Whitehouse, OH
A quiet cemetery on a residential road in Whitehouse, Ohio, a village in Lucas County, holds around 30 graves, most of them family members and neighbors of the Winslow family. The first burial there took place in the 1850s, and the last in the 1950s.
What’s remarkable about this cemetery isn’t its age, size, or shape; instead, it’s the connections between the early settlers in this county, notably those to famous people, like Laura Ingalls Wilder and President James A. Garfield.
No, neither of those two is buried in this quiet little cemetery, but their cousins are.
Sarah and Martin Winslow
Although they lived in Whitehouse, Ohio, both Martin Winslow and his wife, Sarah Ingalls Winslow (note her maiden name), have ties to the northeast. This was obviously extremely common among white colonists in the United States in the 1700s.
Martin Winslow’s ancestors came over on the Mayflower. One of them, Edward Winslow, is famous for writing about what would become known as the “first Thanksgiving.” Edward Winslow is also the person credited with making the Puritan community in Plymouth a success, due to his work as governor of the colony.
Another ancestor, Kenelm Winslow, brother to Edward, was the preeminent joiner (a type of carpentry) and coffin maker for the Plymouth colony. Several of his pieces of furniture are in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Back to Ohio, the Winslows (Sarah and Martin, in this particular instance), settled in Whitehouse sometime prior to 1846. Her ancestry contains a very distant cousin, Laura Ingalls Wilder (they are both related to Edmund Ingalls, who passed in 1648. He was Sarah’s fifth great-grandfather and Laura’s eighth, which shows just how distant, yet interesting, their connection was.
In addition, President James A. Garfield is Sarah’s second cousin, once removed. They share a great-grandfather, Henry Ingalls.
Remeber this the next time you’re wandering through an old cemetery: those graves may belong to someone who made a difference in a small way, or they may be related to people who made their mark in a larger one. It’s worth investigating.
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