I was in Orange County during the last week of July and all of the
cemeteries you listed were in excellent shape. I visited close to 40
cemeteries while there and the most neglected one I saw was at Lick Creek
Friends church and it was more than exceptable. The ones in danger and total
neglect are the private cemeteries on private lands that have passed out of
the ownership of the original families.
I'm afraid that they are probably out of our hands, as they are on private
property. While the folks in Orange County are wonderful, I'm not sure how
they'd feel about having people tramp through their land on a regular basis.
One thing we have as a blessing is that no matter how neglected these
cemeteries are, our folks are still at rest in them, some contractor isn't
paving over the resting places to make a parking lot for another mall.
Every church cemetery was freshly mowed, in fact about 15 of the ones I
visited were being mowed while I was visiting the grounds. I enjoyed
visiting all these sanctuaries of rest. After doing all the work on the
website, it was like visiting friends. We're so fortunate that Orange County
has remained the rural community that it always has been. There isn't the
economical decisions in force to move or just build over these cemeteries,
which under current law is totally permissible. I'd rather my ancestors lie
in family plot that is a cow pasture than under the drive-thru lane of some
Dairy Queen.
Tom Agan
I live in Texas and only get to Indiana every 2 or 3 years. I would
be
willing to support cemetery clean-up monetarily. My family is buried at
IOOF, City Cemetery, Ames Chapel, Antioch, and Stampers Creek.
I also have family in Washington County and their cemeteries seemed to be
kept up better. At least in 1998.
Kay E. Armstrong
kayarm(a)swbell.net