DAVID
PINKERTON BURIAL-PLACE
During
the exceptionally cold winter 1841-42, an Infant surnamed PINKERTON
died at the
Pinkerton log-cabin, the site of which is a few rods S.E. of the
present [June
5, 1941] buildings on the Reuben St. Clair Blackburn Farm, now owned by
William
& Maude [
Editorial:
This log-cabin was located 1 3/4 miles slightly [
south? ] of due west of Lucerne, IN & perhaps
about 40 rods west of a
N/S road forming section 20’s east half mid-line. This death
occurred at a
time when it was virtually impossible to dig even a small grave of any
size in
this vicinity. Tradition says that the body of this baby was kept in a
bureau
drawer in the Pinkerton cabin for 4 weeks & was than buried at
a suitable
spot just south of the cabin & at the foot of a very large
walnut tree. This
tree later was felled & only its huge stump remained to mark
the babe’s
grave. Still later, even the stump was burned out; and the grave is now
entirely
unmarked & is remembered only by the very oldest-settlers of
this immediate
vicinity.
A
HARRISON Township Pioneer, a man surnamed McGowen or McGowan died at a
very
early day and was buried by the side of a N/S road approximately 1mile
S.S.E. of
the previously mentioned Pinkerton-
The present Report written by [Mrs. Grace (Shafer) Conrad
recalls that
when she was a little girl out driving with her grandmother [the late
Mrs. Mary
(Foglesong) Blackburn], would [sometime prior to or about 1907]
occasionally
stop the horse, get out of the buggy, and place upon this grave a
bouquet of
flowers, in memory of this Mr. McGowen whom she very likely had known
prior to
his death which had occurred a great many years previously. [This Mr.
McGowen
may or not be closely related to Cyrus McGowan who is buried in the
nearby
Indian Creek Christian cemetery.]
Also, this elderly lady, the late Mrs. Mary F. Blackburn,
would sometimes
stop and similarly decorate one other grave, that of a young girl,
whose name is
completely forgotten by the informant, but was located just a few rods
south of
Mr. McGowan or McGowen.
This
report was compiled from data submitted on May 15, 1941 to the
L’ANGUILLE
VALLEY
MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
By
Mrs.
Grace May [SHAFER] CONRAD
In response to it’s newspaper appeals to the citizens of Cass County to compiling accurate [and as complete as possible reports on all known pioneer and other cemeteries both large and small, in this region]
EDITORIAL COMMENT ON THE FOREGOING REPORT
In an effort to confirm or at least shed some badly needed additional light upon the persons mentioned as buried in these 2 little Pioneer day burial grounds, the L’A.V.M.A. Committee on Cemetery Research’s Chairman has undertaken some additional research.
No published writings,
manuscript materials, maps nor other
known records seem to mention any such
Research does disclose that
there was a family named
PINKERTON, who lived in or owned at some time the W. 1/2 of the N.E.
1/4 Section
20, T28N, R1E, 2nd
Though incorrectly
& misleadingly indexed on part of
this, Deed Record Books, F & J. at the Cass Co., IN courthouse
in
The spot where the Mr. McGowen is reported to have buried is somewhere near the N.E. Corner of Section 29 & in a 1/4 section of the N.E.1/2 which we find was sold on March 9, 1846 by MARTIN Mc GOWEN to Mr. William Kilgore. This E.1/2 of N.E.1/4 of Section 29 had originally been “entered” September 5, 1835 by Joseph St Clair. [An E-W road which formerly passed through the S. portion of the E.1/2 of the E.1/2 of Section 20 has been supplanted by an E-W road which forms the boundary-line between Sections 20 & 29, with Section 29 being that with which we are concerned. The Mc Gowen burial place is apparently on land owned by Dallas A. Brown [Jun.1941]
This report was input by Pat Fiscel February 2007 for the Cass County INGenWeb Project.
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