ROCK DAM CEMETERY

	While researching this cemetery, I have had the hardest time trying to locate it's
exact location.  The old Rock Dam is supposed to be a very historical place, but alas I can
find no one who actually knows for sure where it is.  Two books in the Marion Public
Library give two different locations for this cemetery.  And neither one tells who is buried
in it.  So I have decided to use Whitson's History of 1914 to give the reader some ideas as
to where it may be.  The following is a direct quote from Whitson's History.
	"The fourth mill was put up by Enoch Small about 1849.  It was built on the
Mississinewa river and was the first river mill in the township.  It was soon sold to
Timothy Kelley.  The dam which had been built across the river was improved.  The dam
was raised and the water was raised two feet on the land of John Pemberton, about a mile
and a half up the stream.  Just above his place a stone dam had been constructed, which
operated the Pemberton mill.
	Pemberton sued Kelley and got a judgment of $2000.  The matter was finally
settled by Kelley buying the Pemberton mill in 1853-4."
	This stone dam above Pemberton's mill, I believe is the Rock Dam.  Whitson's
History goes on to say...
	"...early in the forties, a tannery was established at the old stone dam.  The cholera
plague of 1849 killed the entire family which was in charge of the mill and the members
are buried there.  There were seven members of the Renner family and seven graves can be
found on the bluff near the old rock dam.  The graves have long been neglected and the
markers are gone from several, but the place is well remembered by the older residents. 
There was scarcely anything done with the mill after the death of the Renners and it was
allowed to stand idle and go to ruin."
	Another entry in Whitson's History reads as follows...
	"There is certainly as much beautiful scenery along the Mississinewa in Mill as in
any locality, and the Rock dam is a real nature park if only it were accessible to the
public."
	My opinion is that the Rock Dam Cemetery which consisted of seven graves of the
Renner family is in Section 3 of Mill Township.  Somewhere I have read that the graves
are on a high bluff on the north side of the river.  In section 10 (where one source says it
is) you can not get to the north side of the river for it runs southeast to northwest.  But in
section 3 it does run east to west which gives you access to the north side of the river.  I
can find no map that actually shows the dam and mill race.  But I do show a dam in
section 3 on an old Soil Map dated 1915.  Hopefully this information is correct, for now it
is all I can find for the seven people who died from the cholera epidemic of 1849.

...Original page by Sheila D. Watson