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Hello,
I am in the middle of a law suit to save a cemetery.
In 1878 my great-grandparents, along with her sisters and brothers sold
200 acres. In the deed it stated that one acre in the S/W corner to be
reserved as a "graveyard" forever. The developer says the acre in
question is not where the graves are, even though my great-grand parents
are buried there, and there were graves there before the deed.
PLEASE look at what the developer's atty. sent to the judge. You will
have to print it to see the "vacant chair" written on a chair in the
cemetery. I do NOT think this is funny.
What do all of you think about it?
*******************************************************************
subject: from the developer's atty.
Re: Now here's what a cemetery is supposed to look like...
Date:
Mon, 17 May 1999 13:35:44 -0500
From: from my atty. to judge
Organization:
To:
CC:
Judge T
On behalf of my client, I am requesting that this communication with you
from Mr. W be
made part of the court file and
record in this case. Please advise. Respectfully, Lee P
Nick W wrote: (the developer's atty.)
> http://www.roadsideamerica.com./set/images/KSHIAvacant.jpg
>click on above to see picture!!
>
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alice D in MS
Just got word that Anne Schleper's pioneer cemeteries story is going to run
in the Evansville Courier on Sunday, May 30. Be sure to check the paper's
website on Sunday at http://courier.evansville.net/
Lois
- -------------------------------
The on-line indexes for the Clark County Cemeteries are now SEARCHABLE:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
Please visit the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
I was recently asked by a resident of Indiana to let as many persons
as I could know of the likely destruction of the Resaca [Georgia]
Battlefield. The Resaca Battlefield is now privately owned. The
battlefield is to be clear-cut by the present owner. The 1864
entrenchments are still in place within the area to be clear cut.
The Governor of Georgia needs to be contacted and encouraged to
preserve the battlefield with whatever means he has available
including eminent domain (condemnation).
The following link will take you to The Civil War Trust page dealing
with the Resaca Battlefield. There is also information concerning the
means by which the Georgia Governor's office may be contacted.
http://www.civilwar.org/cwt-new20.htm
If you are inclined to do so, let the Governor of Georgia know of your
concerns concerning the preservation of the Resaca Battlefield as a
Georgia State Park.
There were 6,000 soldiers, including a number from Indiana, killed
during the two day [May 14 & 15, 1864] Battle of Resaca.
Preserving the historic areas of these United States of America is
important to our generation and those to follow.
To those of you who may be offended that I would take up your time
with this message; my apologies.
Sam Cline
"For God and Country and Dad", the cover story of the May issue of Indiana
REMC's publication, ELECTRIC CONSUMER, is now on-line at
http://www.indremcs.org/ElectricConsumer/stories/mcover.html.
The article is about a Civil War riverside memorial in Perry County near
Magnet, Indiana memorializing 10 soldiers killed in a steamboat accident on
Aug. 21, 1865. The sternwheeler USS Argosy No. 3 was transporting 300 Civil
War veterans up the Ohio River to Cincinnati. Most of the soldiers were
from the 70th Regiment of the Ohio Infantry. Unfortunately, the article
does not include the names of the victims.
Lois
- -------------------------------
The on-line indexes for the Clark County Cemeteries are now SEARCHABLE:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
Please visit the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
To the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration
Project (INPCRP) e-mail discussion group:
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
Ms. Anne Schleper, Features Reporter for the EVANSVILLE COURIER & PRESS
[e-mail: annie(a)evansville.net], contacted Scott Satterthwaite and I this
weekend. She is working on a story about pioneer cemeteries and we will
both be talking with her this week.
She's advised us that she wants to include in her story ways interested
folks can join the effort to save pioneer cemeteries, but that she is
unaware of any such efforts taking place in the "Tri-State area" of Dubois,
Perry, Spencer, Pike, Gibson, Knox, Vanderburgh, Posey, Daviess and a little
of Martin County (Loogootee).
If any of you are working on cemetery restoration projects in that area or
if you have a comment to make to Anne that may be germane to her story,
please drop her a line at the above e-mail address.
If you write to Anne, be sure to include your full name, address, telephone
number and e-mail address in case she wants to get in touch with you.
I will be talking with her about the new legislation, our hopes for future
legislation and especially about Wilhoit Cemetery in Dubois County and
Epworth United Methodist Church Cemetery in Evansville (both of which were
destroyed) and the INPCRP Hall of Shame.
