Jerry True writes, “In one of your recent articles in the Greenfield (Daily) Reporter you mentioned the McNamee cemetery in Sugar Creek Township. You stated there are only four graves at this site. I have several ancestors buried at this location including my great-great-great grandfather Whitfield True along with my great-great-great-great grandfather Henry Hawk. Findagrave.com lists 36 burials in this cemetery. I know Sue Baker’s book lists several burials, also. The cemetery is in sad disrepair and there has been development near it recently. We are hopeful some repairs might be made in the future.”
Jerry, you are correct, and it is my error. The maintenance of the burial plot is the responsibility of the township trustee.
New Palestine Cemetery also has an interesting history. Through the years this burying plot has had three different names.
First it was named Murnan burying ground and was dedicated when William Leachman dug the first graves sometime in the 1850s for the burial of his twin grandchildren, the babies of Henry and Malina Merlau. In the late 1800s, Mrs. Elizabeth Cones Murnan expanded the plot, changing the name to Crown Point Cemetery Association. Later it was determined by the secretary of state there was another Crown Point Cemetery, so that is when it became the New Palestine Cemetery. It was dedicated as such on Sept. 30, 1904.
A Mr. Mattox was the first death in Sugar Creek Township.
Enough. I have told you everything that I know and some things I don’t. Talk to me.
