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Adventures Exploring the Cemeteries of Indiana
metallicman ^ | 31OCT18 | editorial staff

Posted on 10/30/2018 6:47:22 PM PDT by vannrox

When I lived in Indiana, one of the things that I did was to visit every park in the state. I went and bought a book showing all 25 state parks. Then, my wife and I went and visited every one of them. When we were finished, we then went to the local library. We looked at a large map of the county and then visited every cemetery in the county.

It was an “eye opener” and very informative. Let’s talk about this experience

Many of the cemeteries were in isolated areas. We would get to ride on little used back roads that trundled through the rows of soybeans or corn. Then the road would dead end into a tiny space of greenery that typically consisted of some rare trees, a stream or two and some small out-buildings. The park would be lonely and often deserted.

While the grass would be tended to, it was mostly a three week to a one month mowing cycle and tended to be rather lush. There wasn’t any kind of landscaping, or care for the weeds and plants that existed besides the tombstones. The headstones themselves were often old, tilted and leaning at precarious angles.

We would walk into the park and explore the headstones. Many dated over a hundred years ago. Obviously the settlers had a hard life. People died early. Many died before they hit their mid thirties. Many families had nearby rows of tombstones with the names of children that wouldn’t live past three or four years of age. It was sad.

Sometimes we would find a family that would have maybe twelve or thirteen children’s graves. Each

(Excerpt) Read more at metallicman.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Outdoors; Society
KEYWORDS: blogpimp; cemetry; indiana; mystery; tombstone
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Enjoy. Get your mind off politics for a change. We have to keep our blood pressure down. Don't you know.
1 posted on 10/30/2018 6:47:22 PM PDT by vannrox
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To: vannrox

Thanks for posting, I am from Indiana and on my last trip there visited a cemetery where some relatives are buried. I was surprised to see headstones dating back to the Revolutionary war.


2 posted on 10/30/2018 7:02:24 PM PDT by phormer phrog phlyer
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To: vannrox

Note the dates on the headstones.Scary how many people died from the flu epidemic.


3 posted on 10/30/2018 7:03:18 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (168 grains of instant conflict resolution)
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To: Farmer Dean
In my horseback riding days (1987-92) I once went on a trail ride with a group of people through the abandoned coal mining town of Franklin in King County, Washington. The town is long gone, but at one point we rode through a grove of trees that were punctuated with lumps of white stone.

A closer look showed that we were riding through Franklin's cemetery. The forest had completely overgrown the graveyard, leaving little lumps of headstone sitting by trees. The names on the stones were Italian, and a huge number of them died in 1910 from cholera. It must have been a hard life.

4 posted on 10/30/2018 7:10:05 PM PDT by Publius
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To: vannrox
I found a "cemitarty" here in Texas that consisted of one horse thief, hanged by the local VC. Name unknown.

It is not cared for.

5 posted on 10/30/2018 7:20:31 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's fore sure)
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To: vannrox

Bookmark.


6 posted on 10/30/2018 7:23:39 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.)
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To: vannrox

The link broght me some “Congratulations” pop-ups. Hate it when that happens.


7 posted on 10/30/2018 7:25:45 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Lock. Her. Up.)
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To: phormer phrog phlyer
From wiki

In 1775 the American Revolutionary War began as the colonists sought more self-government and independence from the British. The majority of the fighting took place near the East Coast, but the Patriot military officer George Rogers Clark called for an army to help fight the British in the west.[17] Clark's army won significant battles and took over Vincennes and Fort Sackville on February 25, 1779.[18] During the war, Clark managed to cut off British troops, who were attacking the eastern colonists from the west. His success is often credited for changing the course of the American Revolutionary War.[19] At the end of the war, through the Treaty of Paris, the British crown ceded their claims to the land south of the Great Lakes to the newly formed United States, including American Indian lands.

8 posted on 10/30/2018 7:26:49 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: Publius

Not a single one of them had the slightest inkling of FReeper life. They may have been more content than we. Who knows?


9 posted on 10/30/2018 7:29:35 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Lock. Her. Up.)
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To: Farmer Dean

Several cemeteries near me have multiple little headstones for the small children that died within just a 2-3 year timespan.

Things were brutal here during the early years of the settlements.

The natives that lived here migrated back and forth to higher ground every year, since so much of this area was underwater in the mid 1800’s.

Prime farmground though, once drained.


10 posted on 10/30/2018 7:39:17 PM PDT by digger48
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To: vannrox

Many of the cemeteries were in isolated areas....The park would be lonely and often deserted.


Sounds like a fascinating history tour but I’m a little confused by the distinction between the cemeteries and the state parks. Are some of the cemeteries state parks?

I might be interested in doing something similar it AL and TN.


11 posted on 10/30/2018 7:55:00 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Fester Chugabrew

You received pop ups? Seriously. That should not have happened. Please message me privately with some info so that I can prevent it from happening. The only advertisements on the site is via google.


12 posted on 10/30/2018 7:56:42 PM PDT by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: Yardstick

Ah. No connection. Between state parks and cemeteries. You first visit the state parks. Then after you visited all of them, what then?

So you find a map and explore other things. Maybe a rock quarry, or old mines. In this example yo can go and visit cemeteries.


13 posted on 10/30/2018 7:59:17 PM PDT by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: vannrox

Okay, got it — thanks.


14 posted on 10/30/2018 8:16:39 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: vannrox

Bttt


15 posted on 10/30/2018 8:31:47 PM PDT by thinden
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To: vannrox

Here is an explanation of the tree-stump headstones:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoodmenLife

It is related to a fraternal organization.


16 posted on 10/30/2018 8:41:58 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (Trump is fixing the world's problems just to distract us from Russia.)
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To: digger48

Great Black Swamp?


17 posted on 10/30/2018 8:50:44 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: vannrox

Maybe because posted link in FB.


18 posted on 10/30/2018 9:23:27 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Lock. Her. Up.)
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To: vannrox

One could write a book about visiting cemeteries. (My sister-in-law’s husband had a best seller about famous DC cemeteries - tombstones).

It should be entitled “I See Dead People - II”. Introduction by Haley Joel Osmont. /sarc


19 posted on 10/30/2018 9:54:06 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: vannrox

A bit late but happened to see this thread.

Graveyard fan here. 20 years Membership Chairman of Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites.

Visited a lot personally in CT as well as here in MD.

They are a real connection to the past. The actual people are there, and you can get a sense of the background of the area...who the families were, why streets are named so, etc.


20 posted on 10/31/2018 8:49:12 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
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