My Research Trip - Day One, Part One

Day one dawned early but not so bright! The weather was a nippy 40 degrees, windy and cloudy. It remained that way all day and even threw a couple of rain showers at us in between. Here is a photo of my Aunt and I starting our day in the IOOF Cemetery in La Fontaine, Indiana!

The IOOF is borderd by 3 other cemetries, Old La Fontaine, Harper and Emery. They way the cemeteries are laid out, it is hard to tell where one stops and the next one starts. We divided the cemetery into threes and each took a section, walking and taking photos of any stones belonging to our ancestors. We took an amazing 133 photos that morning. And managed to do so in record time! The cold might have helped us along.

Among those photos we took that morning were stones located in the oldest part of the cemetery. While most of the cemetery was well maintained, this section was in sad disrepair. It had not been mowed and stones that had been standing nine years ago were now laying on the ground. How sad for a section of the cemetery that has the stones of the 2nd settlers of Wabash county and many of those found in the history books of the county.

After warming up a bit in the car we decided to head over to what used to be the town of America, Indiana to see if we could locate the old cemetery. The only hint we had as to where the cemetery was located was a general area between 950S and 1050S. So we headed out into the country and managed to find the two streets. Between them lay two homes on the south side of the street and a creek with a small bridge. Behind these homes lay dense woods. I had a bad feeling that the cemetery was located somewhere in those woods. We drove past the two homes and at the next intersection my Aunt spotted an estate sale taking place. Perfect! We pulled in and asked the lady holding the sale if she knew where the old America cemetery was located. She told us she thought is was behind the house on the north side of the creek......in the woods. We would have to go back and knock on the door to see if we could get permission to go into the woods behind their home but just then it began raining and we decided to return the next morning.

This post is getting long so I'll break Day One into two parts. Up next, we visit the North Manchester and Wabash Libraries where I find a heartbreaking obituary............