Sheep Pen Cemetery
This small cemetery is enclosed by a wire fence and is situated very close to the Highland and Fayette County line. It is known
today as the Sheep Pen Cemetery. The name is very unusual and residents of the vicinity say that the name was acquired because sheep were often placed there to graze.
On Oct. 24, 1828, in Original Book “R”, page 123, Highland County Deed Records, William GUSTIN and Hannah his wife deeded
to William COLLINS and Henry LIMES of the County of Fayette and William PIERSON, Thomas G. COLLINS of the County of Highland, Trustees, one and one-eight acre situated in Madison Township, Highland County, Ohio. The deed reads, in part: “That
they shall erect and build or cause to be erected and built thereon a house or place of worship for the use of the members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America.”
On Dec. 20, 1900, in Original Book 94, page 210, Wm. J. BARR, A.G. COCKERILL, M.H. CLARK, F.W. COYNER and Fred SNARRENBERGER, Trustees by authority of Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, conveyed this land to the Trustees
of Madison Township, Highland County, and the Trustees of Perry Township, Fayette County. The deed reads, in part: “Said
premises being commonly known as the Gustin or Sheep Pen Grave Yard, and being now used exclusively for burial grounds.”
Today this cemetery is erroneously called Limes Cemetery.
Cemetery Inscriptions of Highland County, Ohio; David N. McBride, Jane N. McBride, 1954
Extensive research on the Sheep Pen Cemetery
has been done by Compiled by Linda Jean Limes
Ellis. Her documentation can be found online at:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?
page=cr&CRid=43392&CScn=sheep+pen&
There are
approximately
75 burials in
the Sheep Pen
Cemetery
http://greenfieldhistoricalsociety.org/sheep-pencemetery.pdf