The Ground Beneath the County Farm
The Ground Beneath the County Farm
CLINTON COUNTY INFIRMARY REGISTER OF INMATES — ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN ENTRY, WILLIAM SUTTLES, ADMITTED SEPTEMBER 11, 1883. COURTESY CLINTON COUNTY RECORDS AND ARCHIVES.
There is an obscure lot on the southeast edge of Wilmington, Ohio that most people drive past without a second look. It sits on land that once belonged to the Clinton County Infirmary — a poorhouse established in 1835 to house the county's most vulnerable residents. The land is unremarkable from the road. Overgrown. Quiet. Easy to miss.
At least 250 people are buried there.
I know this because I spent the better part of six months trying to find one of them — my 4th-great-grandfather, William Suttles of Vernon Township. What began as a personal search through the Clinton County Records and Archives turned into something I hadn't anticipated: an investigation that would put me in front of the Board of Commissioners, trigger a $15,000 archival and mapping study, and ultimately convince me to do this work professionally.
Buckeye Genealogy and Research, LLC is now open. You may know me as The Grave Guy™.
The Clinton County Infirmary operated for more than 150 years. During that time it housed men, women, and children who had nowhere else to go — the elderly, the indigent, the institutionalized. Volunteers at the Clinton County Genealogical Society began transcribing the institution's handwritten registers in 2011, documenting 216 burials between 1840 and 1902. When renewed interest prompted a fresh review in 2025 and 2026, that count was revised upward. The current documented total stands at least 250.
The register page that confirmed William Suttles — admitted September 11, 1883, died February 29, 1884, buried in the Infirmary Cemetery — sits in the same column as a four-year-old child, a twelve-year-old girl, and a twenty-three-year-old man. Four lives, four entries, one page. The handwriting doesn't change. The column doesn't pause.
Those were people. The investigation treats them that way.
Clinton County's GIS cemetery map currently documents 89 burial sites across the county. The obscure lot southeast of Wilmington is not among them. It has never received official recognition.
That is changing. Following my presentation to the Board of Commissioners in February 2026, the county authorized Gray & Pape Heritage Management to conduct a $15,000 archival and mapping study to define the cemetery's boundaries. When that study concludes and the Infirmary Cemetery receives official designation, it will become the county's 90th documented burial site.
Among those buried there are at least two military veterans. George Wright served in the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812. He was an Irish immigrant who died at the Infirmary in 1857 at age 98. His service entitled him to two federal land warrants in Illinois, which he assigned to Clinton County to help offset the cost of his care. His obituary — written by the Wilmington attorney who had secured those warrants — states that he also served in the Revolutionary War and voted for George Washington twice. He is buried in an unmarked field.
Walter (Barton) Roberts, a Revolutionary War veteran from Maryland, is also documented among the burials. His full service record remains under active investigation.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, the presence of these men matters.
I have spent more than 30 years in technology and regulatory compliance. That work trained me to read complex systems — to follow the record where it leads, to find the one missing detail that changes everything. I have photographed more than 2,000 gravestones for Find a Grave. I worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to secure a family memorial marker for my 3rd-great-grandfather, a Civil War soldier whose grave was lost among the battlefield dead at Resaca, Georgia. I solved my own 50-year cold case — the search for my biological father — using genetic genealogy and the paper trail that DNA alone can't interpret.
Every one of those investigations pointed the same direction. The Infirmary Project made the decision for me.
Buckeye Genealogy and Research, LLC serves individuals, families, historical organizations, and governmental bodies across the United States. Three levels of investigation: a Record Pull for targeted document retrieval, a Forensic Reconstruction for tangled family lines and DNA analysis, and a Deep Investigation for the hardest cases. Every engagement begins with The Grave Survey — a free intake form followed by a complimentary 20-minute Case Strategy Briefing and a clear written proposal before any work begins.
The Wilmington News Journal published the full story of the firm's opening and the Infirmary Project on May 25, 2026. Read it here.
If your family's trail has gone cold, it starts here: www.thegraveguy.com/grave-survey
