Shrock Cemetery

SHROCK cemetery is the very first cemetery I ever took pictures in. 
Way before Billion Graves.

At the time (2005) Carolyn Coffman, her husband Richard and daughter Connie had just finished encoding DeReese Clark I's cards from his 1955 reading of Mount Hope cemetery and they were bored.

They had always worked as a pair extracting records from microfilms onto the computer: one reading the record, the other one encoding. Unfortunately as our Stake had opted out of the extraction program we were no longer receiving materials to work on.  We had called Salt Lake City and they had said we could start an individual program but it was quickly clear the true purpose had escaped the people we needed to clear this through here.

The question was "How are we going to keep Carolyn and Richard busy?"  It was more about helping them feel productive as their age and physical health were beginning to limit their movement.

There was and still is an abundance of good projects to get involved in.  We had started the Mount Hope cemetery cards encoding to help out with the Genweb project for Miami County Indiana.  It seemed logical to continue.

They could not go themselves walking through the cemeteries but what if we brought the cemetery to them?!

I had purchased a nice little digital camera back in 2002 and decided it was time to put it to work.
It was obvious Mount Hope would need updating but I wasn't ready to tackle such a big place just yet.
It was also obvious that we would have to come up with a basic set of instructions so first I needed to figure out the steps.

I remembered that my mother-in-law had told me we had family buried at SHROCK cemetery,  a small place up the hill by Indian Oaks Golf Course, and so the project begun.
It was almost 7 years ago to the day as the first picture I took is dated November 11, 2005.
Muriel always put flowers on Bruce's great-grandparents Edwin and Olive (Schroll) Cattin's grave but I don't think she realized how many other family members were there as well.
In part because of my research on the CATTIN family in Erie Township and in Switzerland, I recognized many names: HOSTETLER, WAYMIRE, CHAMBERS, EILER, CLAUVE...
The place was so peaceful and quiet.  Birds were whistling all around. A soft breeze was gently brushing the tree branches.  Call me silly, but that is when I decided Shrock cemetery would be my resting place after I die.  NO, not tomorrow and to be honest with you, I'm not even sure there are still plots available but the view, overlooking the far end of the cemetery was not what i would expect from a cemetery. It's also not that the stones fare better there than in other places.  I just felt 'at home' with so many people I knew already there...  There were also old friends like Sadie HILEMAN and Geneva VANAMAN,  two sweet sisters (HENRY) I knew from church. You may say: "How morbid!"
I have never been one to 'haunt' cemeteries, in fact quite the opposite and I had until then not even given a thought to the business of death.
Anyway, it took two days to photograph the cemetery in 2005 and I sent the index and the pictures to Deb Beheler so she could make them available on her Genweb page for Miami County IN in the cemeteries section.
And I moved on to Mount Hope since I now had a plan.
I often thought of updating Shrock but never got around to it until earlier this year.
The gentleman with whom I combined forces to get Mount Hope completed had asked permission to upload the pictures on Find-A-Grave and I saw no problem with it.  Until this Spring that is.
A quick search for Sadie HILEMAN on Ancestry.com pointed to an error that they still have not fixed in spite of my contacting them.

It seems Ancestry.com placed Shrock Cemetery in Converse, IN!
Mind you, the link on their site redirects you to the right place since it is the Find-A-Grave site
Still, it is sad that they have not fixed this error yet.

In any case, this was another trigger for me to update the cemetery listing and once again, it is where I began my adventures with Billion Graves. 
I must tell you, the GPS signal sometimes isn't good enough for the phone camera to take a picture and I noticed right away that even though the camera eventually took the picture the location tag isn't always correct.

I was able to take pictures this time around that showed the engravings better than the first time around but there are stones that were really eroded in 7 years and I am glad for the earlier versions Deb still has uploaded on the Genweb page.

The back of Shrock cemetery is a sad sight... 


That's where Bruce's great-great-grandfather is buried, Ulysses CATTIN with his wife Mary (SPERIZEN).  Their daughter Suzanna KITZMILLER's stone is adjacent to theirs

As you can see the one in the back is sinking in.  To prevent the engraved stone to topple down, somebody propped it up with a rock.  In some cases, the stones are propped with crunched soda cans... 

This is Suzanna's in 2005 on the left and the other two were taken in May 2012.

This one is Suzanna's parents, Ulysses and Mary Cattin.  The engraving is so faded it is very hard to decipher as you can see.

There is much worse further back.

It also depends on how the sun light hits the stone.  This last time I was able to capture engravings i was not able to 7 years ago.

Some may think it is a waste of time to duplicate the work but in this case I have found that we are lucky to find more than one photo of some stones because without the extra ones they would not yield their information.  And a funny thing is, oftentimes you will see something better through the camera lens than through our eyes.

One stone intrigued me in there.  That of a young boy: Eli Marion MARKEN.  It is not a very common name in Miami County, Indiana.  My curiosity took me to Ancestry.com where I was able to find his family.
Some information was available in the family trees.  Two researchers, one of whom is Henk Wolka, give further information which may explain the rarity of the MARKEN name around here.