I know for a certainty that there is a lot more going on in SW Indiana, but
I don't feel equipped with enough first-hand knowledge to discuss the facts
and circumstances with her.
Lois
- -------------------------------
The on-line indexes for the Clark County Cemeteries are now SEARCHABLE:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
Please visit the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
Do you have sample pictures posted somewhere that those of us who will not
make the presentation could reference to see what you are talking about, or
use as a sample if we see a stone we think may be one of the ones you want
to find?
----------
>From: "Kvale, Erik" <Kvalee(a)pyrite.igs.indiana.edu>
>To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com
>Subject: [INPCRP-L] Tombstone talk at the Indiana Geological Survey
>Date: Tue, May 18, 1999, 3:59 PM
>
> I am a recent subscriber and hope that I am doing this correctly, but I
> wanted to let those living near Bloomington, Indiana to know that there
> will be a talk hosted by the Indiana Geological Survey, located on the
> Indiana University campus on the 27th of May starting at 4:00 (coffee at
> 3:30) that might interest some of you. The talk is by Dr. Richard
> Powell on pioneer gravestones in southern Indiana . The talk will be in
> the Geology Building, S-201 (intersection of 10th street and Walnut
> Grove, north of the Memorial Union). We have sent out a short press
> release through the IU News Bureau but the long version is below.
>
> We could use some help with our research, and if any of you have
> questions please contact me.
> Erik Kvale
> _______________________
> Erik P. Kvale, Associate Professor
> Indiana University
> Indiana Geological Survey/Department of Geological Sciences
> 611 N. Walnut Grove
> Bloomington, IN 47405
> (812) 855-1324
> (812) 855-2862 (fax)
> kvalee(a)indiana.edu
>
> The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) needs your help and invites you to
> participate in a state-wide research project. In the pre-Civil War era,
> decades before the introduction of marble and the ornately carved Salem
> Limestone "tree stump" monuments, Indiana's whetstone quarrying
> district in Orange County was producing commercial grade gravestones.
> The apparent extent and historical importance of this industry has gone
> completely unrecognized until now. Erik Kvale and Richard Powell,
> geologists with the IGS and Michael McNerney archeologist and president
> of American Resources Group, Ltd, Carbondale IL, with important
> financial assistance from an Indiana Historical Society Clio Grant, are
> attempting to map the distribution of these gravestones though out
> Indiana and beyond.
> It has long been known that in the 1800s Indiana was a major producer
> of whetstones: stones used to sharpen a variety of implements. This
> mining industry was centered in Orange County where well-sorted,
> uniformly cemented coarse siltstone is common. The stone, known as
> Hindostan whetstone by the trade, was deposited during the Pennsylvanian
> Period, the geological time interval associated with Indiana's coal
> seams. Annual production at the peak of the industry in the late 1800s
> was approximately 300,000 pounds and it was once stated that "a Hoosier
> household without an Indiana whetstone was no Hoosier household at all".
> Most commercial whetstones produced were shipped from the quarries via
> ox wagon to the West Fork of the White River or the Lost River.
> Flatboats, keelboats or barges then float the stones down these rivers
> and eventually onto the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers; in some
> cases they were shipped on to New Orleans and overseas from there. The
> earliest commercial production of whetstone can be tentatively traced
> back to the 1820s and production persisted into the twentieth century
> with the last quarry closing in the late 1980s.
> Strata seen in the Orange County whetstone quarries share many
> similarities with the whetstone headstones found in many cemeteries in
> the region. They are composed of finely layered siltstone (rather than
> sandstone, as stated in some published county histories, which is
> coarser-grained than siltstone). The thickness of each layer is
> measured on a millimeter scale. What is so unique about these deposits
> is the organization of the layers into couplets consisting of a thick
> layer and a thinner layer. These couplets themselves exhibit a large
> scale cycle consisting of a progressive thickening and thinning pattern
> of the stacked couplets.
> Much has been made of this stacking pattern in the past decade.
> Geological investigations have shown that the Hindostan whetstone beds
> were deposited on an ancient tidal flat and that the thickness of each
> siltstone layer can be directly equated to the daily, and sometimes
> semidaily, rise and fall of ancient tides associated with that tidal
> flat. So exact are these ancient recordings that, from precise
> measurements of a series of individual lamina in outcrop or gravestone,
> it is possible to determine, among other things, the phase of the moon
> during the time the layers were deposited. So significant is this
> discovery that these Indiana deposit are now known internationally in
> the geological community.
