Pioneer Cemeteries and Their Stories,

Madison County, Indiana

Revolutionary War Veterans

Home Up

Captain Litchfield and Henry Russell

Otterbein/Chesterfield/Makepeace Cemetery

Union Township

Captain Litchfield is listed in the DAR Index of Revolutionary Patriots.  His grave is recorded as unmarked in the Otterbein Cemetery area by the American Legion's Cemetery Record of Deceased Veterans.  The grave's location may actually be in the adjacent Potters' Field.   An American flag is usually placed near Henry Russell's marker to acknowledge Capt. Litchfield's contribution.  Very little information can found concerning his life in Madison County.  He was an early settler in Union Township and may have come to Chesterfield alone.

 

Henry Russell, Revolutionary War soldier, was at Valley Forge in 1777.  He was born in 1754 and served as a private in Maryland's 1st Regiment.  He died in 1836 in Chesterfield at eighty-two years.  Henry is listed  in the DAR Index of Revolutionary Patriots.  Mr. Russell was one of the early Union Township pioneers.  Henry's son, also named Henry, was a class leader in the Otterbein Church.  This veteran's daughter Nancy was the wife of Brazleton Noland.  Henry Russell's grave retains the memorial plaque placed there by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The Kikthawenund Chapter of the DAR had historian Edward J. Ronsheim, Sr., speak at the dedication ceremonies:  "Only by preserving history are we fit to make it.  These people braved the dangers of the frontier to establish that which we enjoy.  Surely they earned from us a right to believe that the stones which mark their lives and deaths will be held as a sacred trust and historical tie between the past, today and the future." 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

Samuel Pavey

Crosley Cemetery

Fall Creek Township

American Revolutionary War soldier Samuel Pavey was born in Accomack County, Virginia, in 1763.  He was a member of the Virginia Militia.  Samuel and his wife Hethy were among the early settlers to Fall Creek Township.  While Hethy died in 1838, Samuel lived to be eighty-eight years old and died in 1851.  He applied for his pension in 1835 when he was seventy-two. He is listed in Margaret Water's Supplement to the DAR Index of Patriots, and his stone is still quite legible.  His marker, pictured at left, is reset with the Crosley family's.

 

______________________________________________________________________________

Perry Swindell

Holson Cemetery

Richland Township

Perry Swindell was a native of North Carolina and served in the Revolutionary War in the military forces from that state.  He is recorded in Margaret Water's DAR Supplement, and she mentions a possible connection to Willis Swindell, another Revolutionary War veteran buried in Madison County.  Perry lived near the Richland/Monroe Township border and may have had the nickname of "Parky."  He is buried in the family plot in the southwest corner of the Holson, probably near the grave of descendent John Swindell.  As pictured at left, an American flag is placed on or near this relative's grave in honor of Perry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________

Willis

Willis Swindell

Old Vinson Cemetery

Van Buren Township

One of the oldest, most honored stones facing west in the old section is that of Willis Swindell.  Willis served in North Carolina's militia in the latter years of the Revolutionary War.  His service is recorded in the Supplement to the DAR Index of Patriots.  He was born in Hyde County, North Carolina, in 1763, and after the Revolution, he and his family first moved to Wayne County, Indiana, and later to Van Buren Township in Madison County.  Willis lived to be eighty-eight years old.  He died in 1851 and was survived by his son Ashley.  Willis Swindell's stone is in excellent condition and can be read easily.  His gravestone was photographed and used by the Anderson Herald-Bulletin for a June 2002 article on Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Madison County .  Of the thirteen RW veteran's graves in Madison County, Willis Swindell's is the only one with a legible, completely intact stone on his burial plot.

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Jonathan Noble

Mt. Tabor/Starr Cemetery,

Monroe Township

Information, below, on Jonathan Noble and his descendants is from family genealogist Zola Troutman Noble:

    "Jonathan Noble was born in Maryland about 1763-64 and is alleged to have been a Revolutionary War veteran.  He and his wife Nancy (nee Driskill) and family settled in Rush County [Indiana] before 1840.  Jonathan may have come to Madison County [Indiana] with his son Elijah after Nancy's death and burial in Rush County in 1848.  Elijah bought property near the border of Boone and Monroe townships in 1849.  The family was members of the Mt. Tabor Methodist Church.  Jonathan Noble died before 1850.  Although Jonathan, by some oversight, is not listed below, the pictures above show his stone.  Once a tall, narrow tablet, it has broken into three sections.  There are, indeed, several generations of the Noble family buried here: Elijah and Lydia Noble and their son John N. Noble, 1818-1887, and his wife Catherine have stones in the Noble plot.  John N. Noble is shown on the 1876 plat map for Boone Township as owning land in nearby section 35.  Descendants hope to install a new memorial marker for Jonathan Noble and submit evidence to the NSDAR and NSSAR to prove that he was a Revolutionary War patriot and head of this family of Madison County settlers."

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

Clemuel Robinette, Sr., and Reuben Miller

Robinette Cemetery

Jackson Township

 

According to Madison County historian Raymond Davis and American Legion records, Clemuel Robinette, Sr., veteran of the Revolutionary War, is buried in unmarked grave 4, row 3, lot 2.  While Clemuel's military record is attested by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Robinette family does not verify that he is buried in this cemetery.

