Historic Evergreen Cemetery in Johnston, Ohio, honors early settlers, Scottish immigrants, and War of 1812 veterans.

Established in 1802, the oldest portion of Johnston’s Evergreen Cemetery holds many wonderful brownstone markers, some carved by documented hands, others not/ (Photo by the author)

A lush green mound, topped with rows of disorderly gravestones and perched along the trickling waters of Berry Creek, Evergreen Cemetery dates back to 1802, when it was set aside, though not officially deeded to Johnston Township. Four years later, the cemetery was first used following the death of an infant child belonging to Erastus Carter in 1806, whose name has been lost to time.

A native of Warren, Connecticut, Carter had accompanied David Hine Jr. and his family to Johnston, and it was Hine who dug the grave for the infant, making the child the first resident of the pioneer burying ground. Around 1830, a contingent of Protestant Irish emigrants settled in the northwest portion of Johnston along what is now Irishtown-Southworth Road, followed about twenty years later by their Scottish brethren, the first of whom was Robert Hamilton. Hamilton was murdered by his daughter and buried in a portion of Evergreen called “Little Scotland.” Active as a cemetery until the 1950s, Evergreen is now closed to interments, with its earliest monuments standing vigil over Johnston’s first residents.

James Bradley: Johnston’s First Settler

A low, brownstone marker carved by Obed King of nearby Vernon, James Bradley’s headstone explicitly identifies him as “the first inhabitant of this town.” (Photo by the author)

The son of Ariel and Amy (Thompson) Bradley, James Bradley was born on June 17, 1756, in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut. In 1780, he enlisted as a corporal, guarding the town of Milford before transferring to Seldon Butler’s Company, where he served as a sergeant for a 130-day term in 1781. On June 7, 1803, James, then “not far from 50 years of age,” left his native Connecticut with his wife, Asenath, and their three sons: Thaddeus Moore, Ariel, and Bird, who was named after his mother’s maiden name.

For six weeks, the Bradley family traveled nearly six hundred miles before reaching Canfield, in present-day Mahoning County, where they stayed at the farm of Philo Beardsley before continuing about 30 miles to Johnston Township. Like their earlier travels, this journey was marked by blazed trees and sparse bridle paths, often requiring them to cut brush so wagons could pass. After several days, the family arrived at a small opening west of the township center, where they began a new life in Johnston.

At that time, their nearest neighbors were a few families in Bazetta, Warren, Vienna, and Kinsman. The Bradleys remained near the center only briefly before relocating to western Johnston Township, where James lived for the next fourteen years until his death on March 3, 1817, at age 62. He was buried in the township cemetery beneath a simple, low brownstone marker carved by local stonecarver Obed King of neighboring Vernon Township, which identifies him as “the first inhabitant of this town.”

Lyman Webb: Graveyard Poetry

Carved by an unknown hand, the headstone of War of 1812 veteran Lyman Webb is notable for not only bearing traits of work done by Obed King and Elijah Sikes, two local stone carvers, but a verse from Alexander Pope’s 1717 poem ““Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady” (Photo by the author)

A native of Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, Lyman Webb was born in 1786, the third of five children of David and Sarah (Davenport) Webb. In 1806, the family relocated to Johnston, where his father, David, worked as a clothier. Following General Hull’s surrender to the British at Detroit on August 16, 1812, Lyman, then 26 years old, enlisted with Capt. Ebenezer Harmon’s Company is based in nearby Aurora, Portage County. From August 22 to October 12, 1812, Harmon’s men did not march to Northwest Ohio like other local regiments, but instead remained at home to defend Aurora from possible British incursions or allied Native raids. Given his service, Lyman likely lived briefly in Aurora before returning to Johnston by October 1813, when he married Sylvia Tanner, a native of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. The couple had four children, born between 1816 and 1824.

The verse from Alexander Pope’s 1717 poem is inscribed upon Lyman Webb’s headstone. It is almost certain that Lyman Webb did not meet the same fate as the Unfortunate Lady in Pope’s poem, but rather the verse was selected for its sentimental prose. (Photo by the author)

On September 17, 1830, Lyman Webb passed away at just 44 years old and was buried in the township burying ground. His gravestone, a brownstone marker now leaning with age, appears to be the work of a mystery carver whose craftsmanship seems to be found only in cemeteries in Johnston and Gustavus Townships. This unidentified artisan was clearly familiar with the work of local carvers: the general shape of the stone, with its willow and urn motif, resembles markers carved by Elijah Sikes of Brookfield Township, while the typography is more characteristic of Obed King of nearby Vernon. The epitaph, which reads, “How lov’d, how honour’d once, avails thee not / To whom related, or by whom begot / A heap of dust alone remains of thee / ’Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be,” is taken from English poet Alexander Pope’s 1717 poem Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, a work that centers on a woman who dies by suicide after “loving too well.”

Robert Hamilton: An Untimely Death

The marble gravestone of Robert Hamilton, the patriarch of the first Scottish family in Johnston Township, who was unfortunately murdered by his daughter Grace in 1858. (Photo by the author)

A Scotsman by birth, Robert Hamilton was born in Rutherglen, just outside of Glasgow, on April 22, 1787, the son of Robert Hamilton and Janet Brown. In 1819, he married Catherine Lindsey of Stonehouse, Lanarkshire, about 20 miles to the southeast. Their union produced ten children between 1820 and 1841. In 1842, the family left their homeland for Liverpool, England, where they boarded the ship Columbus bound for New York, arriving on August 18. They soon proceeded to Johnston Township, where, according to H.Z. Williams’ History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (1882), the Hamiltons “were the first family from Scotland” to settle in the township. A large household of twelve, including both parents, by the mid-1850s only Robert and Catherine remained at home in Johnston, cared for by their third-eldest daughter, Catherine Grace, commonly known as Grace.

In 1856, Grace Hamilton, then 20 years old, began to show signs of “derangement.” In 1857, she was admitted to the newly opened Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum in Newburgh, a suburb of Cleveland. At the request of her elderly parents, she was released and returned home in May 1858. Six months later, on the morning of October 11, “at about three or four o’clock,” Grace went downstairs to her parents’ room and asked for a candle. After receiving one, she went to the kitchen, retrieved an axe, and returned to the bedroom, declaring that her parents were “bad people.” She then struck her father, Robert Hamilton, age 71, with “five or six blows…on his head, neck and breast,” killing him instantly. Her mother, ten years younger, leapt from the bed and grappled with Grace. After a half-hour struggle, she wrested the axe from her daughter, fled the house, and ran to a neighbor for help.

That afternoon, Grace was taken to Warren and confined in the Trumbull County Jail. The next day, she was returned to Newburgh under the care of Sheriff Lyman and his wife. A coroner’s inquest was held at the Hamilton home, but no record of the verdict has ever been found. Whether Grace was ever formally tried for the crime is unknown. She died in 1867 at the Trumbull County Infirmary in Champion, nine years after the murder. Robert Hamilton was buried in the “Little Scotland” section of Evergreen Cemetery beneath a marble headstone that bears no mention of the tragic circumstances of his death.

DISCLAIMER:

To preserve the headstones on this tour for the generations to come, please refrain from making grave rubbings or any other physical contact with headstones, including touching, leaning, or resting. Not only can these actions damage the stones, but destabilize them. As with any cemetery, be respectful to those who rest here and appropriately conduct yourself. Photography is welcomed, and encouraged: “take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.”