> The pattern of progressive thickening and thinning of the layering in
> the well-sorted siltstone is absolutely diagnostic of the whetstone beds
> and allows us to positively identify this stone when encountered in
> cemeteries.
> Whetstone gravestones are among the oldest preserved in the southern
> part of the state and the graves of several historically important
> persons Hoosiers from the early 1800s, such as Col. Francis Vigo and
> Robert Buntin, are marked with these monuments. Despite the age of
> these stones, most of the whetstone gravestones are so durable that the
> lettering and scroll work look as though they were carved yesterday
> rather than 150 to 180 years ago. We have identified whetstone
> headstones in a number of pioneer cemeteries in southwestern Indiana.
> Amazingly, we have also found them in Pope County, Illinois, and a
> number of other Illinois pioneer cemeteries near the Wabash River. We
> are acutely aware that we have not yet discovered the limits of the
> distribution of Hindostan whetstone gravestones and we expect to find
> these stones distributed along the Lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. We
> also expect the distribution of these tombstones to parallel the other
> commercial trading routes of early Indiana, such as along the early
> canal network. Some of these routes are known but others are only
> inferred.
> Please help us by participating in this research. If you encounter a
> whetstone monument or one that you suspect may be such a monument,
> please photograph its face and edge-on view and send these photographs
> to Erik Kvale, Indiana University, Indiana Geological Survey, 611 North
> Walnut Grove, Bloomington Indiana, 47405 or contact Kvale via e-mail at
> kvalee(a)indiana.edu. To learn more about this project, you can attend a
> talk by Richard Powell entitled "Whetstone tombstones, a forgotten early
> Indiana Industry," which will be held in the Geology Building at Indiana
> University, Bloomington at 4:00 in room S-201 on May 27th. For more
> information on Richard Powell's talk, contact the Indiana Geological
> Survey, 611 North Walnut Grove, Bloomington, IN 47405 [Telephone: (812)
> 855-7636; Fax: (812) 855-2862; E-mail: igsinfor(a)indiana.edu].
>
>
> ==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
> If you know of some good cemetery related links, send them to
LoisMauk(a)usa.net.
>
>
Royce, the fact that you are descended from someone who is buried in that
cemetery MIGHT be helpful. I have recently pursued the avenues that are open
to us in Indiana with regard to another cemetery (Franklin County), with
frustrating results. I hope there is someone on the list from Spencer County
who will be willing to pursue this. Does the city own the property, now? At
least some action at this point might be in time to keep it from becoming a
parking lot.
Unfortunately, the other cemetery I am referring to is on private property
and has a house being built on it. We were finally, on the second contact,
able to get the county conservation officer to examine the site, but since
he saw no human remains or casket fragments on the surface, he could do
nothing.
The Department of Natural Resources informs us that we need to locate a
descendant who knows of an ancestor buried there, and can testify that this
is the exact location of the cemetery on the property. Meanwhile,
construction continues--perfectly legal unless human remains are exposed.
The cemetery is mentioned on the deed, but not pinpointed as to the exact
location on the property. The sad thing is that if DNR did become involved,
the best we could hope for is that the DNR will bring a team of
archeologists to remove the remains, rather than preserve this cemetery
site.
This is why we really need to get behind the push for more and better
legislation before it is too late. The public THINKS there is legislation in
place to protect cemeteries. They THINK this until they try to locate their
own ancestor's grave and cannot even find a trace of the cemetery.
Ruth Cox Schlemmer
SE Indiana
-----Original Message-----
From: Royce Whittington <wwhittin(a)surfsouth.com>
To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 5:25 PM
Subject: [INPCRP-L] (no subject)
>I would like to report an endangered cemetery in Gentryville, Spencer
>County, Indiana. The name of it is Old Christian Church cemetery and it
>is located on 3rd. Street in Gentryville. I have a record that my 2nd
>Great Grandmother was buried there in 1862. I visited there last year
>and had a very difficult time even finding it, although it was supposed
>to be right in town. After asking several people, I went to the post
>Office there and was told, yes there was a Christian Church and cemetery
>located there. The church building has long since been gone with no
>trace of the building left. I was told the cemetery was once full of
>beautiful stones, but they had been broken or destroyed in one way or
>the other. There are houses and moblie homes occupied, surrounding the
>cemetery along with trash and abandoned automobiles. The cemetery is
>located only 2 blocks from the main highway where a Methodist Church is
>located. The city had placed a very small two foot marker with Old
>Christian Church written on it. However, I understand the city comes in
>with tractor lawn mowers and have broken the stones. I could not find a
>trace of my ancestors stone. If it had not been listed in a cemetery
>survey, I would not know she was buried there. I am very hopeful your
>project will help correct these abuses. Since I live in another state,
>Georgia, I am not near enough to see about it in person. If there is
>another way I can help, I would be glad to.
