NEW HOPE Cemetery

Having spent quite a bit of time around Seven Pillars, I had New Hope on the top of my to-do list.


Considering it had taken me 4 hours to photograph Gaerter the day before but thinking this cemetery was about half the size, I felt confident I would be home before 10am...  Well...  I ran into the same problem I had the day before.  The battery died about 30 minutes into the session.
I still believe the cold plays a big part in this problem.

I dropped off Michael at school and made my way to 124, observed a heron perched in a tree by Seven Pillars - I didn't know herons perched in trees - and drove up that crazy hill.  I suppose I could have taken another road but I enjoy driving along the Mississinewa.  It is so peaceful and wild.

I parked in the cemetery lawn and noticed a winged friend hopping in the wet morning grass...
What kind of bird was that...  Would it let me take a picture?
Well, he hopped about and flew away and landed on tombstones, which would have made really awesome shots but he didn't stay put long enough or was out of my line of sight So I had to be content with this shot.  As you can guess seeing this picture,  my feet were wet after I left there...

As Debby Beheler notes on the Miami County Genwebpage, 

"New Hope Cemetery is located northwest of the intersection of county roads 400S and 400E in the southeast corner of section 7, Butler Township , Miami County , Indiana .  It is about 2 miles southwest of the town of Peoria and 5 miles southeast of Peru , Indiana .  The approximately one acre was set aside for a cemetery by pioneer Butler Township resident, Mr. Wiles in 1853 or 1854.

The first person buried in the cemetery was John Noble, who died by suicide on October 17, 1855, at age 35 years, 5 months and 23 days.  Early cemetery trustees were J. Johnson and John Borden."

John Noble's stone is among the 'lost' ones if ever it existed.

I have again taken pictures of all the stones row by row from the front to the back and as Debby says on her page, there are many unreadable and sunken stones in this cemetery.

Find-A-Grave lists 180 people buried there but of course this is only as good as the latest update.  Pictures have also been uploaded there and I strongly recommend using more than one source to decipher the images I have uploaded to Billion Graves, more specifically the hard to read ones.  and you should be able to browse them at least and know how I took them.

Stones don't always face the same way in a cemetery but there usually a majority of them facing one way or the other.  New Hope is a 'morning' cemetery, that is, most stones face East making some of them easier to read when the sun shines on them.  However some stones faced West and for that reason may need to be retaken.

Once again I found stone of people I knew personally: Joe Windsor, my sister-in-law's father...

I always remember picking green beans in his garden when I think of him.   

Then I came across the grave site of James and Barbara Poor.  I wondered what they were doing buried here but really it isn't that far away from their old farm off 124.  They used to be members of the Lions' Club and were well known and well respected around the area.  They died a month apart from each other which was a real shock to everyone who knew them.  He was a stout white haired little old man whose smile could brighten up a room.  He and his wife owned the Poor Farm Country Candy store.  You won't find their obituaries on Ancestry.com but you will on the Miami County's webpage .

My battery died just as I was walking back to the car so the timing was perfect.

I drove back by Seven Pillars hoping to catch the heron again but he wasn't there any more but I captures some long awaited Spring colors.  Things are sure turning fast.  It is wonderful to see how one week has brought the green back into the landscape. Hope it stays!

  

I traded my wet shoes for a pair of sandals until tomorrow...

---
New Hope pictures were taken April 26, 2012

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

 

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.