The Blanchard Family

Joseph Blanchard arrived in Granville Township in about 1818 as a middle-aged married man with seven children. His history is quite different from that of the typical settler. Joseph and his wife Nancy were both born in Massachusetts, but for many years they had lived in Maine, where Joseph and his eldest son Thomas were deep-sea fishermen. No available record tells the reasons why this rugged fisherman decided to migrate to the hills of Licking County, but several other families from the same area of Maine, including the Woodburys, arrived at about the same time.

Joseph set up a shop on the east side of North Street for making wooden plows. His sons Thomas, Hugh, Edwin, and Charles joined him in the enterprise and established their own households nearby. The family soon branched out into building wagons, ox-carts, chairs, and other furniture.

Most of the earlier generations of Blanchards and Woodburys are buried in two rows in the northeast corner of the old cemetery. The highlight of the family area is the memorial to Charles and Laura Blanchard, a tall white column topped by an urn. Charles Webster Bryant called it "the best piece of work in the yard," and it is indeed a beautiful specimen of the art of marble-cutting.

—Theresa Overholser