“INDIANA SPIRIT
QUEST”
The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches
will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by
Hoosier Pioneers. In just over a year, the quest has grown to over
a hundred eighty caches hidden in twenty-one Indiana counties, and
the hiders have grown to six cacher teams, five of which are
comprised of A Man and His Dog... and one who is a Porker.
JPLUS 14 has set a record for one-day ISQ finds
on 4-16-05 at 64! (PRAIRIE PARTNERS has 55); 262 cacher teams have
logged over 2,778 finds.
Pioneer Cemetery (Photo by LEAD DOG)
INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST
#170
”Desperate Houswives: Beth, Kate and Nancy"
Welcome to Harlan Cemetery, Wayne Township,
Huntington County,Indiana. This is a small run down place and many
of the tombstones are broken and/or knocked over. Buriel dates
range from 1841 to 1899.
Wayne township was named
after Wayne County by Asher and Thomas Fisher. The first permanent
settlers were John Buzzard and his brother in law John Ruggles.
They arrived in covered wagons in the winter of 1834-35. They built
a log cabin for John Buzzard near a spring in Section 12 and one
for John Ruggles in Section 13. The Ruggles' moved in on Christmas
Day 1834 which was wife Rachel's 40th birthday.
From a family history:
"The extensive wilderness about the home was full
of...panthers,bears, wildcats and wolves. Imagine the worry of
father and mother, in constant fear of their children falling prey
to some prowling beast. Then think of the hard life and the labor
it took to clear a farm and make a home out of such
wilderness.
"Can you see the mother
and father and seven children crowded into a one-room cabin? The
responsibility of feeding and clothing them, all the while the
mother must learn to be the doctor when they got sick, for there
was no doctor to call when they got sick, there was no clear patch
to plant and raise anything to eat."
In 1835, Asher Fisher
walked all the way from Wayne County and purchased land in Section
1 for $1.25 an acre. His daughter, Malinda Fisher Anderson
described their cabin as a one-room, one-window, two-door
structure. One door had a wooden latch on the inside, which worked
with a string from the outside. This is where the expression "The
Latchstring is always out " originated, as a message of welcome.
("latchstring" is the only word in the English language which
contains six consonants in a row --LEAD DOG)
In April 1836 baby
Wesley Buzzard was the first white child born in the township.
MOther Buzzard had a loom and wove all their clothing material.
Indians had a winter camp several miles west of the cabin, where
the Indian Deperate Housewives did all the work--skinning and
preparing meat.The first school in the township was held in the
Buzzard Cabin and Nacy Hildebrand was the first teacher. The first
separate school building was built in 1839 and was a private
subscription school.
This cache is dedicated to three pioneer
wives, who endured the hardships of early Indiana primitive life,
and whose mortal remains lie in this sad, forgotten little
place:
ELIZABETH ELIOT died
7-22-1844
CATHERINE DICKEN died
2-06-1847
NANCY HAWKINS died
12-17-1850
PILE OF STONES
The cache container is a
small plastic prescription bottle. BYOP. Park with Extreme
care.If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in
the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash
out. XXX
DON'T BE FOOLED BY INANE IMITATIONS!! None
genuine without this official SixDogTeam seal. Digital photographs
taken by Lead Dog, copyright 2005 by RikSu Outfitters unless
otherwise noted.
"Indiana Spirit Quest"
is brought to you by the following fine fellows of GEOISQ*:
The SixDogTeam, Kodiak Kid, THE
SHADOW, Team Shydog and Rupert2 and Torry. If you are interested in
spreading the quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO
JOIN US, email SixDogTeam with caching resume and at least 5
current references.
*Grand Exalted Order of
the Indiana Spirit Quest