Eel River Chapel Cemetery

Last Sunday, Bruce finally agreed to go with me to see if I could locate the Eel River Cemetery.  I turned on the GPS and also used the one on my phone.

We headed West on US 24 and he pointed out the road we usually take as a shortcut to get to US 31 by Gallahan's as being Eel River Road.  I didn't have much gas in the car so knew we could not go wandering off too far.
Bruce noticed a sign across 31 pointing West, past the State Police post. It seemed like forever until we got to a four-way stop sign and there was the cemetery, sitting at the bottom of a hill.  The stones all faced West so I noted that it would be an afternoon project.  There were houses around so at least I could knock on a door if I had a problem.  I often wonder what people think when they see this crazy lady taking pictures of every grave in the cemetery...

Anyway, we had to go home soon after arriving but at least I knew where it was and when best to visit again, and yet, I returned the next morning, forgetting about the way the stones were facing.  It didn't matter anyway because my GPS refused to kick in.  I turned off the phone and rebooted it. Nothing did.
So I decided to head to Springdale instead.

I tried again the next day - still no luck.  I was pretty much ready to just leave this one alone but I don't like defeat and so decided I'd give it one more chance Thursday afternoon.  This time, however, I turned on the application way before getting to the cemetery.  I don't know if that's why it worked but it did.
I took pictures for about an hour before the sun set and it was pointless to go on.

There is a good mixture of old and new in the Eel River Chapel cemetery and what is good to see is that most of the stones that were once broken have been repaired. 
I noticed a lot of BOWMANs, MYERS, GALLAHANs and other familiar names...

The cemetery sits on a ridge of the Eel River.  Some stones are awfully close to the edge of a ravine and I had to be very careful not to slip and fall.  In fact I think there is at least one stone I was not able to photograph properly.

There were recent dates on the stones as well as some much older ones.

This cemetery has been indexed before and I am always grateful for such listings because they help me decipher the eroded stones or the poorer pictures. Find-A-Grave also has an index.
I have found however that neither is complete.
It was hard to go in straight lanes in this cemetery and I found myself back tracking several times as I realized I had missed a complete row or a certain grouping of stones.

The weather still cooperated on Friday and I finished up before taking Michael to a costumed Halloween party he wanted to attend.

I like the old tall flat stones.  Some of the oldest ones in the cemetery are those of the Anderson family.

Samuel Anderson, who died in 1855 buried several members of his family before taking his turn to rest in the Eel River Chapel Cemetery.
Susana (Anderson) Plotner, wife of Elijah was buried there in 1844, shortly after her brother William Anderson and sister-in-law Elizabeth Anderson.  Their daughter, Malinda Anderson had passed away 2 years prior. How very sad to have so many leave so soon...  I wonder if it was due to typhoid fever like so many deaths in those days...

This stone caught my eye for some reason.

A quick look in Ancestry.com put a face on the name... 
Wish that I could put one on each stone...















Next time, with Springdale...

Tillett's Cemetery

Friday afternoon, the sun was still shining. The rain they had announced for the morning never came and I was getting antsy to take advantage of the weather to take more pictures. It was 3pm. I needed to be available to pick up Michael from school so I wasn't sure I should go. Still needed to finish Springdale, and Gilead but those were too far away to be back quickly in case he called...
So I checked Debby Beheler's cemetery page to see if there was one closer.

I also used Find-A-Grave because of their little maps and that's when I realized exactly where Tillett cemetery was... Right by Lover's Lane.

When the kids were little, we often took bike rides in that neighborhood.  I had never known there was a cemetery there. Well, it makes sense because it is very well hidden from view...
I studied the map to see if I could figure out where the entrance to the cemetery was.  It looked like I'd have to turn left as though going back to the highway but then would have to make a sharp turn to the right.  mmm...  there is a business on the right ... I'd have to just go and see for myself. At least it was right in town and I would not be late picking up Michael should he call.
I jumped in the car and off I went.

Sure enough, as I turned into that business (black camper trailers - not sure what it is called), I noticed a narrow dirt road that meandered up a hill.  I am not too keen on those types of roads but I had no other way to find out...  There were so many leaves the car started to spin its wheels as it lost traction...  Not too comfortable by that point.  On top of the hill there was a flat field like space which allowed me to turn the car around so that I could go back down after my visit.  The view was wonderful from up there. The cemetery has a nice sign and is more or less fenced in.  Leaves everywhere covered the still green grass but the grey of the stones and brown of the leaves dominated...

