Buckland Cemetery home to many stories
The Buckland Cemetery tour is full of village history and includes stories from among the oldest families in the village.
Historian Joyce Pugh led a tour Saturday. explaining that the that local church bell often tolled for every year a person was alive once they passed.
Pugh also advised those attending that it was not a ghost tour.
“If you had a ghost who was a Buckland person, you would wake up in the morning and your dishes would be done, and your animals would be fed and everything would be tidied up,” Pugh said. “These people worked hard.”
She showed the 12 or so on the Saturday version of the tour the founders corner which included John Gochenour and Josiah Clawson’s families. The two real estate developers partnered to plat White Feather, which was the original name of the Auglaize County village, about 150 years ago. Pugh said they platted 30 plots of land near a railway that was being developed. The railway station was named after Colonel Ralph Pomeroy Buckland. Eventually the village became Buckland Station in 1877 and was then incorporated as Buckland in 1891.
Larger families who settled in the village4 included the Bodkin family, the Whetstone family and the Wheeler family. Horace Wheeler (1821-1906) owned a substantial amount of farmland in the Buckland area. He moved to town in the 1850s; he passed away after suffering a stroke while working on the farm.
Pugh told stories of other untimely deaths including Martin Bruner (1835-1903), who owned a wagon shop. A heard of six steer broke loose from a stockyard. One of them fell into a well and was pulled out. That steer went mad and eventually moved toward the wagon shop. Bruner tried to head the steer off but was charged. He was struck below the shoulder blades. While the bull was eventually shot and killed locals were reluctant to do so. The steer weighed 1,200 to 1,400 pounds and
in August there wasn’t a good way to preserve the meat.
Arley Strum (1893-1918) was killed in a farming accident involving a silage cutter. His right arm was broken and his head was crushed and face cut. He had been married to a Sylvia Hill for four months; she remarried John Weber and died a few years later in childbirth.
Notable people included a town doctor, R.W. Sharp (1849-1914), who practiced medicine for 40 years in Buckland. Sharp was also a member of the Freemasons and his funeral was well attended, according to media reports.
David Bogue (1849-1916) owned land north of Buckland on Monroe Road, the site of Bogue Town where oil workers lived during the boom.
Frederick Ziegenbusch (18571937) operated a blacksmith shop and livery during the oil boom, which followed the railroad development. Ziegenbusch passed away after developing gangrene in both feet.
Everett Ed Mcdonald (1876-1950) came to Buckland to start a repair business. He served as mayor, council member, manager of the Buckland Telephone Company and also sold insurance. Pugh noted he had lost use of his legs as a toddler and used crutches.
As the tour moved toward more recent grave stones, Pugh focused on war deaths from the War of 1812 through World War II and Korea.
Pugh’s last scheduled tour is May 22 at 4 p.m. She has expressed interest in continuing her tour for interested groups on a case by case basis.