Cindy,
Sorry for the delay in answering. I spent most of yesterday in Parke
County, where we (trustees) cleaned 12 tombstones at Mt Olivet. We also
moved peonies and irises to the fence row when they were crowding tombstones.
Union is active; however, the Old Settler's section is in need.
Eaton Cemetery does not appear to be active, but it probably is owned by
the town of Eaton. I doubt if there are either trustees or a governing
board, considering the condition it was in when I saw it. A bit of deed
research might be needed to find out who owns it, or the Eaton Chamber of
Commerce may be able to direct you to some one who knows.
I understand your concern about which cemeteries to serve, though I don't
have a potential fix. There are just so many of them that need help. The
Old Settlers in Union Cemetery are among the earliest pioneers in Delaware
Co. Should their tombstones become lichen-covered and unreadable just
because a board of trustees was organized years later, and the current
trustees are more into raising a fund for a new building than in
maintaining tombstones? The original section was donated by the Studebaker
family from their farm. It was the cemetery for the Mississinewa Brethren
congregation.
Mark Davis saw it some months back and agreed the Old Settlers section is
in bad shape.
Sharon
At 08:34 PM 11/8/2005, you wrote:
Sharon,
I'm not familiar with the Eaton cemetery, but Union is active isn't it? Do
you know if Eaton is? While several of our members do some work in the
'active' cemeteries, our group is limited to working in those that are
either trustee controlled or are on private property -- cemeteries without
governing boards.
It's one aspect of the whole Pioneer Cemetery definition that just doesn't
make much sense to me. Many of the small cemeteries have less money
available to them than the Trustees/Counties do. Where a body is buried has
nothing to do with determining if the person was a Pioneer.
Cindy W
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