Monday, November 25, 2013

November rambles & leftovers


Sometimes, a guy runs out of month before he runs out of ideas, so as November winds down here are a few photos taken for blog posts that never quite got off the ground.

I had planned to get out to the Freedom Cemetery last week for a longer stay, then the weather turned. It was my fault; sat around talking when I should have been driving on what turned out to be the last Indian summerish day of the week, and by the time I finally got down into Warren Township it was getting dark.

But I did take a couple of photos of the road to Freedom, established in 1851 north of the village (long vanished) of the same name that was platted during 1856. Cemetery signs pointing to road signs that read "dead end" never cease to entertain me.

The well-kept lane back to Freedom is about half a mile long and as nearly as I can tell has never been widely traveled. When one of Allen Edwards' daughters died back in 1851, her parents buried her on a wooded rise above a small branch of Wolf Creek. Maps going as far back as 1875 show that the route of public roads in this neighborhood really haven't changed much, so the little cemetery seems always to have been off the beaten path.


Driving in, I met a buggy full of Amish kids hot-rodding up the road toward me after a short detour on the road home from their school to the west and their homes, to the northeast.


The Freedom gateway was erected by the late Dorotha and Morgan Many in memory of Dorotha's parents, Charles and Nettie (Tuttle) Fluke, and grandparents, Harvey and Louisa Tuttle. All are buried here.

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A couple of weeks ago, I stopped briefly at Prairie Trails Museum in Corydon to take a photo of Lewis and Emily Miles' cabin, parked temporarily atop cribbing as it awaited a new pad and shelter. I haven't been back by to see if it's reached ground level yet.


The Miles reportedly built this cabin, although probably without the generous glazed windows and fieldstone chimney, in 1853, not long after their arrival in Corydon. The cabin was relocated to Walden Park by Daughters of the American Revolution in 1928 and, in 1970, was moved to a location just east of Prairie Trails. not far from its original location.


Now, getting older and fragile, it's going to be incorporated into and sheltered by a new machine shed display building that will join the big museum barn on the east.


Sometimes I amuse myself by locating the graves of the builders of historic buildings, so here are the obelisks in the Corydon Cemetery that mark the graves of Emily Miles (left), who died in 1865, and William, who died in 1879. As noted previously, the second Mrs. William Miles, Phebe, is buried in the Sproatt mausoleum.

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There are some mighty chunks of granite in the Corydon Cemetery, a majority of the largest  placed during the late 19th and first quarter of the 20th century, before the Great Depression put a dent in the tombstone market, too. One of these days, I'm going to do a post about my favorite granite extravaganzas in Wayne, Lucas and elsewhere.

This is one of the favorites at Corydon, announcing in no uncertain terms the prominence of banker William Hughes. Both William and his third wife, Sarah Jane, and their daughter, Etta, have smaller headstones north of this mighty family stone.


Love the exuberant flowering plant springing forth from a relatively small pot, symbolic resurrection. I'm wondering if the number of blossoms has significance. Old William has three wives and several children scattered around the cemetery.


Not far to the south is this mighty cross, marking the graves of the Rev. Philip J. Vollmar, a Methodist preacher; his wife, Katie (Goranflo) Vollmar, and their son, Luther H. The three all died during 1924, Philip during August, Katie during September and Luther, during October.

If you're interested in granite, here's a link to one of my all-time favorites, over at Stringtown on the road from Creston to Corning.

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