The Clark County Cemetery Preservation Committee has a workday scheduled for
Saturday, April 15th at the Adams Family Cemetery (see
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881/AdamsFamilyCem.html for more
info on the site).
If you live in the area, Bill Scott (an Adams descendant) and I are inviting
you to bring your rakes, probes, bug repellent and sunscreen to help us probe
for buried stones at the cemetery.
All the hard work has been already done (cleaning the site). This is the fun
part -- looking for "buried treasure".
Depending on how many people show up, we're hoping to probe as much of the
site as we can, but I have my eye on an area with some groundhog activity that
oftentimes indicates the presence of graves (they like to burrow in graves
because the soil has been disturbed and is easier to tunnel in).
We'll be meeting at 10:00 A.M. on Saturday, April 15th at the DAIRY QUEEN on
Middle Road, near Allison Lane in Jeffersonville. (Yes, this is "Thunder"
day, but you can come work with us for a few hours and have PLENTY of time to
head down to the river for the airshow and fireworks.)
In the event of truly inclement weather, we'll have to reschedule, so call me
on Saturday morning at 282-6492 if you have questions on whether we are
go/no-go for Saturday. It's a little early to try to predict what the weather
will be 10 days from now.
The site has been literally stripped down to ground zero, courtesy of Mike
Becher, the Clark County Sheriff's Office and the inmate labor crews that
Deputy Sheriff Joe Egan took out there for 4 days. They have cut down all the
briars, brambles, hedgeapples, etc. (See the before and after pictures on the
webpage.)
As you may already know, the cemetery was deeded to New Chapel Church in Utica
in 1890. We haven't found any stones yet, but my gut instinct tells me there
are a good number of graves in the 106x123' cemetery.
George Clark Schlosser (who grew up on this farm) says he does not remember
grave markers ever being on this property but that his family knew it was a
cemetery and never plowed there. That makes me think the stones (if they
survived) may be buried quite deeply as the area had some pretty dense
vegetation which would have generated a good deal of compost over the years.
We have the permission of the current and future property owner to cross their
property to get to the cemetery. It's very easy to get to and you can park
your car literally at the cemetery's edge.
We also have the permission of New Chapel Methodist Church to try to restore
this 19th Century cemetery. A high-density subdivision/mini-warehouse
development is planned for the surrounding tract of land and the Church would
eventually like to build a fence around the cemetery itself.
Hope some of you can be there. The more folks who show up, the better chance
we have of finding buried stones that haven't seen the light of day in a half
century or more! Wouldn't that be cool?
Lois
=================
Clark County Cemetery Preservation Committee --
Next meeting: Saturday, June 3, 2000, at Clarksville Library
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
Clark County GENWEB Project:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inclark
Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp