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Citation: The Indiana GenWeb Project, Copyright ©1997-2007, Montgomery County Website http://ingenweb.org/inmontgomery/

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Turner Publishing has sold the LAST of the Family Histories of Montgomery County, Indiana to the Montgomery County Historical Society. They purchased 50 a year or so ago and they sold like hot cakes, so they thought instead of letting the books be burned, they'd try it again. The original purchasing price was $50. These are selling for $42.50 which includes postage. If you're interested, purchase them through:
Montgomery County Historical Society
212 S. Water Street
Crawfordsville, IN 47933
765-362-3416
Any questions about the books, contact Tamara at mchs@wico.net
They're a super look at the county's genealogy.
Montgomery County Unidentified Photos
YOUNTSVILLE — An avid genealogist knew her great-great-great-grandfather and some relatives were buried in a cemetery near Yountsville. Marti Swanson found the location a jungle-like setting and sought out local help to restore the final resting ground of her ancestors.
The Genealogy Club of Montgomery County Inc. took the ball and ran with it. Large rows of vegetation growing in the neglected cemetery were removed and tombstones, many broken, are being cleaned and restored.
The site, known as O’Neall Cemetery, is located in the middle of a field off the beaten path.
“When I arrived at the cemetery I cleared three piles of brush — it was too big of a job for me, alone,” said Swanson, who lives in Ringwood, Ill.
In 2003, Swanson talked to Dian Moore, Genealogy Club president and local history librarian at the Crawfordsville District Public Library. Moore ran it by the membership and the Genealogy Club embraced its first major project. The project started on a part-time basis, mainly to clear the land, before major work began within the last couple of years..
Swanson’s great-great-great-grandfather was William Baldwin, 51, who died Nov. 21, 1832. Another relative buried in the cemetery, Baldwin’s daughter, Amy Baldwin Kirkpatrick, was married to Hiram Bowen Kirkpatrick. “I’m so impressed,” Swanson said during a recent visit. “I can see how this was a work of love.”
O’Neall Cemetery, located near Yountsville, consists of 119 visible stones, 65 of these stones were cleaned, repaired and set. Six heavy stones will require help from heavy-duty machinery to lift them out from the cemetery to be cleaned.
Fourteen of the stones are listed as veterans of different conflicts — 9 Civil War, 4 War of 1812 and one Mexican War. A reading of the people located in the cemetery had been done in 1963 by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
“I knew about the cemetery so I went to find a map and its location,” Swanson said. “But getting here was the problem.”
The Ripley Township cemetery is located within land owned by James and Barbara Etzel, Lafayette. The land is farmed by Robbie Webster.
“The Etzels were tickled to have this cleaned up,” said Kim Hancock, Genealogy Club member who put in many hours cleaning stones at her home, setting them up and repairing broken stones.
Former Ripley Township Trustee LaVerna R. Tucker had approved the original permit for the group to do work. Current Trustee Jim Spence renewed the permit.
There are several well-known family names listed among the graves. Some of the family names include Albertson, Bailey, Baldwin, Bass, Britts, Brown, Cline, Coleman, Cooper, Cunningham, Fink, Fruits, Gilkey, Hall, Harpel, Hopping, Kirkpatrick, Larsh, Leak, Leaming, Lebo, Lincoln, Mann, Matthowman, McClelland, Neely, Price, Ridge, Smith (14 names listed), Snyder, Stinegamp, Swank, Swearingen, Thomas, Tyson, Wilcox, Warl, Watson and Yount.
Some of the soldiers and little listed information included Silas Albertson, Company E., 72nd Indiana Infantry; John Coleman, Company E, 150th Indiana Infantry; Jasper Field, Company B, 10th Indiana Infantry; Robert Henry, 9th Indiana Battery; Lewis Hopping, Company I, Indiana Infantry; Ebenezer Jackson, War of 1812; Franklin C. Lebo, Company F., 42nd Indiana Infantry; Edward Parker, Ohio, 1820-93; Samuel Robbins, War of 1812; Robert Smith, 9th Indiana Battery; Robert Taylor, War of 1812; John Thompson, War of 1812; and Jonathan Thompson, Mexican War.
Genealogy Club members Kim Hancock and Richard Wiles took classes on restoring the cemetery stones, as well as found useful information from Internet sites. “Once we get all the visible stones set we will look for buried tombstones,” Hancock said. “I want to make it easier tomorrow for people to take care of the stones.”
Ammonia and water is the best liquids to clean stones with, Hancock said. The group has been getting direction and help from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. This also includes permission to probe, dig and remove tombstones to clean and repair.
Jim Spence’s township trustee office provides financial help for some materials for the project. Spence recently used a chainsaw to cut a multitude of small plant stumps so people would not trip over the obstructions.
Hancock, who works at Banjo, secured five small U.S. flags from the Crawfordsville American Legion, Byron Cox 72 Post, to place on the visible graves of veterans.
Judy Harvey, another Genealogy Club member, did not want to participate in the lengthy cleaning process. Instead, she volunteered to probe for buried gravestone pieces.
“I use a metal probe to see if there is anything in the ground and I dig if I do find something,” Harvey said. “If you are lucky, you will find a piece. Most of it could be just a rock.” Nothing too unusual has been found while the clearing the brush process was going on, except for a mouse and a black lizard.
There is no set time when the cemetery will be completed. Hancock hopes it could be finished by Memorial Day, 2008.
Even though she does not have any known relatives buried in the cemetery, Hancock has put her heart and countless number of hours into the project. Richard Wills called Hancock “a real workhouse” of the project.
Hancock attempts to reflect on the meaning of the individuals buried in the cemetery and the relatives who had said their late good-byes.
“This is history etched in stone,” Hancock said.
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This site is the result of years of transcribing efforts by a corps of volunteers. There are over 10,000 typed pages of data on this site, no one person can possibly "know it all" including the site managers. If you are using this site, please be aware we try to get data up within 10 days of submission, BUT often things change our priorities, like getting food, sleep and some time for our families..., SO if it takes a bit longer, be patient, it IS coming. Feel free to use the site search engine, the nice people at FreeFind have graciously indexed our VERY Large website for free, and it indexes about 85% of all words- (some it skips because they may be common, or the engine runs out of time to index us.)
Karen Zach and Jeff Scism do the site work, Karen is the data coordinator, and Jeff does the HTML. BOTH of us spend a lot of hours here tuning things, fixing things that break and putting new data up. We both have lives OUTSIDE this website.
PLEASE use the search engine, and compile the data on your family, be assured that there is a 99.99% possibility that every bit of data we have is UP on the website already, we try to keep caught up. Both of us are experienced genealogists and historians, we are both authors of genealogy books. IF your research in the resources available here fail to gain the information you are seeking, PLEASE do not ask us to look for it on the site. If you can't find it here, Please post a QUERY to The Mail List. You can join the Mail List by clicking this link, and just sending the email that pops up. Conversely, you may also use the Ancestry.com Message board for this county, Content posted there also gets sent to the list automatically. The PURPOSE of the list is two-fold, spread data, and connect people.
The list of LINKS is in a sidebar, please use them to access areas of the site, don't forget the Crawfordsville District Public Library has an extensive on-line genealogy section.
Thanks!!
The Site Managers.
The Crawfordsville rotary Jailhouse
Montgomery County, Indiana is rich with history and owns many interesting sites, including the Old Jail Museum (with one of the only workable rotating cells); the Lane Place (home of Henry S. Lane, Senator and personal friend to President Lincoln); Lew Wallace Study (author of the book, Ben Hur); DAR house (owned by the Elston family until the Dorothy Q Chapter, DAR purchased it); and Wabash College (an all-male Liberal Arts School with less than 1,000 students dating back to 1832). Townships include Brown (with towns of Browns Valley and Waveland); Clark (Ladoga); Coal Creek (New Richmond, Wingate and Elmdale); Franklin (Darlington, Shannondale); Madison (Linden and Kirkpatrick); Ripley (Alamo, Yountsville); Scott (Parkersburg, New Market); Sugar Creek (Bowers); Union (Crawfordsville; Whitesville); Walnut (New Ross, Mace); Wayne (Waynetown). Crawfordsville, the County seat, is a third-class city with a full time mayor, a seven-member council and a clerk-treasurer. The city is located just off Interstate 74, about 45 miles West of Indianapolis.
NO FRAMES Version Indiana GenWebInformation
I found this photo in an album of my mother's dedicated to places she loved -- but I've never seen it. Could it be the house next to Southmont High School? Mother once lived there, perhaps seventy years ago.
( About the site personnel: Karen Zach, County Coordinator and Jeff Scism, Webmaster)

Our Webmistress, Karen Zach showing her newly published Book.Book review.
Early 1900s Sheriff's expenditure records

1981 Montgomery County PLAT book, and PROPERTY Owners
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E-mail me, Jeff Scism Assistant County Coordinator/webmaster, for questions regarding this page! Note: Karen Zach, Site Coordinator,

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| INGenWeb -Indiana Genealogy Online | INGenWeb -Indiana Clickable Map | Index to Indiana Cities, Towns and locations |
since April 1, 1998
© Copyright Karen Zach
HTML By: Blacksheep Genealogy
Citation: The Indiana GenWeb Project, Copyright ©1997-2007, Montgomery County Website http://ingenweb.org/inmontgomery/
Data contained within this website may only be used with permission of the submitter, for non-commercial research and educational activities, and for personal genealogical information.