Miami Chapel Cemetery, located on River Road, is an intriguing place for historians or interested residents researching the Fairfield area's history. The quarter-acre cemetery holds markers dating from centuries past.

 History

According to Fairfield Ohio, a book written by Esther R. Benzing and published in 1978, many burials took place on individual farms in the early years. Miami Chapel Cemetery is believed to be an example of such. The land was first called Black Bottom, then Fair Play and finally carried the name of Miami Chapel after a church was built on the land around 1843.

Names of those families buried in Miami Chapel Cemetery include Duncan, Kyle, Elkins, Joyce, Cooper, Huey, Johnston, Livingston, Cameron, McGreveley, Meeker, Catterlin, Warman, Leonard and Thomas, Benzing's book notes.

Veterans at the Miami Chapel Cemetery

Joseph Catterlin, who was buried in the cemetery in 1822, was a Revolutionary War soldier. The cemetery is also the resting place of a War of 1812 soldier and four Civil War veterans.

Burials & Decorations

In Fairfield Ohio, Benzing notes the cemetery's earliest burial is thought to be in 1810 and its latest in 1941.

At one time many of the cemetery's markers were decorative, such as roses, crosses and one in the shape of a lamb for a child who drowned in the mill race nearby, Benzing states in her book.