>
>Information found: Cemetery Inscription Book, Spencer Co., IN. RFH
>977.231 Vol.6, Willard Library, Evansville, IN. ROBERTS, Jane, w/o
>William Roberts D. Nov. 1862, 63 yrs.
>
>
>==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
>Blessed are the Elderly, for they remember what we will never know.
>
I would like to report an endangered cemetery in Gentryville, Spencer
County, Indiana. The name of it is Old Christian Church cemetery and it
is located on 3rd. Street in Gentryville. I have a record that my 2nd
Great Grandmother was buried there in 1862. I visited there last year
and had a very difficult time even finding it, although it was supposed
to be right in town. After asking several people, I went to the post
Office there and was told, yes there was a Christian Church and cemetery
located there. The church building has long since been gone with no
trace of the building left. I was told the cemetery was once full of
beautiful stones, but they had been broken or destroyed in one way or
the other. There are houses and moblie homes occupied, surrounding the
cemetery along with trash and abandoned automobiles. The cemetery is
located only 2 blocks from the main highway where a Methodist Church is
located. The city had placed a very small two foot marker with Old
Christian Church written on it. However, I understand the city comes in
with tractor lawn mowers and have broken the stones. I could not find a
trace of my ancestors stone. If it had not been listed in a cemetery
survey, I would not know she was buried there. I am very hopeful your
project will help correct these abuses. Since I live in another state,
Georgia, I am not near enough to see about it in person. If there is
another way I can help, I would be glad to.
Information found: Cemetery Inscription Book, Spencer Co., IN. RFH
977.231 Vol.6, Willard Library, Evansville, IN. ROBERTS, Jane, w/o
William Roberts D. Nov. 1862, 63 yrs.
I'm gonna be out of town until Sunday. You guys behave yourself till I get
back. :-)
I'll be without a computer until then, so I'll probably be going through
withdrawal. :-(
Lois
Erik:
Thanks for letting us know about this meeting. I'm sure a few folks on this
list will be interested.
Lois
-----Original Message-----
From: Kvale, Erik <Kvalee(a)pyrite.igs.indiana.edu>
To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 5:01 PM
Subject: [INPCRP-L] Tombstone talk at the Indiana Geological Survey
>I am a recent subscriber and hope that I am doing this correctly, but I
>wanted to let those living near Bloomington, Indiana to know that there
>will be a talk hosted by the Indiana Geological Survey, located on the
>Indiana University campus on the 27th of May starting at 4:00 (coffee at
>3:30) that might interest some of you. The talk is by Dr. Richard
>Powell on pioneer gravestones in southern Indiana . The talk will be in
>the Geology Building, S-201 (intersection of 10th street and Walnut
>Grove, north of the Memorial Union). We have sent out a short press
>release through the IU News Bureau but the long version is below.
>
>We could use some help with our research, and if any of you have
>questions please contact me.
>Erik Kvale
>_______________________
>Erik P. Kvale, Associate Professor
>Indiana University
>Indiana Geological Survey/Department of Geological Sciences
>611 N. Walnut Grove
>Bloomington, IN 47405
>(812) 855-1324
>(812) 855-2862 (fax)
>kvalee(a)indiana.edu
>
> The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) needs your help and invites you to
>participate in a state-wide research project. In the pre-Civil War era,
>decades before the introduction of marble and the ornately carved Salem
>Limestone "tree stump" monuments, Indiana's whetstone quarrying
>district in Orange County was producing commercial grade gravestones.
>The apparent extent and historical importance of this industry has gone
>completely unrecognized until now. Erik Kvale and Richard Powell,
>geologists with the IGS and Michael McNerney archeologist and president
>of American Resources Group, Ltd, Carbondale IL, with important
>financial assistance from an Indiana Historical Society Clio Grant, are
>attempting to map the distribution of these gravestones though out
>Indiana and beyond.
