Richards-Gilbert
Cemetery
Located near Venice, Ohio, on East River Road, near Butler
and Hamilton County lines, a mile or so west of the Hamilton County
Water Plant, in Fairfield Township. It is also about a mile and a half
east of US 27.
This cemetery is listed in the Stroup-Craig transciptions as
Venice Cemetery, although this cemetery is not the actual Venice
cemetery, which is closer to Ross Ohio.
Others refer to this cemetery as the Richards-Gilbert
cemetery because of the white sign in the picture. It is primarily the
cemetery of the Giles Richards family, whose daughter Elizabeth,
married Alfred West Gilbert. The Gilbert descendents are also in this
cemetery. There are at least four generations of these families in this
cemetery.
The actual cemetery sits atop a steep hill. The hill ends or
bottoms out at the Great Miami River, but a quarter of the way 'up the
hill' runs River Road. The Richards-Gilbert sign and fence sits on
River Road. You enter the fence gate and hike up the rest of the three
quarters of the steep hill (which is the white concrete steps covered
in overgrowth). When you reach the top of this hill you find the brown
wrought iron fence that surrounds the actual cemetery, and another gate
of entry.
The cemetery is actually at the rear of the property that
was the Giles Richards farm/estate and inherited/purchased by Alfred
West and Elizabeth Gilbert. It is currently a developed subdivision,
where acess to the cemetery from the old estate would require
permission of the property owners.
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