Initially I thought Father and Mother referred to Joseph and Josephine. However, I later discovered that Josephine remarried after Joseph died, and again following the death of her second husband. I would imagine that she was buried with her third husband and not her first husband.

It is possible that they refer to Joseph’s mother and father, though the last records I have found for them are located in Cincinnati, and some of Joseph’s brothers had remained in Cincinnati as well. It would make sense that they would have their parents buried in Cincinnati.

Unfortunately, City Cemetery does not have records that indicate who might be buried beneath those small stones. The other occupants of the Kubler plot remain a mystery for now.

smaller Kubler stones