Flag Spring Cemetery

This cemetery is very interesting and fun to visit.  While not overly large at about 12 acres, it is decently flat, although there are limited trees to provide shade.  Great for visibility, but it can get very warm on a summer day!  It is located on the west side of Round Bottom Road in the Village of Newtown in Hamilton County, and fairly close to Clermont County.  This area was originally called Mercersburg when first settled and many families with deep roots in both counties can be found here.

This cemetery was established in 1863 by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 152, and has gone by many names:  Flagstone Cemetery, Flagg Spring Cemetery, Flag Springs Cemetery, even just Newtown Cemetery.  Ohio State Death Certificates issued during the 1940's listed the location as the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Cemetery.

The burials in the center of the cemetery (Block F) surround a Native American mound believed to be a remnant of the Adena culture, 1000 to 200 B.C. This mound is the largest of the Adena Indian Mounds to be found in the Little Miami Valley.  In 1973, this Mound was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In January 1950, a few records for this cemetery were published in the "Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio Bulletin", Vol. 8.  In June 1988, the Hamilton County Genealogical Society conducted another recording of the markers and did an excellent job of documenting their findings, and also that which they did not find.

From Volume 2, Anderson Township Cemeteries 1800-1989 by The Hamilton County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society:

The gravestone of Patsey Day was found in 1969 where Telegraph hill subdivision is today and former site of the Day Family burial ground, which was obliterated, was placed in this cemetery.  The Turpin Family Cemetery was known as Signal Hill and in 1952 their burials were removed to Flagspring and placed in Block K, including their gravestones.  The Newtown Methodist Churchyard Cemetery at 3546 Church Street, Newtown, Ohio, had all burials removed to Flagspring (possibly circa 1933) which explains the dates found on stones before 1863.  This church was established in 1798 and the present building was erected in 1813, but no records are known to exist.

The cemetery is now maintained by the Village of Newtown.

There are between 5,000 and 6,000 burials there, but only about 1,000 memorials were listed on findagrave when I began adding additional records (checking carefully so as to not create duplicates!) and attempting to find and photograph the markers.  There are other wonderful historians out there adding records and taking photographs for Flagg Spring, as well:  irishroots, Thomas Schenck, and Joseph are but a few. 

Some sections have had new burials since the last reading, and these are included as I / we find them.  Hopefully, these additional records will assist family members and other researchers trying to locate them.


The list of gravestones recorded in 1988 has now been completely entered, and I am working slowly through the list of burials that were found to not have markers.

My Great Grandmother, Effie Rue Decatur Fitzwater, holding my mom as a baby, probably ~1933 in Plainville.

My GGreat Grandfather Sidney Rue, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Mullens Rue, are buried here in Block E.  Their daughter Effie Rue, who first married Elmer Edwin Decatur and had six children, and then married Wright Christopher Fitzwater, who had six children from his marriage to Laura Belle Maham, is also buried here along with that first hubby, Elmer Edwin Decatur.  (Wright is buried with his last wife, Marguerite Isabel Kellogg Loux McVeigh Fitzwater McKelvey, in Greenlawn Cemetery in Milford.  Yep, she was married four times!)

Effie was my mom's grandmother, and they were very close.  The photo above shows Effie holding my mom as a baby, probably around 1933, in Plainville, Hamilton County, Ohio.  I share a birthday with Effie and wish I had met her.  She must have been an incredible woman.