Many stones have fallen and are buried. Scott Butler (the writer) and his older brother, Rhett, visited it in April 2003 prepared for some heavy work with tools to uncover and read as many stones as possible during the afternoon. We were able to identify the stones for Thomas Butler, a pioneer of Coshocton Co. and also of his son, James Butler who was a War of 1812 veteran. Both these stones had been toppled and were nearly totally buried. After some trial and error, we uncovered the portions with the inscriptions and were able to read them with the aid of Barbisol shaving cream and a skweegee.

From the spacing of the stones and other portions of stones partially visible, we believe that the cemetery contains a substantial number of other grave markers beyond those listed below, which we were able to uncover and read.

TRANSCRIPTION (of stones uncovered as of 4/26/2003)

=> brackets [ ... ] indicate added material NOT on the stone.

Albert A. son of Wm. M. and Catherine Arnold [daughter of James Butler, granddaughter of Thomas Butler] DIED Aug. 15, 1857 AGED 5 Mos. & 28 Ds.

Allen, Son of JAMES & ELIZABETH BUTLER, Died Oct. 8, 1841, Aged 1 year 6 mos. 7 ds.

R. B. [small stone that had been lying on top of the Allen Butler stone under a fallen tree]

Permelia, daughter of George & Ruhamy McDanel [Ruhanna Butler was a daughter of Thomas Butler, m. George McDaniel 11/3/1831] died Oct. 18, 1838, aged 1 y. and 7 mo. [this stone has a beautiful carving of a willow tree on the top]

In Memory of Rezin, Son of Noah and Rebeca Butler [Noah is a son of Thomas Butler], who died, Oct. 9, 1827; Aged 8 months, & 2 days. [this stone also has a carving of leaf fronds on top]

D. B. [small stone facing the stone for Rezin Butler]

Daughter of Thos. & Mary Buxton [Mary is a daughter of James Butler, granddaughter of Thomas Butler], died Sep. 15, 1857, AGED Y. [0? Y] 1 M. 2 D. [in this period, newly born children were not necessarily named until a few month old]

THOS. BUTLER Died Sept. 11, 1853, Aged 83 Yrs., 11 Mo. 19 dys. [Thomas is a son of Joseph Butler, Sr. & Elizabeth (Burley) Butler who are buried in the East Butler Cemetery, which is now on the other side of Mohawk Dam.]

JAMES BUTLER DIED SEPT. 14 1878, IN THE 89 [this could be 88 or 89; in census records conducted in June/July, James reported his age as ending in an 8, e., g., 68 or 78 for 1860 and 1870, respectively] YEAR OF HIS AGE

[James is the second oldest son of Thomas (see above), FYI, this stone was entirely buried when we uncovered it. By accident when uncovering Thomas�s stone, we plunged our pry bar into the ground & struck James� stone. So once finished with Thomas�s stone, we went to work on James�. The accidental impact of the pry bar chipped the stone, but I have the chip. I will re-cement it at a later date. I felt that if I left it on the site, the chip may have been lost forever.]

JAMES P., SON OF AMMI and M. BUTLER {Ammi Butler is a son of James Butler and grandson of Thomas Butler] DIED OCT. 6, 1868 [?? Per last "8" - this seems to be an "8", BUT from the clear aged at death � 6 yrs. and known age of "0" � zero - in 1860 census conducted in June, this would seem to be a "6" that an errant chip/dent makes look like an "8"], Agd. 6 yr. 11 m & 27 ds.

DEME, Daughter of JAMES & ELIZABETH BUTLER Died Sept. 3, 1823, Aged 1 year 2 mos. 20 ds.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Thomas Butler is prominently mentioned in the 1881 History of Coshocton County, Ohio as being a pioneer of the county and having contributed greatly to the Walhonding Valley. Among other passages, pages 567-568 describe his family�s settlement in Coshocton County and include a colorful passage about a panther hunt, quoted below.

Thomas Butler is a son of Joseph Butler, a Revolutionary War veteran and early settler of Coshocton Co. who died 1811 aged 69 years and is buried in a small cemetery to the east of Mohawk Dam.

The younger brother of Thomas Butler, Benjamin Butler, who participates in the later portion of the panther hunt, is the great, great, great grandfather of Scott & Rhett Butler who "re-discovered" the cemetery and the hitherto unknown grave markers for Thomas and James Butler. Scott & Rhett Butler, along with their brother, Wyatt Butler are sons of Dr. John G. Butler who was a veterinarian in Coshocton for many years.

Duane Reese, a double cousin (not via Butler line) of Scott, Rhett Wyatt Butler, was shown this site by Ida Butler Reese, who is a triple cousin of the aforementioned Butler Bros., and was aged 91 at the time in 2002. She personally knew of the site of both Butler cemeteries near Mohawk Dam, probably since she was an adult before the building of Mohawk Dam in the late 1930s caused its periodic flooding and likely abandonment. Duane passed the site location to Scott in May 2002 with some directions and he found the site in the fall of 2002. Scott and Rhett's recent visits (April 25-26) also found an easier access route). Scott had tried to find the site from the old directions for several years earlier, but was looking for TWO pine trees on south side of 715 - one is now dead so he missed it. Scott's father and aunt - both born in the 1920s - did not know about these cemeteries.

DIRECTIONS:

This cemetery is hard to find and hard to walk to. If you have a GPS, the coordinates that mine gave were N 40 21.141' W 082 05.768". Drive past Mohawk Dam going west on St Rt. 715 and past the former park (on left) that is just beyond the Dam. You will approach a yellow highway sign indicating a sharp left curve in the highway. Stop at that sign and look left and you will see a large single pine tree [across a cornfield into the woods]. Under that pine tree is the Butler Cemetery. [Note: old descriptions of the location report TWO pine trees - the second is now dead and not readily noticeable from the road.] It is hard to get to the cemetery from this spot since there is a large thicket of brambles that must be crossed beyond the cornfield.

Instead, continue on 715 and follow it around the sharp left bend. About 100 yards past the beginning of the bend (where a gravel road enters from the right), there is a service road entrance to the left. Pull into the service area and park in the small parking area. NOTE that you just past the remaining foundation of the Thomas Butler Homestead on the left. The Thomas Butler homestead is to your left in the woods (about 25 ft'). There are TWO service roads leaving this small parking area. NOW, you want to WALK down the left service road [don't bother driving as the ruts will soon be huge and impassible to anything but a truck or Hummer]. I don't know the exact distance, but go into the edge of the cornfield and through the next tree line and into the edge of the next cornfield. Then follow the road into the woods uphill. You might be able to see that large pine tree that I pointed out before. About 25-50 yards or so (this is from memory), look to the left and you should be able to see the large pine tree and you might even see a slight path to the left going downhill. You will cross over a deer path that meanders through the woods. Try to head towards the pine tree from here - it is only about 25 yards to the cemetery. There are only a few brambles this way - if you take something to cut them, passing might be easier. I was there in Fall and Spring when the vegetation is mostly dead, so the visibility was easier and passing through the woods easier. Soon you should be able to spot the cemetery area from the stone of Allen Butler, which is really the only large stone remaining upright. A tree has fallen on it long ago, as the tree is now rotten. Once near the Allen Butler stone, you also should now be able to find the stones of Thomas and James Butler, as my brother & I did not cover them again. The site seems relatively undisturbed - we could only see one old bottle/can, possibly tossed by hunters.

NOTE: DO NOT GO THERE IN ANY DEER HUNTING SEASON WITHOUT LOTS OF BLAZE ORANGE - THIS IS A VERY ACTIVE DEER HUNTING AREA.

COPY RIGHT: 2003 Scott Butler