Cemetery Name

Lytle Methodist Church Cemetery

Township

Status

First Known Burial

General Condition

Tombstone Condition

OGS Cemetery #

Location:

Coordinates:

STR/ VMD

Property Account:

Parcel ID:

Map:

• USGS GNIS - Lytle Cemetery; FID #1963097 (39° 33' 37"N, 84° 07' 49"W)
• Google Map at coordinates 39° 33' 38"N, 84° 7' 49"W
• Warren County Auditor for Property Account # 7618301, Parcel ID 05141770120; Lytle Methodist Church, 0.537 acres
• Range 5 Township 3 Section 14 from Warner's 1867 Warren County Ohio Wall Map
• Village of Raysville from Warner's 1867 Warren County Ohio Wall Map. The church and graveyard are located in lot 13.
• Beers History of Warren County
  • page 569
    "The Methodists also had an organization at Raysville at an early day, and built a log meeting-house and established a graveyard. The log meeting-house was removed and a very handsome frame built - probable about 1850 -- which was burned down and afterward the present comfortable house erected. They have a very good society. There has been a very large number buried there, but the graveyard has almost ceased to be used."
  • page 585
    ". . . Raysville, by M. Mills & Bro. and others, November, 1855; contained twenty-two lots; it had a name long before it was platted; . . ."
• Walter Kenrick, The History of Raysville, now Lytle, Ohio, undated (1940s) manuscript on file at the Warren County Historical Society.
  ". . . The time of the organization of the first Methodist here is unknown. The first meeting were held in the pioneer's cabins, until in 1824, when Charles Hall sold to the trustees of the Raysville Methodist Meeting 85 square poles of land on the corner of Pinkey and Franklin Roads. The first church was built of logs and used for over 20 years and replaced by a frame building in 1847. In 1860 a large frame church was built, which burned down in 1872, and the present church was completed in 1873. . . .
  "In the rear of this church building , in early days was established a grave yard where 200 or more of the early residents of the community are burried. . . ."
• "Lytle Church to Abandon Cemetery, Making Room For New Social Center," The Miami Gazette (Waynesville, Ohio), April 8, 1948
  " . . . A legal notice published by the church in this issue notifies "the family, friends or kindred" of persons buried in the Lytle Cemetery of their right to remove the bodies and monuments of relatives with 30 days.
  "Bodies and monuments remaining at the end of 30 days will be removed by the church to a special plot near the present cemetery. A fence will be erected about the ground for the reburial. . . ."

Cemetery History

The Lytle Cemetery (originally Raysville) was established as a church graveyard at a very early date but ceased to be used sometime in the mid to late 1800s. What remains of the cemetery is located on the property of the Lytle United Methodist Church.  Cemetery was abandoned in 1948.

Kenricks' "History of Raysville" indicates that there were over 200  burials in the cemetery. In 2009, gravestones were found for 24 of the 28 known burials in the cemetery. The earliest was for Lydia Brown in 1830 and the last was for Susan Haines in 1865.  Many of the gravestones found were for infants and children.  In May of 1869 and September of 1870, the remains of 19 people were removed from this graveyard and relocated to the Miami Cemetery in Corwin. Click to see List.  In 1948, the portion of the cemetery north of the original building was abandoned in order to make room for a community center addition to the church.

Cemetery Transcriptions

• D.A.R. Turtlecreek Chapter & Warren County Historical Society (available at the Historical Society Library)
  • Early Vital Records Volume 3, pages 55 & Volume 10, pages 136-137
• Warren County Genealogical Society
  • Warren County Cemetery Records Volume 7, page 495 contains 23 names from a reading of the cemetery on 27 Aug 1987. . See the society website for this cemetery.
  • Our thanks to Warren County Genealogical Society volunteers, Dana Palmer & Vicki Bergerhouse who photographed all extant gravestones in October, 2009 for the "Warren County Virtual Cemetery" Project. All of the photos have been added to this website. Their
  • efforts will be incorporated into the new cemetery books planned by the society.
• Other Known Transcriptions
  • None known of

Gravestone Images

Gravestone photos for the Warren County, Ohio Virtual Cemetery Project are being posted to the Warren County OHGenWeb Project
To view images ===> Lytle Cemetery
To submit images ==> email to Arne H. Trelvik at atrelvik@gmail.com [please send high resolution digital images if available]