04 July 2011

Geocaching and Genealogy in Brecksville on the 4th

Yesterday I went geocaching in Brecksville and acquired some knowledge of local genealogy as well. I had stumbled on the "Brecksville Bicentennial Cemetery Tour" created by RexC & The Girls on 23 Jun 2011. I downloaded the description of the "tour" and entered the first longitude-latitude data in my hand-held Garmin Etrex Legend. Then I set off with my son and grandson to take the tour.

Actually, I knew where the first location was: Riverview Road Cemetery. But the exact long-lat data assisted us in finding the memorial plaque for Richard Farrar, an early settler in Brecksville Township nearly 200 years ago, and a Revolutionary War vet. After finding the marker, we had to do some simple arithmetic to fine-tune the next waypoint (long-lat data) for Benjamin Waite, another Revolutionary War vet. He is memorialized by a large stone and plaque on Brecksville Road (Rt 21) south of the town center.

Again we did some simple math to get the third waypoint: the grave of Josiah Wilcox, a third Revolutionary War soldier. He is buried in the Rice or Barr Road Cemetery. More simple math led us to the Brecksville Cemetery on Highland Road. Here we found the grave of Lemuel Bourne who arrived in Brecksville Township with his wife Delia in 1813.

More math led us to the Breck family marker where the information about Dr. Theodore Breck led us finally to the location of the cache: a large plastic jar wrapped in camouflage tape. Here, we signed into the logbook, selected a Brecksville Bicentennial refrigerator magnet and left a Hot Wheels car.

I had worked on the Pioneer Families Recognition Project for the Brecksville Bicentennial Home Days, so I was familiar with the folks where the subject of this neat geocaching adventure, which also included a nice exposure to some local genealogy. Thanks, RexC, for creating it.

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