Aurora Center Cemetery: A History of the Dead.

Today was the perfect day for a meeting of the Mantua Cemetery Walkers. It was brisk, cloudy and slightly overcast, but not too cold for a walk around the gravestones and to learn a little about the history of Aurora Ohio. The original land for the Aurora Center Cemetery was deeded May 5, 1813, from Samuel H. Ferguson to Aurora Township. I have noticed several tombstones predate this date but they may have been removed from other cemeteries and placed here once the cemetery was established in 1813. Another 1-½ acres were added in 1878/1879 and eleven Revolutionary War veterans are buried here.

Some notable people from Aurora are:

Samuel Taylor (1768-1813) was a drummer boy in the Revolutionary War and George Washington signed his discharge papers.

Dr. John Hatch who served in the War of 1812, and died in 1842 at age fifth-three of "apoplexy occasioned by the fracture of his thigh being thrown from his cutter" (horse).

Paul H. Pearson (1910-1927) who died after being hit on the head by a golf club. The child's father Rev. David Pearson explained that a friend accidentally hit Paul, and though x-rays taken at the hospital revealed no fracture, Paul did not recover.

Judge Samuel Forward and his wife arrived in Aurora in 1803 from Connecticut with their seven children. Four years later the judge was appointed overseer of the poor because of his "strongly sympathetic nature and old fashioned community heart".

Samuel (d. 1813) and Hannah (d. 1822) Baldwin. Samuel served in the Revolutionary War and Hannah is credited with introducing roses to Aurora. While visiting Cleveland she was given a sprig of roses to use as a whip. Arriving in Aurora she stuck them in the ground and they grew into the most beautiful and fragrant flowers the township ever saw.

Alanson Baldwin (1799-1859) was killed by his nephew Merchant Price after he reprimanded him for excessive drinking. Merchant lived in his uncle's home, and after being told that he had to give up alcohol or live elsewhere, the inebriated Merchant found a shoe-knife in a nearby shop and thrust it at his uncle's abdomen. Merchant was tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

Toward the back of the cemetery are the baby section and the veterans' section. There is also a large black stone with a sundial on it. This is the bicentennial sundial and time capsule from 1999.

The Aurora Center Cemetery is a medium size cemetery, not totally flat but easy to walk through. It encompasses ten acres and so far there are 2,628 burials with Rhoda Cochran being the oldest-1806.