Genealogy Road Trip | Marr, Ohio

My sister Courtney joined me for a three-day genealogy road trip in June 2012. I am writing a series of posts that shared the stories and sights of our adventure. This is Part 7.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Shortly after leaving the Ohio River valley, we found ourselves climbing deeper in the to the hills.
Thankfully we had filled up with gas at lunch, because the longer we drove the less populated the land around us became. We first lost cell service, then the satellite radio went. I was getting nervous, as I wasn't sure exactly where we were going without my iPhone's navigation.

Eventually we ended up in a valley where two roads crossed and we saw a little sign that said "Welcome to Marr, Ohio". Courtney and I grew up in a village of less than 500 people, but even to us, Marr was tiny. A handful of houses, a country school and a general store.

Only a handful of our distant relatives have been to Marr, but each of them has mentioned that the general store is a must-stop. Because several people had mentioned it, I had built up a Mayberry type vision in my head of old men sitting in rockers outside talking about the good old days, while little kids ran inside for nickle candy treats.

In reality, it wasn't quite what I had pictured.
It was nearly deserted, with a nervous looking man standing behind the counter. It was hard to decipher what was decoration and what was for sale. The man behind the counter acted like we had caught him off guard and did his best to make small talk. Eventually, my eyes landed on a hand gun and I decided that it was time to high-tail it out of there. We quickly grabbed two old-school bottles of pop, paid cash, and left.

With nothing in town to see, we did a please-let-me-have-as-cell-signal dance and headed in the direction of the Miller Martin Cemetery.