FOGLESONG

PRIVATE FAMILY CEMETERY

[2 & 1/2 miles East of Logansport , IN ]

A long-abandoned, unfenced and neglected pioneer burial-ground, an acre in size, situated near the corner of the frac. S.W. 1/4, Sec.33, T.27N., R.2 E., 2^nd Ind. P.M. in

WASHINGTON Township , CASS County , INDIANA .

Cemetery is on the old J. Elmore UHL farm which was still in the family & occupied by Mr. & Mrs. James Bruner in October 1940. The cemeteries S. E. bank lies just south of “ East River Road ” which runs along the S.W. flowing Wabash River , and is about 1/4 mile N.E. [upstream] from the eastern end of Kienly’s Island . At one time this Island was connected to the main land by an interurban electric railway belonging to the Union Traction Company of IN & was to both side sides of the river which ran from Kokomo to Logansport but it has since vanished. Minnow Creek which formerly provided power for more than one important mill in the area joins the Wabash River from the S. [or S.E.], directly opposite this island, [shown on some maps as Island #2]. Between the mouth of this creek and the cemetery is a road that leads south that is sometimes referred to as the “ Webster Gravel-Pit Road .” East of this road & South of the “ East River Road ,” at the point where they meet is the old UHL homestead. Immediately east of this is a larger & newer framed house which is said to have never been completed nor lived in which was erected about 1912.

The only evidence of the old half-score cemetery today is one broken, fallen old slab which lies under a lonely, isolated gray-ash tree which about 5 ft. above the ground forked into two trunks, each being about 1 ft. in diameter & is completely surrounded by cultivated ground, bout 80 ft. S.E. of the “ East River Road .”  The tree is on the west-central portion of a low knoll that measured about 250 ft. from east –to-west & 125 ft. north-to-south which gradually slopes in all directions and somewhat resembles and might be an Indian mound or merely a natural formation though there is a tradition of an Indian battle between two tribes as having taken place in this immediate vicinity.

Cemetery is across the Wabash river from a tract of land lying immediately west of a well known row of summer cottages known as “Pottawattamie Point,” which is about 2 miles up Wabash river from Logansport’s P.R.R. & in the direction of Peru.

In transferring the farm to W. W. Haney on 8-16-1855, Christian & Phebe Foglesong expressly excepted half an acre for this cemetery (Vide D.R.N., 468), an exception which Mr. Haney carefully observed in transferring the farm 12-26-1857 to Joseph Uhl (D.R  Q, p.251). So the title to the 1/2 acre presumably is still in possession of the heirs.

Cemetery is about 1/2 mile up the Wabash River from the mouth of Minnow Creek & about 1/2 mile down the Wabash River from Dykeman Springs Park, which is now the property of the Cass County Historical Society of Logansport, IN. The mouth of Minnow Creek is near, but east of the South abutment of the now vanished Interurban railway bridge.

According to the historian Dr. J. Z. Powell, fourteen or more persons were originally buried in this cemetery. Among these, he says, were several members of the Foglesong family, including three children of Chris* Foglesong. The children died in & after 1847.  Marion Flory, virtually an octogenarian, now living in Mexico, IN, professed to recall seeing about SIX old slabs. The copyist found only a broken slab &  foot-stone which when pieced together revealed the following information.

 Name                                  Born              Died             Notes

William Foglesong             5-23-1829     12-27-1852   Aged 23 years, 7 months, 4 days

According to Powell there were also certain family members surnamed Nelson who also were buried here. Comment: the head of this family may have been WILLIAM NELSON, who I find purchased the N. part of nearby Sec.4, [in early 1851], from Chris Foglesong’s neighbor, Josiah Butler, [See D.R. L., 595.] Research shows that William Nelson’s wife was Mary Ann Nelson. Also a family surnamed Fiedler was buried here.

Study of numerous old deed-records indicates that this Chris Foglesong’s given name was CHRISTIAN, though in one instance he is alleged to have signed his name Christopher, but that could be a copy error of an old record. His wife’s name was PHEBE Foglesong & he seems to have been closely associated and very likely closely related to John M.; William; & Washington Foglesong.

Powell says that Christian was a brother of the late Daniel Foglesong, [b. Rush Co., IN-1823], son of George Foglesong [b. 1801 MD & d. 1863] & Mary [Overleese] Foglesong [of KY & d. 1878].

An older historian, T.B. Helm, wrote in 1886, the lists of brothers of this Daniel Foglesong,[who served as County Commissioner 1875-1877] as having been in 1886, Abraham, Levi, John, George and Leonard Foglesong.

This report was prepared & submitted by

Robert B. Whitsett Jr., Secretary of

LA’ANGUILLE VALLEY MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

500 FRONT STREET

LOGANSPORT , INDIANA

This report was input by Pat Fiscel February 19, 2007 for the Cass County INGenWeb Project.