Headstone from 1781 found along Cuyahoga River near Cuyahoga Falls

News5 Cleveland ^ | May 17, 2022 | Drew Scofield

[SunkenCiv]

The headstone, etched with the name Thadius Peck (1711-1781), was discovered by Richard and John Ryan on April 18 as they were walking along the river looking for an old fishing spot. The two came across an "odd-shaped stone" in a clearing across from the river and took a closer look. They cleaned off the muck and moss that had grown on it, and realized it wasn't just a flat rock but a headstone for someone who had been dead for 241 years.

The stone is so old, it predates the founding of Cuyahoga Falls by three decades. It's even older than the Connecticut Western Reserve's settlement in the area that was founded in 1796.

[Nifster]

Or Joe Biden

[Rebelbase]

"Thaddius and I were lovers."

[centurion316]

For every headstone that is found and preserved, their are at least 10 that are destroyed, buried, or hidden. Developers with a Bobcat equipped with headlights hate headstones on land suitable for development, so they go out there at night and the headstones, or even entire cemeteries disappear.

Several of my ancestors had had the bad luck to suffer that fate, one within the last 30 or 40 years and several others over 150 years ago. This has been going on for many years.

[SunkenCiv]

Yup. A great many grave markers were handmade and in wood, and vanished. Many older stone markers were relatively soft, and I've watched the nearby markers of ancestors lose legibility just in my lifetime.

[pax_et_bonum]

Lol!

[bgill]

he evidently was with someone who carved his name and dates in a stone marker at the time of his passing.

Say, what?!?!

[bgill]

He voted for Biden twice.

[bgill]

Too bad he missed out being in the census records. He would be in the courthouse records... if there wasn’t a fire or flood or they got lost or whatever disaster seems to always befall old records.

[Pelham]

the Great River Fire

[minnesota_bound]

Thadius is dead? I did not know he was ill!

[Western Phil]

“Some of those headstones are so old that all the engraving has worn out.”

May be acid rain?

I have done photographs for “Find a Grave” here in east central Illinois. It is common here for limestone headstones to be no longer readable. Granite and some other stones last longer. I found one small cemetery off the road a ways, in a cow pasture in which most of the limestone headstones had been broken off by roaming cattle and sort of stomped into the ground. I uncovered a few, turned over a few and the engraving on each was nearly pristine. I do not remember the most recent burial, but it was many years ago. My guess it that the soil and plant life cover prevented erosion of the limestone surface.

Another somewhat related problem is that the reduction of acid rain has allowed a significant recent increase in the growth of lichens. Gravestones located under trees become encrusted in lichens and become impossible to read. I do not know if the lichen growth has detrimental effects on the rock?

[Theophilus]

And all the Demonrats say “every vote counts”

[logi_cal869]

Curious: Absolutely nothing in the article about any investigation of his remains.

The headstone was reported to be 200 pounds. Nothing I find suggests that the Cuyahoga River has enough flow at flood levels to carry such a stone very far - if at all - save for downstream in the industrialized/urban areas.

Factoid: The record flood for the Cuyahoga at Independence recorded an estimated flow rate half that of the normal/average flow rate of the Willamette River. The 2011 flood didn’t even hit that level. Hence, SLOW moving floodwaters.

Again, curious.

[Red Badger]

Not as old as CHER!......................

[lepton]

Yes. Lichen breaks down rock.

[Western Phil]

Lichen breaks down rock - if one were so inclined, it may be possible to limit such breakdown. Strips of copper or zinc on the upper extremes of asphalt shingle roofs are used to limit lichen and moss growth down stream from the metal. Apparently metal ions washing down hill have this effect. I have noticed that metal plates on gravestones have similar effects.

[ApplegateRanch]

The stone is so old, it predates the founding of Cuyahoga Falls by three decades. It's even older than the Connecticut Western Reserve's settlement in the area that was founded in 1796.

"Plow marks"

"Pareidolia of weathering and natural root marks."

"Hoax."

"Perhaps we should begin to reexamine the sequence of settlement of this area, in light of this stunning new discovery."

The natural progression of these kinds of discoveries.

[Lurker]

I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls.

L

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[SunkenCiv]

Seems like you’d go through a lot of umbrellas...