> It has long been known that in the 1800s Indiana was a major producer
>of whetstones: stones used to sharpen a variety of implements. This
>mining industry was centered in Orange County where well-sorted,
>uniformly cemented coarse siltstone is common. The stone, known as
>Hindostan whetstone by the trade, was deposited during the Pennsylvanian
>Period, the geological time interval associated with Indiana's coal
>seams. Annual production at the peak of the industry in the late 1800s
>was approximately 300,000 pounds and it was once stated that "a Hoosier
>household without an Indiana whetstone was no Hoosier household at all".
> Most commercial whetstones produced were shipped from the quarries via
>ox wagon to the West Fork of the White River or the Lost River.
>Flatboats, keelboats or barges then float the stones down these rivers
>and eventually onto the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers; in some
>cases they were shipped on to New Orleans and overseas from there. The
>earliest commercial production of whetstone can be tentatively traced
>back to the 1820s and production persisted into the twentieth century
>with the last quarry closing in the late 1980s.
> Strata seen in the Orange County whetstone quarries share many
>similarities with the whetstone headstones found in many cemeteries in
>the region. They are composed of finely layered siltstone (rather than
>sandstone, as stated in some published county histories, which is
>coarser-grained than siltstone). The thickness of each layer is
>measured on a millimeter scale. What is so unique about these deposits
>is the organization of the layers into couplets consisting of a thick
>layer and a thinner layer. These couplets themselves exhibit a large
>scale cycle consisting of a progressive thickening and thinning pattern
>of the stacked couplets.
> Much has been made of this stacking pattern in the past decade.
>Geological investigations have shown that the Hindostan whetstone beds
>were deposited on an ancient tidal flat and that the thickness of each
>siltstone layer can be directly equated to the daily, and sometimes
>semidaily, rise and fall of ancient tides associated with that tidal
>flat. So exact are these ancient recordings that, from precise
>measurements of a series of individual lamina in outcrop or gravestone,
>it is possible to determine, among other things, the phase of the moon
>during the time the layers were deposited. So significant is this
>discovery that these Indiana deposit are now known internationally in
>the geological community.
> The pattern of progressive thickening and thinning of the layering in
>the well-sorted siltstone is absolutely diagnostic of the whetstone beds
>and allows us to positively identify this stone when encountered in
>cemeteries.
> Whetstone gravestones are among the oldest preserved in the southern
>part of the state and the graves of several historically important
>persons Hoosiers from the early 1800s, such as Col. Francis Vigo and
>Robert Buntin, are marked with these monuments. Despite the age of
>these stones, most of the whetstone gravestones are so durable that the
>lettering and scroll work look as though they were carved yesterday
>rather than 150 to 180 years ago. We have identified whetstone
>headstones in a number of pioneer cemeteries in southwestern Indiana.
>Amazingly, we have also found them in Pope County, Illinois, and a
>number of other Illinois pioneer cemeteries near the Wabash River. We
>are acutely aware that we have not yet discovered the limits of the
>distribution of Hindostan whetstone gravestones and we expect to find
>these stones distributed along the Lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. We
>also expect the distribution of these tombstones to parallel the other
>commercial trading routes of early Indiana, such as along the early
>canal network. Some of these routes are known but others are only
>inferred.
> Please help us by participating in this research. If you encounter a
>whetstone monument or one that you suspect may be such a monument,
>please photograph its face and edge-on view and send these photographs
>to Erik Kvale, Indiana University, Indiana Geological Survey, 611 North
>Walnut Grove, Bloomington Indiana, 47405 or contact Kvale via e-mail at
>kvalee(a)indiana.edu. To learn more about this project, you can attend a
>talk by Richard Powell entitled "Whetstone tombstones, a forgotten early
>Indiana Industry," which will be held in the Geology Building at Indiana
>University, Bloomington at 4:00 in room S-201 on May 27th. For more
>information on Richard Powell's talk, contact the Indiana Geological
>Survey, 611 North Walnut Grove, Bloomington, IN 47405 [Telephone: (812)
>855-7636; Fax: (812) 855-2862; E-mail: igsinfor(a)indiana.edu].
>
>
>==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
>If you know of some good cemetery related links, send them to
LoisMauk(a)usa.net.
