The Bigelow Cemetery - An Ohio State Nature Preserve

The Bigelow Cemetery is a pioneer cemetery containing many of the remains of the Bigelow family and their neighbors. This cemetery is alternately known as both the Chuckery Cemetery and the Boerger Cemetery. This is due to its location near land presently owned by the Boerger Family and the Chuckery community.

In pioneer days, native vegetation was cleared from the Darby Plains by setting fire to the prairie each spring. Then the land would be prepared for planting. Largely, the land was not heavily tilled. It is here on the Darby Plains that people came from the New England states to settle. These pioneers included the Bigelow family, the Reed family, the Mc Cloud family, and the Smith family. In old histories, scarcely a family was left untouched by the plague and malaria in the early 1800s.

In 1978, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources named the Bigelow Cemetery a state nature preserve. This was due to the fact that it had never been tilled, and it is considered to be a remnant of the vast Darby Plains. This site is owned by the Pike Township trustees, while being managed by ODNR.

For me, this is another one of those spots that I get lost, I get lost in yesteryear as I read the tombstones. My heart breaks as I read of young children who died very young. And, my heart rejoices as I read of those pioneers who have lived to ripe old ages. And, sometimes, if I close my eyes, I can smell the light fragrance of the prairie flowers, I can see a wagon on the road. I can hear the clip-clop of the horse hooves, and for a moment I am truly living a life on the Chuckery Prairie.