Hale, Hammond, Cranz Homesteads

This cemetery is the resting place of many of the Hale, Hammond, and Cranz family members who were integral in founding and developing Bath Township. Connecticut natives Jonathan Hale and Jason Hammond were the first to purchase land in the area that would become Bath Township. In 1810, Jonathan Hale and his nephew, Theodore Hammond, arrived at Township 3, Range 12 of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Jonathan and Mercy Piper Hale’s family built a brick home in 1827. The Hale family lived in this home until 1956, when it became the Hale Farm & Village of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Jason and Rachel Hale Hammond’s family started construction on a frame home in 1818 that was completed in 1836. The Hammond property extended from the valley to Hammond’s Corners. (Continued on other side)

[Side B]: (Continued from other side) When the township organized in 1818, the settlers needed to choose a name. Surveyors called it Wheatfield, but it became known as Hammondsburgh. Jonathan Hale reportedly exclaimed, “O, call it Jerusalem, Jericho, or Bath…anything but Hammondsburgh!” Bath was selected as the name of the township. In 1863, William and Mary Drushel Cranz purchased the Hammond homestead and moved their ten children to “Pleasant Valley.” They had two more children at the homestead. The family lived there until 1975. Erwin Hammond transferred land for this cemetery when he sold the homestead in 1863. William Cranz and Othello Hale deeded additional property for this cemetery in 1879.