>
>
I am a recent subscriber and hope that I am doing this correctly, but I
wanted to let those living near Bloomington, Indiana to know that there
will be a talk hosted by the Indiana Geological Survey, located on the
Indiana University campus on the 27th of May starting at 4:00 (coffee at
3:30) that might interest some of you. The talk is by Dr. Richard
Powell on pioneer gravestones in southern Indiana . The talk will be in
the Geology Building, S-201 (intersection of 10th street and Walnut
Grove, north of the Memorial Union). We have sent out a short press
release through the IU News Bureau but the long version is below.
We could use some help with our research, and if any of you have
questions please contact me.
Erik Kvale
_______________________
Erik P. Kvale, Associate Professor
Indiana University
Indiana Geological Survey/Department of Geological Sciences
611 N. Walnut Grove
Bloomington, IN 47405
(812) 855-1324
(812) 855-2862 (fax)
kvalee(a)indiana.edu
The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) needs your help and invites you to
participate in a state-wide research project. In the pre-Civil War era,
decades before the introduction of marble and the ornately carved Salem
Limestone "tree stump" monuments, Indiana's whetstone quarrying
district in Orange County was producing commercial grade gravestones.
The apparent extent and historical importance of this industry has gone
completely unrecognized until now. Erik Kvale and Richard Powell,
geologists with the IGS and Michael McNerney archeologist and president
of American Resources Group, Ltd, Carbondale IL, with important
financial assistance from an Indiana Historical Society Clio Grant, are
attempting to map the distribution of these gravestones though out
Indiana and beyond.
It has long been known that in the 1800s Indiana was a major producer
of whetstones: stones used to sharpen a variety of implements. This
mining industry was centered in Orange County where well-sorted,
uniformly cemented coarse siltstone is common. The stone, known as
Hindostan whetstone by the trade, was deposited during the Pennsylvanian
Period, the geological time interval associated with Indiana's coal
seams. Annual production at the peak of the industry in the late 1800s
was approximately 300,000 pounds and it was once stated that "a Hoosier
household without an Indiana whetstone was no Hoosier household at all".
Most commercial whetstones produced were shipped from the quarries via
ox wagon to the West Fork of the White River or the Lost River.
Flatboats, keelboats or barges then float the stones down these rivers
and eventually onto the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers; in some
cases they were shipped on to New Orleans and overseas from there. The
earliest commercial production of whetstone can be tentatively traced
back to the 1820s and production persisted into the twentieth century
with the last quarry closing in the late 1980s.
Strata seen in the Orange County whetstone quarries share many
similarities with the whetstone headstones found in many cemeteries in
the region. They are composed of finely layered siltstone (rather than
sandstone, as stated in some published county histories, which is
coarser-grained than siltstone). The thickness of each layer is
measured on a millimeter scale. What is so unique about these deposits
is the organization of the layers into couplets consisting of a thick
layer and a thinner layer. These couplets themselves exhibit a large
scale cycle consisting of a progressive thickening and thinning pattern
of the stacked couplets.
Much has been made of this stacking pattern in the past decade.
Geological investigations have shown that the Hindostan whetstone beds
were deposited on an ancient tidal flat and that the thickness of each
siltstone layer can be directly equated to the daily, and sometimes
semidaily, rise and fall of ancient tides associated with that tidal
flat. So exact are these ancient recordings that, from precise
measurements of a series of individual lamina in outcrop or gravestone,
it is possible to determine, among other things, the phase of the moon
during the time the layers were deposited. So significant is this
discovery that these Indiana deposit are now known internationally in
the geological community.
The pattern of progressive thickening and thinning of the layering in
the well-sorted siltstone is absolutely diagnostic of the whetstone beds
and allows us to positively identify this stone when encountered in
cemeteries.
Whetstone gravestones are among the oldest preserved in the southern
part of the state and the graves of several historically important
persons Hoosiers from the early 1800s, such as Col. Francis Vigo and
Robert Buntin, are marked with these monuments. Despite the age of
these stones, most of the whetstone gravestones are so durable that the
lettering and scroll work look as though they were carved yesterday
rather than 150 to 180 years ago. We have identified whetstone
headstones in a number of pioneer cemeteries in southwestern Indiana.
Amazingly, we have also found them in Pope County, Illinois, and a
number of other Illinois pioneer cemeteries near the Wabash River. We
are acutely aware that we have not yet discovered the limits of the
distribution of Hindostan whetstone gravestones and we expect to find
these stones distributed along the Lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. We
also expect the distribution of these tombstones to parallel the other
commercial trading routes of early Indiana, such as along the early
canal network. Some of these routes are known but others are only
inferred.
