The Old Binney Farm Cemetery

now commonly known only as "The Grave-yard Field."  On west slope of largest of three low knolls on what has long been known as the KLING Farm, now owned by Josephine and William Kling, and situated in northeast quarter of southwest quarter of Section 30 of T. 28 N., R. 1 E., 2 Ind. P. M., in southwestern Harrison township in northwestern Cass county, Indiana.  Cemetery is 2 1/2 miles S.E. of Royal Center, Ind.  1 1/2 miles south of State Road 16 (Monon to Huntington).  An old road or lane is said to have approached cemetery from the northeast, and to have passed directly east of cemetery; but today there is no very definite sign of such a road, and the cemetery-knoll's boulders (which served as grave-markers) have been removed, and the site used for pasture-land or (as in 1940) even cultivated fields (soybeans, for example).  There is today no vestige of the rail-fence which, in former days, surrounded this cemetery, nor of the similar fence which inclosed at least one of the individual graves.  There is today no sign even of the well and the cherry-tree which formerly were just south of the cemetery.  Oldest residents who well remember this cemetery-plot estimate it to have been between thirty and 100 feet square, --- most estimates being nearer the former figure than the latter.  Several sunken graves were still in evidence within the memory of even the present owners, we are told.  Cemetery is approximately 100 rods or more east of the Boone Township line.  Cemetery is perhaps 3/4 mile east of U.S. Highway 35 (State Road 29), the Logansport-to-Winamac Road.  Cemetery is about 50 rods or more west of Section's 30's North-south mid-line road.  The only persons now known or reported to have been burried in this cemetery (during the 1830's, 1940's and possibly 1850's are

Jacob Gates

Mrs. Jacob Gates

 Parents of James Gates, who became the husband of Miss Eunice Conn. Some, and perhaps all, of the five persons here listed (as buried here) are understood to have been related, by blood or marriage
Henry Conn who is thought to have been a Revolutionary War Veteran. to Mr. BINNEY on whose farm this cem. was situated.
Elizabeth St. Clair (Mrs. Henry) Conn who was a sister of Reuben St. Clair.
Reuben St. Clair* grave surrounded by a small rail- or picket-fence.  He is rumored to have been a veteran of the REVOLUTIONARY War. He had married Miss Ruth Scott, a Pennsylvania lady, and had lived for a time in Butler county, Ohio, but had suffered a stroke in or near Dayton, Ohio, shortly before moving to Cass county, Indiana, and is said to have died only fourteen days after having arrived in Harrison township, Cass county

Comment:  T. B. Helm's "History of Cass County, Indiana" (1886), p. 757, says Reuben St. Clair arrived in Harrison township in about 1836 to 1839. Vide p. 573.)  Family-tradition says that he arrived in Harrison township ---and died there  --- in either 1831 or 1832.  Among persons who clearly recalled this (once fenced) cemetery on the old Binney farm may be mentioned: Joseph Barr; his brother James Barr; their late sister Mrs. Victoria (Barr) Gates; the late Mr. Willard Brown of Logansport; Mrs. Lulu LaRue, most of whom are persons well-advanced in years.

Sarah E. B. Shafer   12/12/41

in northwestern

The foregoing report (on sheet one) is compiled from data furnished the

 

L'Anguille Valley Memorial

Association

 Logansport, Indiana   

on May 15th and June 5th, 1941 , by

 MRS. GRACE MAY (SHAFER) CONRAD

1224 High Street ,

Logansport , Indiana

Cemetery is said to be best
approached by taking the lane
which goes north (east of the Josephine and  William Kling farm-home, which home is on the northeast side of the here northwestwardly-running "OLD Chicago Road, or Royal Center Pike) bur west of the Kling barn; ---that is, between house and barn), and turning east, and later north again, to the three low knolls, cemetery being on and perhaps near west slope of the biggest knoll.

an interested descendant of Reuben St. Clair, one of the persons buried in this now almost forgotten pioneer-day cemetery.  (Reuben St. Clair was her mother's father's mother's father,  and was the father of George St. Clair; Joseph Scott St.Clair; Reuben St. Clair, Jr.; and Susanna St Clair, the last-mentioned one of whom became wife of James La Mar Blackburn*, and, thus an ancestor of Mrs. Conrad.)

  CONCLUDING EDITORIAL CONTENT:

 Although all known works of local history seem silent as to the existence at any time of any cemetery such as the memory of these octogenarians and others has thus brought to our attention, research conducted by our L'Anguille Valley Memorial Association has disclosed acceptable documentary evidence that there was indeed a pioneerday American cemetery at this place.  Although even Kingman Bros. (1878) "Atlas of Cass County"'s two maps of this township make no mention of any such cemetery, Skinner's map of six years earlier still, makes prominent mention of it (as having been, if not still in use for interments, at least very well known to be in existence --- in 1861 or 1862).

Research further discloses that the quarter-section containing this old cemetery had been entered on March 7th, 1833 (more than 108 years prior to the making of this present report) by one Joshua Binney, who seems to have retained possession of this " grave-yard field" until at least the Mexican War period, --- a thing which leads us tentatively to name this now almost forgotten old pioneer-day cemetery "The Old Binney FarmCemetery;" for the name "The Grave-yard Field," by which it is now known, does not seem a sufficiently distinctive appellation.

 We find too that Jacob Gates on 10-25-1833 "entered" W.½ of N.E.¼ of Sec.30, and, in 1835, E½SE¼ of 30. Research further reveals that during, e.g., the early years of the Civil War, one George Conn owned a forty-acre-farm little more than one mile due east of this cemetery; and that, on 1-20-1844, a Henry Conn, Jr., purchased a farm hardly one mile northwest of this cemetery (though across the line in Boone Township). It seems not unlikely that one or the other of these two Conns may have been relatives, and perhaps very close relatives, to the Henry Conn who, octogenarians understand, and would have us believe, is one of the persons known to lie buried in this "grave-yard field" with which we are at the moment concerned.

                                                                                B.B.Whitsett,Jr.. Secretary, L'Anguille Valley Memorial Association

                                                                                                                  End of Report.  

*Note from JoAnne Shafer:  I noticed that the Old Binney Farm Cemetery information states incorrectly that Reuben St. Clair (born in 1775) may have been in the Revolutionary War. Reuben St. Clair was indeed Elizabeth's brother, however, it was their father, George Sinclair (St. Clair) who served as a Private in the American Revolution. He was born around 1754 in Pennsylvania, enlisted in 1776.

James Blackburn, father of James LaMar Blackburn (who married Susanna St. Clair) was a corporal in the War of 1812.

Re-typed for the Cass County INGenWeb by Randy Clark and Debby Beheler, December 2006.

Cemeteries of Cass County Indiana

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