Conner Burial Ground

 On old John Watts, Jr., farm, near mouth of Cottonwood Creek, and about  half a mile west of Fitch's Glen.  

In addition to reporting separately on two OTHER "Conner Cemeteries" likewise situated in CASS Co it may be desirable to make mention also of a THIRD one of this same name, even though this third one is understood to contain only TWO graves.

      In 1850, John Watts, Jr., built a home and also set out an orchard on the high north terrace-rim of Wabash River, about 2 3/4 miles west of the present (1940) west edge of Logansport, and very near to the mouth of COTTONWOOD CREEK, which here comes down from the north to join Wabash River .  Within a very few years, two children who died in this neighborhood, were laid to rest on this hillside near his home.

      These two unmarked graves are near the extreme east edge of fractional section 29, T 27 N, R 1 E, near the south edge of NOBLE TOWNSHIP, CASS COUNTY, and near the Noble-Eel township line, Eel township (containing the entire city of Logansport and much else) lying immediately east of Noble township at this particular point.  The two children were buried near the home of the aforesaid Mr. Watts.

 That home has long since fallen in decay and finally disappeared; even the orchard itself is now said to be completely vanished.  It may be that there never were any at all permanent markers erected at these children's graves; but the location of the two little graves was well known to inhabitants of that locality even during and for many years after the Civil War.  The exact spots are not known to the present writer, but are said to be somewhere on the sunny south slope of the high hill, and near the place where, late one June afternoon in 1844 had occurred the disastrous wreck of the Wabash & Erie Canal packet-boat KENTUCKY" which was carrying east-bound passengers (and United States mail) to Logansport and Fort Wayne.

      Prevented by lodged driftwood from passing under the canal, the raging waters of (abnormally swollen) cottonwood creek had burst through the canal itself, and, about dusk, dashed the sizable canal-boat down southward, out of the canal-bed and into the flooded bottomlands along Wabash River, with some loss of life, much loss of property, and great excitement to everybody concerned.  It was about this wreck that Logansport 's entirely illiterate pioneer poet Enion Kendle.  Self-appointed reporter or historian, spun, in addition to much else, the locally-quite memorable lines.

 "The chambermaid and three men more sat all night on a sycamore, from early night tell rise of sun ----- and watched the mighty Wabash run."

 Albert O Brandt's article on " Noble Township ," contained in Powell’s History of Cass County, Indiana (1913) P. 671 and 673.

 Report submitted September 16, 1940 by Cemetery Research Committee of L'ANGUILLE VALLEY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION Logansport , Indiana  

This report was input by Rebecca Miller February 15, 2007 for the Cass County INGenWeb Project.