Please help us by participating in this research. If you encounter a
whetstone monument or one that you suspect may be such a monument,
please photograph its face and edge-on view and send these photographs
to Erik Kvale, Indiana University, Indiana Geological Survey, 611 North
Walnut Grove, Bloomington Indiana, 47405 or contact Kvale via e-mail at
kvalee(a)indiana.edu. To learn more about this project, you can attend a
talk by Richard Powell entitled "Whetstone tombstones, a forgotten early
Indiana Industry," which will be held in the Geology Building at Indiana
University, Bloomington at 4:00 in room S-201 on May 27th. For more
information on Richard Powell's talk, contact the Indiana Geological
Survey, 611 North Walnut Grove, Bloomington, IN 47405 [Telephone: (812)
855-7636; Fax: (812) 855-2862; E-mail: igsinfor(a)indiana.edu].
Ernie:
What newspaper article are you referring to? I must have missed it.
Lois
-----Original Message-----
From: Ernie & Connie Lasley <elasley(a)sigecom.net>
To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Sunday, May 16, 1999 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: [INPCRP-L] More Grave Markers for sale
>Jeanie,
>
>At least Ebay removes them when you report them. You might write their
>Admin, and see if they will put something on their website about it. With
>the news story in the papers today about the National Cemetery in
>Washington D.C. (not Arlington, the other one) they may be more receptive.
>
>Ernie
Jeanie,
At least Ebay removes them when you report them. You might write their
Admin, and see if they will put something on their website about it. With
the news story in the papers today about the National Cemetery in
Washington D.C. (not Arlington, the other one) they may be more receptive.
Ernie
At 06:07 PM 5/16/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>I hate to sound like a B***H, but it seems that almost every day I find a
>grave marker for sale on Ebay. I have reported them to Report(a)ebay.com
every
>time I have found a listing for one. Does anyone have any other thoughts or
>recommendations. I check almost daily for grave marker listings and
>unfortunately, I find them listed. There have been four (4) new listings in
>the last 24 hours. HELP.
>
>Jeanie
>
>
>==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
>"Show me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you have."
> Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
>
>
Hi Everyone,
I hate to sound like a B***H, but it seems that almost every day I find a
grave marker for sale on Ebay. I have reported them to Report(a)ebay.com every
time I have found a listing for one. Does anyone have any other thoughts or
recommendations. I check almost daily for grave marker listings and
unfortunately, I find them listed. There have been four (4) new listings in
the last 24 hours. HELP.
Jeanie
Dale:
Do you have any further details on this meeting? Do you have any contact
information?
I'll be particularly interested especially in their discussion of the
accidental discovery of Tucker Cemetery last December, the exhumation of
those remains and their continued status as artifacts being held by the
University of Indianapolis archeological laboratory these past six months.
(See the INPCRP Hall of Shame for further details.) The water company found
x-number of brick-lined burial vaults while digging a wastewater lagoon.
The stones had been dumped years earlier across the road.
Lois
-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Drake <ddrake(a)iupui.edu>
To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Thursday, May 13, 1999 9:00 AM
Subject: [INPCRP-L] Cemetery Reconstruction Presentation
>All:
>
>The Shelby County Genealogical Society's annual workshop on June 19, held
>at the Grover Historical Society Museum, includes a session called
>"Cemetery Reconstruction" by Dr. Criss Helmkamp, Archaeologist, Purdue
>University.
>
>FYI.
>
>Dale Drake
>Cemetery Committee, Morgan Co. HIstory and Genealogy Assn.
>
>
>Dale
>
>
>==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
>This list is for discussion of topics related to the Indiana Pioneer
>Cemeteries Restoration Project only.
>
>
All:
The Shelby County Genealogical Society's annual workshop on June 19, held
at the Grover Historical Society Museum, includes a session called
"Cemetery Reconstruction" by Dr. Criss Helmkamp, Archaeologist, Purdue
University.
FYI.
Dale Drake
Cemetery Committee, Morgan Co. HIstory and Genealogy Assn.
Dale
Hi,
This mroning on "Good Morning America" from New Orleans, there was a
clip about the cemetery "art" being stolen from cemeteries. Since this
is on ABC Network, maybe now is the time to get ABC to do a follow up on
all "Stolen cemeteries" also
Alice D
Just wanted to let you know that Gov. O'Bannon will be formally signing
House Bill 1522 into law tomorrow, Tuesday, May 11th, at 1:00 (Indy time).
