aka Ooten

Lafayette Township

Location: west side of CR 200W, between CRs 600N and 700N

    As has been mentioned elsewhere, the death rate among children and newborns in the 19th century often reached as high as one out of three or four.  The Ooton Cemetery testifies to those statistics.  There are eight pioneer graves at this location, all of them children from three pioneer families.  From a note in the archives of the Madison County Historical Society, all of these children died of diphtheria, one of the several diseases that often ravaged the early settlers.  It should also be noted, that while this burial ground is out in the country and at a distance from the few houses in the area, someone from the 21st century, a distant relative perhaps, always has these graves decorated.

    Occasionally, township trustees are asked if there is an empty plot available in a cemetery under their care, and most often there is.  Perhaps relatives wish that the recently departed be interred in a pioneer cemetery because the cemetery is near their or the deceased's home or the cemetery contains ancestors of the family.  Township trustees and MCCC members are always gratified when county residents take advantage of available space in a pioneer cemetery.  In that regard, listed below among the 19th century children at the Ooton is Jerrica Love McDaniel, a 21st century infant.