Gravestone Investigation Turns Up All Kinds of Mysteries in Goshen!

Township Communication Director Mandy Storer has spent the past several weeks trying to track down the burial place of someone who died nearly 90 years ago. In the process, she's made calls to three states, and even found an error in a historical record.

The story begins in mid September when Police Chief Ray Snyder asked Storer for help in locating the burial place of Lester Gaston Sr. Gaston's headstone had turned up under a mobile home in the 600 block of Redman Drive in the Green Acres Mobile Home Park during a home inspection in late August.

The Goshen Police Department searched local cemetery records and contacted several surrounding communities to try and locate Gaston before saying their case had run cold. That's when they passed the notes along to Communications Director Mandy Storer.

"I started by picking up the case where the police left off," Storer said, "They'd already done some preliminary legwork for me, so that saved me some time." Storer started by calling the Ohio Department of Vital Statistics in Columbus to try and obtain a death certificate in hopes that would point her in a starting direction.  Turns out that office didn't have the record on file anymore. Gaston's stone showed a death date in the year 1922, and records that old are only kept in the state archives maintained by the Ohio Historical Society.

Storer said that lead turned out to be the clue that broke the case, "When I called the Historical Society in Columbus, they were able to run Gaston's name and reveal a lot of new information." Storer learned via telephone the full date of death as well as the place of death- two tools that make using internet genealogy websites much easier to use.

 "From there I found out where he [Gaston] was buried. All I needed to do next was wait on the death certificate to arrive to tell me exactly what cemetery he was in so I could ship the stone," Storer said.

In the meantime Storer was able to compile some background information on the Gaston. Turns out Lester Gaston Sr. was a salesman born in Tennessee who was in Hamilton County at the time of his death on January 9, 1922 at the age of 50. Two days later, he was buried in St. Joseph, Alabama according to his death certificate.

But if it were that easy, this wouldn't be much of a story. Turns out when the death certificate did arrive it had an error on it. The death certificate as well as online genealogical reports shows that Gaston was buried in St. Joseph, Alabama. However, no such place exists. Storer thinks Gaston is likely buried in St. Joseph, Tennessee, a small town just about 5 miles north of the Alabama/ Tennessee state line. However, a call to the local county archives in Tennessee revealed no record of Lester Gaston Sr.

"The local archivist in Tennessee told me it's likely that Lester is in the St. Joseph cemetery, but as an unmarked or unidentified grave," Storer said, "she told me the best hope we'd have for finding his burial rights now would be if he were a Catholic and was registered in their death and birth rolls."

Storer has contacted the only Catholic Church in St. Joseph and is currently waiting on a reply. Another option would be finding a family member. Storer said she was able to identify a possible relative by the name of Bernadine Gaston nee Luebbe. However, efforts to track this person down have not been very successful.

For now, the Township says they will wait on the Catholic Church to check their rolls before deciding what will come of the tombstone in the future. The real mystery here though, could just be how that tombstone made its way to Goshen Township in the first place.

Update- Although the local Catholic church does not have Mr. Gaston on any scrolls or records, we aren't giving up hope yet! The local newspaper in Alabama has printed the story, and we're starting to see some interest from folks living nearby. Click here to read the story.

Another Newspaper picks up the story! Click Here!

Channel 9 News in  Nashville, Tennessee has aired our story. It isn't availible in web format yet, but we'll update this site when it is!