"When Gideon was about two years old, his family moved to Montgomery County, Ohio, near Dayton (along with their friends, the Myers and Shively families) where the family resided until Gideon was about 16. In the spring of 1850, the Jacob Marken family moved west to Indiana with neighbor families (Shively, Maugans, Myers, & Erbaugh). They established a farm in Pipe Creek Twsp, Miami County near the Cass and Miami county line. This homestead farm was located on the Onward Road west of US Highway 31, west of the current Grissom Air Force Base.  After his marriage to Sarah Silvius, the couple lived on another farm in Pipe Creek Twp., where three of their children were born (John, Jacob, and Josiah). About 1862 Gideon purchased a farm in Erie Twp., Miami County. There the remaining eleven of their children were born.  Initially, they lived in a loghouse on the property. In 1868 they built a large frame house and in 1875 added a large bank-barn. These two buildings were still being used at last notice. This farm has remained in the hands of Marken descendants for about 125 years.  Sarah died on her 48th birthday from a stroke of apoplexy. Gideon remarried Amanda Brown Daniels, a widow, in 1888. They bore three children. Amanda died in 1911 of heart disease.  Gideon had purchased another farm on the Erie Road, north of the Marken homestead. After Amanda's death, he lived with his daughter Pearl Faust, on this farm.  Six of Gideon's sons caught the "western fever."  In the early 1800's(typo?) Josiah, John, and Jacob moved west to Franklin Co., Iowa. Several years later, Daniel F. and Gideon A. Marken also went to Iowa to live. After 1900 Edward Marken left for Iowa also.  The Marken families were active members of the Erie United Bretheren Church--Gideon served as a founder and church trustee. The church, built in 1900 is still active today, located on the Paw Paw Pike.  Gideon died at age 83. He, his two wives and five of his children are buried in the Shrock Cemetery, Peru Township, Miami County, Indiana."

Shrock cemetery is a peaceful place to spend time. If you have family buried there, Check on Billion Graves to see if you can find them!

Till next time...

Springdale Cemetery

Earlier this year I received an email from FamilySearch Indexing announcing that they had partnered with a new site which published cemetery pictures, Billion Graves.

I had just started to update the work I did between 2007 and 2009 for The Miami County Genweb and had hoped I could just send them my pictures but that was not quite the case.
Pictures for their site had to be taken with a smart phone, using their free app.
I was intrigued with the concept because it put a GPS tag on each grave and I could not wait to try it.

That was back in May. Since then I have visited 22 cemeteries in Miami and Wabash Counties and uploaded 29,664 images to their site.  It made sense I should record my experience as I visit and photograph these cemeteries.  Not sure I'll back track though I might.  I already posted two articles on cemeteries I photographed after deciding to do this blog.  Thus my 3rd article is actually the very first one I started.

Last July Bruce called me from a car dealership to tell me I needed to meet him there to sign papers as he had just bought a new Dodge Ram truck and my name was on it...  I wasn't too delighted but circumstances were such that I knew he was about to do just this... just didn't think it would be that soon.

After signing the papers I decided to take backroads home and instead of turning right out of Schwartz dealership, I turned left on 218.  I had not driven 500 feet when I saw a cemetery...  not a huge one but big enough...  I immediately decided to stop to take a look and started taking pictures.

Springdale Cemetery stretches on both sides of 218.  The heat was so intense that I was only able to photograph the middle portion on the north side of the road before my phone got so hot I could not hold it without burning my fingers.
So I determined to return later and finish.  I checked the south side and noticed the graves there were older than those on the north side.  I also noticed that the way the stones faced is determined by where they are along the inside roads.  This, I noticed is true for many other cemeteries, like Mount Hope for example.
The stones face the roads up to the middle of the section.  This makes it a bit more difficult to pick a good time to take pictures as no matter when you go you will find the sunlight interfering, while at the same time, enhancing the stones, depending on whether they face East or West.



Springdale Cemetery also sits across from Grissom Air Reserve Base but I have only once had the chance to see airplanes practicing their landing and take off.

Anyway, the weather is turning and so I took advantage of this gorgeous day to go finish Springdale.  I was in the middle of photographing the far West section on the south side of the road when the planes began to appear.  They were so low in the sky it looked like they could land in the cemetery...

As I mentioned earlier, the older graves are found on the south side of the road and some are hard to decipher but altogether this cemetery is in pretty good shape.

Some stones must have been replaced like the ones for the family of John W Haggerty.

According to the History of Miami County(1), John W Haggerty was "a highly esteemed pioneer of Miami County, Indiana, was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, February 15, 1824. His parents, David and Sarah (Larimer) Haggerty, were both natives of Pennsylvania. When John was four years old his father died leaving a widow and six children. Until twenty-two years of age Mr. Haggerty’s earnings went toward the support of his mother. He then purchased forty acres of land in Elkhart County, but soon left there and bought a tract of land in Pipe Creek Township. He again sold out and settled in Deer Creek Township. His marriage with Miss Sarah C. McCreary was solemnized in 1851. The result of this union was one child, named George A. Mrs. Haggerty died in 1854. Mr. Haggerty’s second choice was Miss Ellen Hann, daughter of Benjamin and Mary A. Hann, citizens of Pipe Creek Township. To their union seven children have been born: Carey, Annetty, Emma J., Alonzo E., Idella M., Melvin E. and an infant that died unnamed. Mr. and Mrs. Haggerty have lived to see the county develop from an almost unbroken forest into one of the most fertile and populous regions of northern Indiana. He is a Democrat in politics, and he and wife are members of the Baptist Church."
But not all are this way...

I tried to learn more about this Pipe Creek Baptist church but didn't find what I wanted.
I did, however, find a very interesting site talking about the different churches of Miami County (IN)

The photos I uploaded to Billion Graves are not all indexed yet.  If you can't find someone through a search, see if you can look at all the images one by one instead.
What I enjoy most about this site is the fact that you can see where in the cemetery a grave is located.  It seems to 'connect' better...
Enjoy!

(1)From History of Miami County, Published in 1887 by Brant and Fuller in Chicago - Deer Creek Township

 

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.