John Thomas and son Joseph

Thomas Cemetery is small, inactive cemetery surrounded by a shoulder-high stone wall. It sits well off the road in a residential neighborhood. You could easily drive by without noticing it—or at least not recognizing it as the charming old cemetery that it is.

John Thomas (d. 1858), who was a farmer in the township, is buried next to his young son Joseph Thomas (d. 1853).

JOHN,
THOMAS,
died
June 14, 1858
Aged 43 Yrs.
1 Mo. 13 Ds,
There may have been an epitaph on Mr. Thomas’s gravestone originally, but if so, it was lost when the stone was reset in concrete.

JOSEPH,
Son of John
& Cordelia E.
THOMAS,
Died
June 30, 1853;
Aged 1 year,
5 mos, 22 ds,
History of Delaware County and Ohio by William Henry Perrin (1880) includes a short biography of the widowed Mrs. Thomas:

Mrs. Cordelia Thomas, Hyattsville, was born in Connecticut March 12, 1830; daughter of Salmon Holcomb; her mother’s maiden name was Tuller, both natives of Connecticut; they emigrated to this State when the subject of this sketch was but 6 years of age; they located in Liberty, where they lived until their death. Cordelia was married in her 20th year to John Thomas, a son of David and Mary (Holcomb) Thomas, the latter was one of the earliest settlers in this county; is now 93 years of age; after the marriage of Mrs. Thomas they located on the Whetstone River, adjoining the homestead; lived there until his death which occurred June 14, 1858; they had five children, three living—Lavina (now the wife of Thomas Case), James and John. Mrs. Thomas now resided one mile south of Hyattsville, where she had 100-1/2 acres of land which she has since divided among the children reserving forty acres in her own right; John lives with his mother; was born Feb. 12, 1856.

According to a death record from FamilySearch.org, Cordelia Thomas died May 2, 1905, having lived nearly half a century as a widow.

By the way, Joseph Thomas’s epitaph, though not entirely visible in the photo, appears to be the touching short poem “Epitaph on an Infant” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (b. 1772, d. 1834):

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,
Death came with friendly care;
The opening bud to heaven conveyed,
And bade it blossom there.

Thomas Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio