Exploring Tinker’s Creek Cemetery: History & Legends

Valley View, Ohio

Be prepared for a hike if you plan to visit Tinker’s Creek Cemetery. Also known as Terra Vista Cemetery, Hillside Cemetery, and Pilgerruh Cemetery, it’s located in a clearing about halfway up the hill rising from Tinker’s Creek Road.

Start by parking right inside the turn-off for Terra Vista Nature Study Area off of Tinker’s Creek Road. From there, follow the gravel and dirt roadway up the hill. As you go around the second bend, you’ll see a small pathway cut through the trees and surrounding shrubs. Follow that pathway, and you’ll soon reach the cemetery.

An Interesting History – and Plenty of Rumors

Tinker’s Creek Cemetery dates back to 1811, but the history of the land goes back a little further. According to sources, members of the Ottawa tribe turned the flattened part of the hillside into a small settlement. Their peace was interrupted by 1786, when David Zeisburger and John Heckewelde and the rest of their Moravian missionaries arrived. Reportedly, the missionaries found only the remnants of the Ottawa village and named the area Pilgerruh, or Pilgrim’s Rest.

The Moravians didn’t stick around long, and eleven years later, in 1797, the land was surveyed and opened up to settlers from New England. They named the area (plus the creek and later the road) after Joseph Tinker. This is where the “Tinker’s Creek” part of the name comes from. (Nevermind the fact that Joseph Tinker wasn’t buried in the cemetery that they created.)

Now, on to the rumors… Some say that the cemetery is haunted by ghosts from the Ottawa tribe that first made their home in the area. Others claim that its ghosts of the canal diggers who died on the job and are buried there. Another rumor involves something even more sinister, implying that the Ottawans and the Moravians stumbled across some sort of evil that kept them from sticking around the area. Additionally, there are accusations of the cemetery being used for witchcraft.

However, it’s more likely that the gravestones were merely broken either by time, vandals, or a combination of the two. The eerie feeling that you get upon walking through the cemetery, which is oddly quiet with little noise from street traffic, is more likely due to the overall terrain and not anything mystical. It’s still fun to speculate though.

Who is Buried in Tinker’s Creek Cemetery?

The first person buried in the cemetery was Fitch Comstock. Born in the territory that later became Connecticut in 1770 (or 1771), he and his brother George moved into the area shortly before Fitch’s death. George went on to live until 1825, and he’s also buried in Tinker’s Creek Cemetery. Both are related to Stephen Comstock and his wife, Julia, who had a small log cabin near the former Astorhurst Golf Course. Their daughter, Sarah, is noted as being the first child born of settlers in what was then considered Bedford Township.

Other families that chose the cemetery include those of the Moses. William, his wife Phebe, and their daughter Jeptha are buried close together, as are the Hathaways. Silence (a direct descendant of the Aldens, John and Priscilla, who traveled to the now-United States on the Mayflower), as well as his wife Zephania.

Although many of the headstones are broken, weathered, or hard to read, Tinker’s Creek Cemetery remains the resting place of over 66 people who initially settled the area, making it worthy of that hike up the hill.