Mysterious old gravestone found along banks of Cuyahoga River
Historians are marveling at the discovery of a 240-year-old gravestone along the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls.
The moss-covered, handcarved marker weighs more than 200 pounds and bears the inscription “Thadius J. Peck 1711-1781.” The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society and Mayor Don Walters made the announcement Tuesday.
Peck, whoever he was, died before the Connecticut Western Reserve was established and before Ohio was settled. The Declaration of Independence was only 5 years old at the time. Gen. George Washington was busy leading the Continental Army against British troops during the Revolutionary War, which would continue for another two years.
Richard and John Ryan unearthed the historic artifact April 18 after noticing an “odd-shaped stone” while walking along the river in an attempt to find an old fishing spot they used to frequent. They stumbled across the marker in a clearing
across the river from the Cuyahoga Falls boat launch on Front Street.
The Ryans noticed the Peck inscription after wiping off dirt and moss. The stone, which measures 24 inches by 15 inches by 6 inches, has a cross carved at the top.
They contacted Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society board member Shawn Andrews about the discovery.
It is quite an unusual find. The Western Reserve settlement didn’t begin until 1795. Ohio wasn’t established until 1803. Cuyahoga Falls wasn’t founded until 1812.
What was a 70-year-old
pioneer doing among the American Indians in the Ohio wilderness in 1781? That was quite an advanced age for the time. U.S. life expectancy was around 38 years old.
Was Peck a surveyor? A trapper? A trader? Clearly he wasn’t alone because someone carved the stone. It seems unlikely that he carved it on his own.
“We know that the Peck surname is an early surname associated with the Western Reserve in the Cuyahoga Falls area with Sherman Peck as the city’s first Marshal and Julius S. Peck, who owned a large parcel of land downriver near the Gorge,”
Andrews noted in a prepared statement. “The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society is excited to continue researching the provenance of Thadius Peck’s stone.”
Andrews contacted the University of Akron and consulted with faculty member Maeve Marino from the anthropology department and professor John A. Peck from the geosciences department. The historical society also is conducting research with Krista Horrocks from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.
So far, no one knows how the marker got there.
Cuyahoga Falls firefighters extracted the heavy gravestone from the riverbank Monday and loaded it into a motorboat during the retrieval. The Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society is housing the unusual artifact.
“As a lifelong resident of the City of Cuyahoga Falls, I have always been intrigued with the founding of our city and how it came to be,” Mayor Walters said in a prepared statement.
“I am hopeful that this discovery can shed additional light on who once occupied the area that is now our city and when.”