The actual excitement for the trip began the night before as I sat in my
office and found the exact location of the old Thew Cemetery.  Using the fantastic
World Wide Web on my month-old Compaq Presario computer ( 4 GB hard drive, 64
MB Ram, 350 MHz, 17 inch monitor, 56K modem), I began at the OhioGenWeb site then
linked to Marion County.  There I found the location of the cemetery and even printed
out a map that the next day, took us right to the spot. It took us about 1.5 hours to get
there from Wellington, Ohio. It is located just south of Caledonia on Whetstone River
Road which is off Route 746.  I believe it is on the property that “Uncle Billy,” William
Thew--my 3 greats uncle, owned.  In other sources it is supposed to be 3 miles east of his
house, which it appears to be. The cemetery is on the east side of the road at a bend.  It
measures about 50 feet by 100 feet.  In the northeast corner is a huge stone marker that
says Thew. William’s gravestone marker is about 15 feet tall  in the middle of the
cemetery. On the south side of the marker is an inscription for William (born  4-1-1791,
died 7-29-1883, age 92 and his wife Elizabeth Woodhouse Thew (born 1806, died August
3, 1865, age 59.)  I believe this is just an inscription for Elizabeth as we found another
older stone for her about 20 feet east where she is probably buried. On the west side is
one for his mother, Mary Young Thew (died 1838) and on the east side is one for his
sister, Elizabeth Mary. By the huge stone Thew marker, we found the tombstone for
William’s brother Richard and wife Ann. The weathered stone, in worse shape than
William’s marker, had some unreadable material.  Ann Bothamly Thew was born in
1788, came to America in 1824, had 8 kids, and died on January 3, 1828. She was my 3
greats grandmother.  Her husband Richard, born May 3, 1789, in Alford, Lincolnshire,
England, has a somewhat mysterious ending.  Here is just a cenotaph (marker but not
actual remains) for him.  He supposedly died in Memphis, Tennessee in 1832 of cholera.
The tombstone says Father & Mother, Erected by their children.  We took several
rubbings and photos.  It was windy and cold, about 32 degrees and we were suddenly
cold so took off our boots, and jumped into our new car, a 1999 Chrysler Concorde.
 Next we wanted to find the old Thew homestead that William had built in 1840
after becoming quite successful at farming cattle and sheep. Again, previously on the
Internet I had spotted a Brocklesby Road near Claridon and figured that was a good bet
for the house location.  As I drove and Dave navigated, I pulled out the 62 year old photo
from the booklet that Mary Brocklesby had written in 1937.  At that time the house was
almost 100 years old.  We hadn’t gone far when we spotted it on the east side of the
road--1338 Brocklesby Road.  I t sets about 150 feet from the road.  The porch that had
been in the southwest corner was enclosed and now a room.  There was a large red barn
and several other outbuildings.  We have heard there are still Brocklesbys living there.
Mary Brocklesby did live there (my 3rd cousin twice removed.) She is now dead.  So we
looked around at all the flat land and realized that all of this must have been the
wonderful land that Uncle Billy had raved about.  We had a discussion about how some
of the land was/is prairie land.
 Next, we visited the Marion County Historical Society in downtown Marion.
Again, I had discovered its existence the night before online with my computer. ( I might
say here that my e-mail address is arstar@ibm.net; I am writing this as if someone in 100
years will read this and be curious about how life was at the dawn of the Information
Age!) It is located in an old post office now called Heritage Hall.  There was a general
museum with old items from early settlers, like quilts, dishes, and a stuffed horse.  Many
of the items I had seen the night before online.  Attached was a popcorn museum paid for
by a local popcorn factory, quite impressively designed in a carnival theme.  In the
basement were artifacts of Warren Harding, 29th President of the US.  We spent too
much time with the above as we didn’t have enough time for the best experience in the
museum:  Trella.  Trella Hemmerly Romine is an 82-year old lady who runs the
Resource Room.  She is a self-taught genealogist, gardener, herbalist, and more.  Mary A.
Brocklesby, who wrote the 1937 booklet, The Thew Family in America, and started my
interest in all this genealogy business, was a friend of Trella. Trella related that Mary had
passed away but did mention a Dorothy Thew in town and gave me her address.  She also
gave me the name of a Robert Thew from New Jersey who works on the Thew family.
We bought Trella’s book called Day Before Yesterday.  The book is a series of old stories
and one is about the letter that William Thew wrote home to his parents in England in
1824.
 We ate at a Mexican restaurant and had a very good day!