John W Conard and his wife Arminda Lorena Conard Conard (they were cousins) are buried in
Myers Cemetery - having lived at Helmsburg, Brown County, Indiana. John W Conard was born
in May 1862 and died March 1934. His parents were Isaac Conard and Elizabeth Smith
Conard, born in Pennsylvania, married in Belmont County, Ohio, and who came to Brown
County, Indiana in 1851 settling first in Nashville, then moving south of Helmsburg.
Their trip from Ohio was via flatboat down the Ohio River to near Madison and then
overland via wagon to Nashville.
Arminda Lorena Conard was born in Belmont County Indiana to Jonathan and Ruth Ann Powell
Conard on August 14, 1863. She died in 1948. The graves of John W and Arminda Lorena
(Minnie) are not marked with gravestones. My uncle, who is 84, remembers helping to dig
the graves. His grandmother, Rebecca Conard Long, was a sister of John W. Conard. He has
said that he wishes someone would erect a stone to mark where they are buried.
John W and Minnie were parents of six children: Earl, Rebecca Ethel, Pearl, Mary Inez,
Austin and John Lowell. I have pictures of John W and Minnie, and of their children and
grandchildren. Also have a picture of Isaac and Elizabeth Conard; Minnie's father,
Jonathan Conard; and the parents of Isaac and Jonathan, John Nixon Conard and Rebecca
Iredell Conard.
David Foster is correct in stating that John Conard and his wife Lena were grandparents of
Gertrude Conard Gwin. As I understand from other grandchildren of John and Lena some of
the buildings of the dairy farm where they lived just off SR 46, between Nashville and
Bloomington is still standing. John Conard of the Belmont area was the youngest son of
Thomas Gilbert Conard and his wife, Nora Shepherd.
The children of Thomas Gilbert Conard (Aug 1852 - Sep 1937) were Edgar, Roy, Harry,
Arthur, Lola Jane, Paul Gilbert, Burl, Faye and John.
It is easy to get 'lost' in this family history as there were many Johns and
Johnathans. Our line is descended from Thones Kunders, the Emigrator, through his son
John. Another line through Henry also has descendants in Indiana - some in Brown County
and Johnson County. About three years ago several Conard descendants from Indiana and
Illinois met in Brown County at the Cottonwood church to meet each other and share
pictures and information via charts of the ancestors of the family. After meeting at the
church they drove to the Myers Cemetery. The Conard family history is very interesting
with our family line back to 1682 in America, farther back in Kreinfeld, Prussia
The charts I put together for studying this family are fascinating - a bit of USA history.
Hope this helps in separating the Johns for Gertrude's history.
Nancy Walker Baldwin
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