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.