I have been invited to be present for this ceremony and was told I could
bring TWO guests. I worried for quite a while over who to ask. My first
instinct was to invite U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Dillin, whose
ancestors were disinterred last summer from Wilhoit Cemetery
(http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp/HallofShame/wilhoitcem.html) to make way
for a subdivision and which remains are STILL in a laboratory at the
University of Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Judge Dillin has a trial
tomorrow and can't join us.
Our dear friend and veteran cemetery restorer Ron Baldwin from Monroe County
will be attending with me, as will little Ashley Loweth, the 8-year-old who
testified with us before the Indiana House of Representatives earlier this
year. (Ashley's moving speech to the House is on the INPCRP website.)
Ashley's family cemetery was blacktopped a number of years ago to build a
strip shopping center. Her great-grandfather and other ancestors are today
buried under several inches of blacktop in the parking lot
(http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881/halemcbridecem.html).
Bill Shaw, the Indianapolis Star reporter who wrote so poignantly about the
obliteration of Rhoads Cemetery (see INPCRP Hall of Shame, Marion Co.) and
of Wilhoit Cemetery, will be meeting us at the Capitol tomorrow, where we
will also be joined by Ron Baldwin's wife Mary Jane, their friend Dave
Foster, Ashley's mother and her paternal grandparents. Though they won't be
able to join us in the Governor's office for the ceremony itself, they'll be
there to share our collective sense of accomplishment in getting at least
one Bill safely through the 1999 General Assembly.
I wish I could take every one of you with us tomorrow to impress upon the
Governor and the Legislators the fact that House Bill 1522 is an important
FIRST STEP in protecting our pioneer cemeteries in this state. There is
still a LOT to be done. The sad truth is that nothing in HB 1522 would
prevent the travesties at Rhoads, Wilhoit or Hale-McBride Cemeteries from
happening today because both were "legally" destroyed.
What WILL House Bill 1522 do?
(1) It will REMOVE the long-standing exemption granted to those involved in
agricultural activities which permitted them to legally obliterate all
visible signs of a cemetery's existence on private property. Most of us are
familiar with one of more cemeteries that "vanished" when the stones were
destroyed or used for fill and the cemetery cultivated or turned into
pasture. (See Tucker Cemetery in Shelby Co., IN
<http://www.shelbynews.com/insideNewsstand.asp?ID=3783>.)
(2) It will make it illegal to traffic in stolen cemetery art. This has
been a sporadic problem in Indiana to date, but as the demand for such "yard
art" continues (see Omaha World Herald article at
http://omaha.com/OWH/StoryView/1,1344,139990,00.html and the recent Internet
brouhaha over Ebay listing "used" grave markers for sale), it will doubtless
become a greater problem here. With this new statutory language, the
authorities will have a mechanism for prosecuting the possession and sale of
stolen cemetery art in Indiana.
(3) It will make "disturbing, defacing or damaging" gravestones, markers,
etc. a prosecutable crime. If the damage exceeds $2,500, the crime will be
a Class D felony. Lesser damage will be a Class A misdemeanor. Those of us
who have been intimately involved in repairing stones know full well that it
won't take a lot of damage to exceed $2,500 if the repairs are done by a
commercial enterprise such as a monument company. (Here in Jeffersonville,
it recently cost $300 to have a monument company come in with a wench to put
a single three-piece monument back together and none of the pieces in that
instance were broken.)
(4) It will require anyone lawfully removing (or moving) a grave memorial to
file a detailed report with the County Recorder.
Admittedly, HB 1522 makes no strides toward solving the problem of
maintaining or restoring pioneer cemeteries that have been abandoned and
neglected. This will be the main focus of our attention for the Year 2000
session of the General Assembly.
If you haven't done so lately, take a look at the "Needed Legislation" page
on the INPCRP website and see if you have any additions to suggest. These
ideas will be important when we next meet with our Legislators as they begin
their 1999 Summer Study Program on the subject of protecting pioneer
cemeteries.
I've said it before, but it can't be said often enough: "Thank you for all
your support in this effort." Your petition signatures, telephone calls,
e-mails and letters were all very important in persuading the Legislators
that this situation could not be ignored any longer. We're making progress,
though these things never happen fast enough to suit most of us.
With thanks and best regards,
Lois
- -------------------------------
Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp