I am passing on your information to the one group that may have information
or be of help to you, the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration
Project. Hopefully you will find someone who has information or can get it.
Sharon Mills
Morgan Co
At 11:56 AM 6/26/2005, you wrote:
Last Monday, June 20, I was in Rush Co. with a friend, helping her
find
her Stewart & Rhodes people. The ladies at the Rushville Library and the
Courthouse were very helpful, and we were able to locate the cemetery
where Robert and Isabella Stewart and many of their children are buried.
We drove out to the Heaton Cemetery which is on County Road 250 S.,
between County Roads 600E & 700E. The first trip down the road we
completely missed the cemetery, so we stopped and asked some people. They
didn't know of a cemetery along that road, but when we told them it was a
VERY OLD cemetery, the older gentleman told us it was in a wooded area
back west along Co. Rd. 250S about a mile. That time we found it, but
MERCY, WHAT A HORRIBLE TRIBUTE TO THE PIONEER FAMILIES BURIED THERE.
The cemetery is so overgrown with trees and brush as to be nearly
impossible to walk in. And there is knee-high poison ivy everywhere, even
growing up the tombstones, which made it impossible to read most of
them. Fortunately I was wearing full-length jeans and socks, so I waded
in through the poison ivy and was finally able to locate the tombstone of
Robert Stewart, although his name was all I could read. His stone is
broken off at the base. I assume the stone next to his belongs to his
wife, Isabella. These two stones are the first in a long row of similiar
stones that I imagine belong to their many children who died in the
1840's. According to records of the Heaton Cemetery we found at the
library, the following Stewart family members are all buried
there: Robert Stewart, his wife Isabella, their children, James J.,
Fidilis F., Nancy, William W., Elmer F., Mary Ann & Sarah Jane, along with
several grandchildren. Also their son Samuel & his wife Clarinda, Amanda, d!
aughter
of Franklin, a Robinson girl who was the daughter of Eliza & Rice
Robinson, and probably more. I intend to make another trip back to the
cemetery, either in late Fall after a heavy frost, or in the early Spring
before the brush and weeds make our search impossible.
I tried to nominate this cemetery to the Hall of Shame page of the
INGenWeb, but my email was returned as "undeliverable".
Does anyone know if the Heaton Cemetery is a township owned cemetery (it's
in Noble Township), or is a private family cemetery? I would love to "put
the heat" on someone in order to get this mess cleaned up, but inasmuch as
I am from Adams Co., Indiana, a two hour drive north of Rush County, I
don't know who to contact. If I lived closer, my friend and I would
undertake the clean-up ourselves. A few hours with a chain saw and some
weed spray would do wonders for that mess!
Nola Rains & Linda Drake
(Linda is the direct descendant of Robert Stewart and his son Franklin G.
Stewart. Robert is her 5th Great-Grandfather, Franklin the 4th
Great-Grandfather)
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Ben Davis Fork is a stream in east central Rush Co. The Delaware knew this
tributary of the Flat Rock River my several names. All refering to the
home river that had a saline springs and deposits where the deer
congregated. Ben Davis stream was named for a Delaware warrior Chief
Petchekekepon (b.1780 d.1820) who lived in the area.