PRYOR
PRIVATE BURIAL-PLACE
A
Cemetery or
A local historian (Powell) says this old pioneer-day burial-place was in
north east quarter of Section 14 [of T. 27 N., R.1 W., of 2 Indiana P.M.]; but
there seems some reason to suspect that the site may be across the
quarter-section-line to the westward, and in the south half of the northeast
quarter of the northwest quarter of said section 14. Perhaps at this late date,
the exact location does not greatly matter; or sometime after 1851, this old
cemetery not only was abandoned but was vacated.---the remains having been
disinterred and (ALL) removed to the Pisgah Presbyterian church-yard-cemetery,
which was opened about one mile and one half south-southeast. In
In
a manuscript-record found by present reporter in the Cass County Historical
Society’s museum at Logansport, historian Powell states that the old Pryor
burial-place was “east of house in orchard,” and on the old Richard Pryor
Farm owned [in about 1913] by Horace Pryor, but this farm included not only the
(west half of) the northeast quarter (of section 14), where Powell seems to have
understood cemetery was situated, but also the (east half of) northwest quarter
(of section 14), in which latter portion of the farm there is known to have been
not only a pioneer-day Pryor family log-cabin but also an orchard, andan orchard
east of the cabin! That orchard has vanished, but its site is known to Mr.
Charles Embree Pryor, the present owner (and occupant) of this historic old
farm; and the site of the cabin is still plainly visible (May 2, 191). Moreover,
the present owner (and occupant) recalls having heard of the burial, many years
ago, of the remains of one person in this very (now long vanished) orchard; a
thing which leads us tentatively to think that the old Pryor burial-place may
indeed have been here, rather that the adjoining quarter-section mentioned by
historian Powell.
This supposed site is approximately one
hundred rods west of a north-and-south road, however, which does not at all form
the eastern boundary of section 14 (as one might suppose), but, instead, divides
section1’s northeast quarter into an east and west half. Supposed site is only
about 65 feet south of E.W. lane which leads westward from said north-and-south
road to Mr. C.E. Pryor’s present barn; and is about 8 or 10 rods due south of
the large two-story, and yellowish-colored frame farm-house of said Mr. C.E.
Pryor, a descendant of the founder
of the cemetery (and previous owners of this historic old farm).
A short distance west of supposed
cemetery-site is site of the old cabin (or other long-vanished Pryor home),
which cabin-site is southwest of present Pryor home, but is, like the supposed
cemetery-site, southeast of the present Pryor barn. (Present Pryor home and barn
are north of lane; cabin-site and supposed cemetery-site are south of it.)
Supposed cemetery-site is now cultivated ground, but is on the summit of a hill
or “roll”, and hence is attractively situated, and commands a view down into
the hollow (to the southwestward) of (here) southwardly flowing Crooked Creek,
(a sizable northern tributary of Wabash River). Distance from cabin-site to
creek is estimated at about sixty rods.
Writing in about 1907, when some of the older
members of the Pryor family were still alive, Powell declared that the persons
originally buried in this Pryor burial-place (and later removed to Pisgah) were:
Mrs. Richard Pryor d: during early 1840’s ( A wife of pioneer owner and the
founder of this (later vacated) cemetery. Also several other members of the
Richard Pryor family, and probably some other persons.
L’A.V.M.A. research discloses that on
10-11-1841, almost a century ago, Richard Pryor purchased this farm; and, less
than five years later (apparently through a Mr. Swinehart as intermediary) the
farm came into possession of Richard Pryor’s wife Rachel Embree Pryor
[“during her natural life and, the remainder over, to Horace Pryor, Daniel
Embree Pryor, and other children of said Rachel Embree Pryor that may yet be
begotten and born in lawful wedlock with her husband Richard Pryor.”]… If
anyone interested in the Pryor-family should read this present report, he or she
might be mildly interested in learning that this sturdy pioneer Richard Tyner is
said to have outlived several of his wives, and to have had a total of five, one
of whom (1853) was Jane H. Prior.
END
OF REPORT.
This handwritten report was transcribed by Sadie Cunningham September 2006 for the Cass County INGenWeb Project.