Published: January 20, 2007 10:54 pm         

GENEALOGY: Neglected Indiana pioneer cemeteries need preserving

TERRE HAUTE — Almost 10 years ago, the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project was created by Scott Satterwaite in order to “generate public awareness about the neglected pioneer cemeteries of Indiana. … The goal of this project is to identify, protect, restore, and preserve as many of these cemeteries as possible,” states www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp.

The INPCRP specifies several purposes. Besides fostering public awareness, another goal is the preservation or creation of a cemetery record; that is, to identify whether an old cemetery has any known records or plat maps and, if not, to create these records and post them on the INPCRP Web site and donate them to a local library. A third goal is to restore old cemetery sites by removing debris and repairing markers. The final objective is to continue to monitor the restored cemetery to preserve it from any future damage and deterioration.

Since its inception, the project has attracted county coordinators for some of Indiana’s counties, but, unfortunately, many of our counties remain without coordinators. In the Wabash Valley, only Parke and Putnam counties have coordinators; Vigo, Vermillion, Clay, and Sullivan counties still lack a coordinator. This is a shame, especially with a very active genealogy society in the area.

An INPCRP county coordinator can be anyone who lives in or near the county he or she wants to adopt. The coordinator is responsible for promoting the project locally, for recruiting and assigning volunteers for each cemetery project, and for maintaining a county Web page hosted by INPCRP. In addition, they would subscribe to the INPCRP-L mailing list, would provide monthly status updates on projects, and would ensure that all volunteers were appropriately recognized for their work.

Do you feel a calling to become a county coordinator for the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project? Visit www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp to read more about it.

Also on the site are newspaper stories from around Indiana on successful cemetery restorations, a chance to subscribe to the free INPCRP mailing list, a section on Indiana laws regarding cemeteries, the offering of cemetery preservation books for sale, and information on cemetery preservation and stone repair. A visitor to the site can also find out which Indiana counties currently have coordinators and contact them by e-mail with questions about pioneer cemeteries in their counties.

Query

n Trying to locate information on Isaac Denman, born Nov. 10, 1795, in Georgia, and died in Parke County, Indiana, on Aug. 28, 1875. His first wife was Ruth Crawford and his second wife was Rachel Crawford. He had sons John (born about 1832) and I.W. (born about 1834) and a daughter America (born 1841). Isaac is on the 1840 census of Parke County as the head of the household, and he was between the ages of 40 and 50. There were also three other males listed in the household: one between 20 and 30, another between 5 and 10, and the third under 5 years of age. Also listed are seven females. One is assumed to be his wife, between 40 and 50, three are between 10 and 15, and the last three between 5 and 10. I’m hoping to find the names of the other people in this census. If you have any information on this family, contact Howard Whidden, 43 Lounsberry Hollow Road, Sussex, NJ 07461, e-mail thewhids@earthlink.net.