Indiana Spirit Quest #12: This Pleasant Grove Traditional Cache

Here we go again!

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers in central Indiana. If you’re clever, you can map out a route and get a bunch of ‘em in one trip!

Welcome To Pleasant Grove (Union) Cemetery, southeast of Liberty Mills in Wabash County, Indiana. Wabash County was named for the River, was established in 1835, with Wabash as the County Seat. “Pleasant Grove” is a popular name for cemeteries, and this is one of many so-named in Indiana. There is an abandoned Church here and many Civil War veterans are buried here, as evidenced by the large number of cast iron "star" flagholders, as well as a few Spanish War Vets, and others. This cemetery has an unusual number of soldiers from the Civil War, who died in service to their country. Burials as far back as the 1840's can be f ound.

UPDATE JUNE'05: Here is a partial listing of Civil War Soldiers whose markers can be found in this cemetery--

"Warren W. Banter, killed at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn. Apr. 6, 1862" Banter was a member of Co. E, 44th Indiana.
"Nathan, son of Christian & Catharine Myers, died at Calhoun, Ky. Feb. 12, 1862" Myers was a member of Co. E, 44th Indiana. At the time of his death, his regiment was in camp at Calhoun, Green River, Kentucky.
"J. M. Mowrer, Co. B, 47th Indiana" (Jacob, a Corporal)
"John M. Steckman, died Dec. 10th 1862, aged 20y 11 m 2 d, a member of Co. B 47th Regt. Ind Vol." Army records have his middle initial as "W". At the time of his death, his regiment was at Helena, Arkansas.

"Milton, son of J&D Dunbar, died May 27, 1865, 22 yrs." Milton shares a tombstone with his older brother George H. Milton and George were both members of Company D, 44th Indiana and both died awhile in Service. The Regiment was in New Orleans when Milton died in 1865. George H. had died three years earlier on Sep. 16, 1862 when the Regiment was in Helena, Arkansas. Ironically, he was also 22 years old at the time of his passing...So, J & D Dunbar laid two young sons to rest on the alter of Freedom.

The Parrett family is an old Indiana Pioneer family but they disagreed on how to spell their surname. You can see four or more spellings side by side in these cemteries. Apparently some of them used interchangeable spellings. They just could not decide on the proper number of "r's" or "t's" or whether or not to use an "e" or an "o". There are at least three Parrett soldiers here:
"Henry Parret, died May 12, 1864 at Chattanooga, Tenn. aged 23 yrs ? mo & 12 ds" Henry was a private in Co. E, 44th Indiana. The Army records have two alternate spellings for his name. "John W. Parrett" was a private in Co. A, 44th Indiana, and since he also has a soldier engraved on his tombstone, he may have did in the war also, but his stone is largely illegible. Army records spell his name with an "O". "Joseph D. Parrett, died at Evansville Ind. July 7? 1862, aged ??" Joseph has a cannon on his tombstone, and was a Private in Co. C, 34th Indiana. At the time of his death his regiment was fighting near Grand Prairie, Tenn.

"Simon Huffman, Co. D 47th Indiana, 7-22-1847 to 10-8-1864" was 17 years old when he died. His regiment was at St. Charles, Arkansas at the time of his death.
"Lewis Abbott,???,April 12, 1862". Abbott was a member of Co. D, 47th Indiana. His Regiment was fighting around Island #10 and Ft. Pillow, Tenn. at the time of his death.

This is an active, well maintained cemetery..

The cache was a small plastic tupperware-type container; It has been replaced with a small plastic spice jar. Please replace the cache camouflage when you’re done. If you find a fallen U.S. flag, please stick it back in the ground, preferably next to a Vet’s Marker.

Dogs Allowed Available year-round Less than 500 ft. from car to cache No restrooms available Check Tide Before Caching

Good Luck from SixDogTeam!!

GEHEN JETZT JAGD FUR UND FINDEN DEN SCHATZ. VIEL GLUECK!!

NOTICE, 7-29-05: NIGHT CACHING IS NOT ALLOWED ON ISQ's. LOGS INDICATING CACHING AFTER DARK WILL BE DELETED.