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Jefferson County: Monroe Twp Cemeteries

Sun, 11/30/2008 - 11:47am — Ruth Hoggatt

Monroe Township, Jefferson County, Indiana

Copyright by Ruth Hoggatt, 2002

While the D.A.R. was completing their survey of the cemeteries of Jefferson County in 1941, the U.S. Government was preparing for World War II. The War Department acquired all of the land between the Jinestown Road & S.R. 421 in Monroe Township, as well as sections 3 & 4, and part of section 5, Range 10E, in Madison Township. Part of Jennings and Ripley County were also included in this ammunition testing ground, which became known as the Jefferson Proving Ground. A second acquistion was made by the government in October, 1942 which extended the western boundary of the JPG to the Monroe Township line, in Jefferson County.

The Monroe Twp. cemeteries which were located in the JPG, were moved south of the Fairmount Cemetery on Michigan Road, with the exception of the Smith-Smart Cemetery, which was moved to Graham Rd, north of the Hebron Baptist Church. Its original destination was Michigan Rd, near the then newly relocated Bayless Cemetery. In all, some 3,500 graves were moved to other cemeteries and new locations. The Hebron Cemetery was the only cemetery in Monroe Township not effected, because it was located on the east side of U.S. 421. The Grandview Memorial Gardens Cemetery had not yet been established.


Three cemeteries remain in Monroe Township:

Map Key Cemetery Location
1. & 1A Smith - Smart Moved from Section 10, to Section 25.
[Approximate location in S10]
2. Hebron Section 36
9. Grandview Memorial Gardens Section 14 [9306 N. US 421]


Cemeteries relocated to Michigan Road, in Madison Township:

Map Key
 		Cemetery Original Location
3. Baxter Section 22
4. Big Creek Section 9
5. Craig Section 19
[Approximate location in S19]
6. Mt. Monroe Section 18
[Approximate location in S18]
7. Marble Valley Section 4
[Approximate location in S4]
8. Monroe Section 21


Image of the cemeteries current locations:

Cemeteries moved immediately south of Fairmount Cemetery.
[Will add other cemeteries as time permits.]


Other cemeteries relocated due to JPG:

The Bayless Cemetery, originally located in Section 4, Madison Township, and part of the Marble Corner Cemetery, in Ripley County were moved to Michigan Road, south of the Fairmount Cemetery. St. Magdalene Cemetery, in Ripley County was moved too, and now adjoins the west side of St. Patrick's Cemetery. See Madison Twp. for these cemeteries.


Notes:

Per a deed record dated March 22, 1864 between Constant Keziah Stewart & Thomas Dunn, there was a cemetery located in Section 12. The dimensions were 50' by 30'. The property in this deed was part of the land purchased by Keziah's deceased husband, John Walter Stewart, which he had purchased from the estate of Asa Cox on August 13, 1843.

Resources:

1. For Defense of Our Country Echoes of Jefferson Proving Ground, by Sue Baker. Published 1990.
2. Jefferson Proving Ground, WWII, RE-Interment Program, by Mike Moore.
3. Cemetery Records of Jefferson County, Indiana," compiled by the John Paul Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Completed 1941.


1927 Plat Map of Monroe Township, Jefferson County, Indiana:

[Some of the cemetery locations were from Mike Moore's JPG papers. Also, helpful was Louis Munier, who lived near the Big Creek Cemetery, in Monroe Township. The plat map shows C.W. Hunter as the owner of the land in section 16 across from Big Creek Church & Cemetery. This is an error; the surname should be Munier.]