    Reuben Miller, another Revolutionary War veteran, is, however, buried here in a marked grave.  Reuben was born in 1765, and his military service is recorded in the DAR Patriot Index.  He was one of the pioneers to Jackson Township with his wife Jane and son Reuben, Jr.  Members of Reuben Miller's family are recorded on Jackson Township transfer records. Reuben died in 1836 at seventy years of age.  His broken stone is in the southwest corner of the Robinette Cemetery.  In the picture at right,  Reuben Miller's stone is in the foreground; old Robinette stones and markers are in the background.

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Andrew Jackson

Unknown family plot along Lick Creek

Fall Creek Township

Andrew Jackson, was buried on his farm.  The exact location of the family graveyard has not been discovered, but the general area is south of CR 1000S on a hill bordering Lick Creek.  His wife Elizabeth is buried with him.  They once had grave markers that have since disappeared.  Andrew Jackson was born in 1742 in North Carolina.  His military service is recorded in the DAR Index of Revolutionary Patriots for that state.  After the war, he eventually located in Wayne County, Indiana.  He moved from there and in 1827 purchased the northeast quarter of section 3 in Fall Creek Township.  His recorded children were Steven, Henry, Lucinda, Dempsey, William, Mary, Andrew, Levi, Elizabeth, Phebe, and Whitlock.  Andrew Jackson was honored, probably posthumously, when his biography appeared in the June 23, 1849, edition of the Pendleton News.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

John Mingle

Mendon/Mingle Cemetery

Fall Creek Township

 

John Mingle is listed in the DAR Index of Patriots.  He was born in 1758 and came to the southern part of Madison County along Lick Creek with his family in the 1820s.  He built a homestead near the little settlement of Menden.  He died in 1842 at eighty-four years of age.  This flat DAR commemorative is placed beside a descendant's larger monument.  The exact location of his burial site in this cemetery is unknown.

___________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Elijah Boston, Philip Hobaugh, William Wall,

Nathaniel Richmond

Grovelawn Cemetery

Fall Creek Township

    Elijah Boston, brother of Jesse Boston, is recorded as owning land in section 9 of Fall Creek Township.  He was born in Maryland and was successful in the mercantile business there.  At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Elijah enlisted and eventually became an officer in his Maryland militia regiment.  His service is recorded in Margaret Waters' DAR SupplementElijah Boston does not have a legible marker at Grovelawn, and it is assumed that he is buried in or near the family plot which is marked by Jesse’s pretty Victorian pillar, right.

Philip Hobaugh was born in 1763 and enlisted in the Pennsylvania Militia for service in the Revolution.  He fought at Guilford and Eutaw Springs and was mustered out at Fort Pitt in November 1783.  He is listed in the DAR records.  By 1804, he and his wife Christine Huveum and children Molly, Michael, Elizabeth, Susannah, and Peter were living in Ohio.  The Hobaughs were among the early settlers to Fall Creek Township.  Philip served on a jury in 1825, and the family is listed on the 1830 census.  Philip Hobaugh died in August 1836.

    William Wall was born in 1758 in Virginia and served in Taylor's Virginia Regiment.  William's military service is documented in the DAR Index of Patriots.  William's wife was Nancy Elkins and their two known children were John and Martha Ellen.  John Wall would later own real estate in the Pendleton area, and a stone pillar marks the family plot at Old Falls Cemetery.  Both Philip Hobaugh and William Wall are thought to be buried in or near their respective family's plot in the oldest section of Grovelawn pictured left.

    Nathaniel Richmond is the patriarch of a family with several descendents of that name.  Nathaniel has a DAR commemorative plaque and stone, placed by descendents, under the flag in the military section in the west half of Grovelawn.  Nathaniel was born in Middleborough, Massachusetts, in July of 1763.  He was a member of that state's 2nd Regiment and saw action at the battles of Valentine Hill and White Plains.  His discharge was signed by George Washington, and he is listed in the DAR Index of Patriots.  Nathaniel married Susannah Lombard in 1783.  When Indiana first opened for settlement, he and his family moved in.  He is first recorded in Dearborn County in 1818 and then in Fayette County in 1821.  Sometime in the early 1820s, Nathaniel found his way to Pendleton and decided to stay there with his family.  Several of his children are listed in the records of Fall Creek Township.  Nathaniel died in September of 1829; his widow was still a resident a decade later.

 

             

The DAR commemorative plaque and stone for Nathaniel Richmond is located under the American flag in the military section of Grovelawn.  The cross in the corner of his stone indicates that he was a minister.  Several of Nathaniel's descendents are also recorded as religious leaders.  Nathaniel's original burial site was on the homestead west of Pendleton.  His grave was moved in the early 20th century.

The information above is taken from "Memorial to Patriots of the American Revolution Resting in Madison County," by local historian Raymond Davis, as presented in Biographical History of Madison County, Indiana, compiled by Helen M. Baumer; Hawkins H. H., editor; n.p. Anderson, 1978.