click on picture for larger view
The Hague's of Guernsey and Athens County, Ohio
by Carol Dexter Minson
Revised, pictures added March 2005.
"THE HAGUE HOUSE!
and
THE HAGUE GRAVEYARD!
IN 1988, my husband, Roland, our son, Robert, and I were traveling from California to the east coast in our pickup, pulling a 17 foot travel trailer. Guernsey County was on our way.
Guernsey County, Ohio, is the where the Hagues and Foreacres lived in the 1800's. I had been researching these two lines for 10 years or more and wanted very much to see the area.
I was excited to finally be there.
Seneca Lake Campground
We camped on the south west shore of Seneca Lake where Robert was invited to water ski with new-found friends while his dad and I went ancestor-searching in the county record offices in the area.
Shore of Seneca Lake – These waters were created by a dam built many years after my Hagues lived in the area and covered much of the Hague land below the old homestead. Their home originally was in Gurnsey Co, but was renamed Noble Co.
click on picture for larger view
I also wanted to see The Hague Family Graveyard forty miles away from where we camped. The Graveyard was about a mile east of Kennonsburg. I had corresponded with an old gentleman 30 years before this. He had written that the Hague graveyard was “400 yards east (up) behind the house.” … The old Hague House. This house and graveyard turned out to be the highlight of our 3 day stay in the area.
Because of road work, it was a long drive over wash-board roads from our camping spot on the southwest portion, to The Hague House perched on the northeast portion of Seneca Lake.
Roland and I had already made the long trip on the second day of our stay. We had searched the bushes and heavy brush up on the hill "400 feet east of The Hague House." We looked and looked and looked….and found nothing!
But on the third day something kept needling me to go back, so I mentioned it to my husband a time or two and finally insisted.
"We've got to go back to that house," I said.
"Back to the house a second time?---40 miles around the lake? Hot! Muggy! Bumpy , dusty roads! What are you going to find now you didn't find the first time?" demanded my usually patient husband.
"I don't know, but we've got to go back!"
He was a bit upset and drove very fast! Hit the top of the wash-board ruts. He's from Idaho and said that's what you have to do on washboard roads, drive fast so you just hit the tops of the bumps. - - - It was a hot day and Roland was hot under the collar too, and the muggy weather didn't help. We didn't talk much. I just white knuckled it and hoped we could stay on the road.