This cemetery felt strange...  The layout especially.  The graves are almost all destroyed.  It is really a sad sight.  There are graves all the way down the side of a steep slope.  Some people have made time to replace old stones here and there.  There was a broken tree at the bottom of the hill.  Its broken branch laid on top of a newer stone.  I tried moving it but it was way too heavy.

Whenever I walk into a cemetery, I am keenly aware that they are sacred places and I am always careful to show respect. If I have to move the stones, I try to be very careful too.  I did a lot of that in this cemetery, re-placing everything in the spot I found them in.  Someone had taken great care to stack broken stones with others that I assume would be part of a group.  Still I have no real way of being sure that that is the case.

It always upsets me to find stones where the engravings are gone.  I also, yes, it's part of my craziness, talk out loud.  Maybe to reassure myself, as I don't relish being alone in any cemetery...  Oftentimes, just saying the names on the stones that I photograph, especially those that are hard to decipher, making a mental note to remember when comes time to index the stones.

The people buried in the Tillett cemetery must have been prominent if I can judge from the size of the monuments.  Some stones seem to fare better than others. Such is the case for Augustus Banks and his wife Sarah.  When I index the stones, I sometimes sidetrack and learn who the people are.  It turns out he moved to Peru in 1837-38 and became the editor of the Peru Gazette (I had never heard of that paper). He was well travelled too.  Born in Mifflin Co, PA, he learned the printer's trade and practiced it in Lewiston (PA), Baltimore (MD),  Philadelphia (PA), Jackson (TN) and in Florida before returning to Huntington (PA) where he married Sara McConnell.  I wonder why he chose Peru (IN)...
(sources: From History of Miami County, Published in 1887 by Brant and Fuller in Chicago - Jefferson Township)
His obituary in the Miami County Sentinel of January 29, 1891 validated my feeling that "important" people were resting in this cemetery and adds to my desire to be reverent in this place.

"The death of Augustus Banks, a pioneer resident off Miami county, which occurred at his residence Thursday night, three miles north of this city, cast a gloom over the entire community.  Mr. Banks came to Peru in 1837 and has been identified with its growth and development.  Way back in the thirties, after Samuel Pike came out west, with a printing outfit and established “The Forester”, Mr. Banks became associated in its publication with the late James Scott, of Delphi.  

 

The Forester was carried to the subscribers by the publishers, there being no mail service at that time and was the legitimate predecessor of the Miami County Sentinel, which has been conducted through varying degrees of prosperity ever since.  He leaves a wife, who is now 8 years old, and four daughters to mourn his death.  Mr. Banks reached the extreme old age of 91, and his death was the result of his advanced age.  Thus has passed away another of Miami county’s oldest and most valued citizens.  But few of those have withstood the privations and suffering of pioneer life in the Wabash valley remain to relate the incidents through which they passed in developing from a dense forest one of the most fertile regions in the west." - Jan 29, 1891 – Miami County Sentinel, Peru, IN (p7, c6)

(Note: this poem is found at the Miami County Museum - "The poem printed on this silk preceded the first issue of the Peru Forester and dated 1 Jan 1838. It was presented to the prospective patrons as souvenirs, as Frank Pyle , Peru, IN, remembers his mother-in-law, Mrs. James McKinstry saying."  Donated by Frank Pyle on Jun 24, 1916)

I wonder who was Nancy Hinkle...  She was the daughter of E H Hinkle.  According to the entry on Find-A-Grave she died "Sep. 3, 1883". They also give a birth date of "Dec. 7, 1867", so I assume there was once a readable age on the stone...  She was young... Is she the same Nancy Hinkle who lived with her grandmother Mary Ann Stetler in 1880? I found nothing on her...

After I uploaded the pictures to Billion Graves, Bruce told me this cemetery is also called the Hookman's cemetery, supposedly haunted...  I wonder if that is another reason I kept hearing noises behind me while I was there.  I won't say that I was scared out of my wits but there were unsettling noises.  They say there are no birds up there or no insects... I don't know about that. I didn't really pay attention to that. there were bugs though, between the stones I separated to photograph them... But here again I wasn't paying attention to that...  It just felt like a sad lonely place that would be a great place to visit at Halloween if you wanted a good scare... More so even than the Clymer Cemetery had been.  This cemetery is huge in comparison and the sloping reminded me of the headless horseman story...  Silly I know...

Well... I learned something very interesting today...  Maybe I'll check out who else is buried here...
Bruce said he'd come with me to Courter cemetery this afternoon.  I guess I had better sign off. Till next time.