Indiana Spirit Quest #91: Fairies,Foxes, & Wolves Traditional Cache

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of small, rural, historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers in central/Northeast Indiana. PRAIRIEPARTNERS has set a record for one-day ISQ finds on 10-16-2004 at 55! 90 cacher teams have logged over 1,250 finds.

TOP TEN FINDS

FTF's

1. 32 --Dragon Ryders Three
2. 14 --Buddaman
3. 12 --Bluegillfisherman
4. 8 --Pinestrail

This quest will take you to Eberhard Cemetery in Columbia Twp., Whitley County. Whitley County was named for Col. William Whitley and was established in 1831 with Columbia City as the County Seat. The brick 1893 church was built for a Lutheran and Reform congregation. The graveyard is closed 9PM to 6AM, so no night caching. This is a big, active cemetery with thousands of souls resting here. The oldest burial we found a record for was for Auch Curch, died June 15, 1835, with a number of tombstones dating to the 1850's, mostly located behind the church.

The Wolfe (Wolf) family leads the way here with 56 representatives, but the Eberhards have 54, the Sells, 47; the Knellers 43; the Longs 41(6 of whom are Marys); the Millers 36. Alas there are only 4 Foxes.

But it's the ladies names that we like best about this cemetery. There is a Fairy V and a Fairy Mae, Pansy Mae, Minnie Mae, but no Daisy Mae, an Icy M and an Icy A, a Ruby Mae, a Dora Belle, Flossie, 4 Fanny's and 5 Fannie's; a Flossy and a Sadie and a Polly Ann and of course a Mary Jane or two. And our favorite: Gail D. "Snowball" Beasley. The men are represented by a John Johnson (I'd love to meet his parents), Tennessee Farley, and Nobel Bell (Is he a Bell or not a Bell?). And as a Bonus George Goble and Jesse Jackson are buried here. Now onto the lesson in infant mortality of the 19th Century:

Rev. Philip Becker (1813-1884) and his wife Elizabeth (1818-1884) buried no less that 8 children here. I don't know how many they had that survived. But Elizabeth must have been an amazing Lady. Of those children resting here, she Bore Jacob when she was 21 years old, and William when she was 50. Here is the toll:

PAULINE (d. 1853, 11 days)
SARAH (d. 1856,6 mos)
JACOB (d.1856, 17 yrs)
LEWIS (d. 1857,5 yrs)
LYDIA (died 1858, 6 mos)
LEAH (d. 1862, age unk)
ELIZABETH (d. 1863, 4 mos)
WILLIAM ( d. 1868, 24 days)
Rev. Philip Becker died 37 days after his wife in 1884

And now for a partial listing of Veterans... World War II vets here include Everett Anderson (MSGT, Army); Calvin Hugh Gaff (SSGT IN 875 ABN Engr BN); Harold Nelson (SGT Army); Dr.Frank MaGill Thompson (Dr Med IN Commander USN); John Unnel (SGT Army) and Jacob C. Wolfe (PFC USMC)and

Great War vets include Lemuel Bollinger (BH 67 MCAEF); Millard Dowell (IN Pvt Btry B 344 Field Arty); William S. Hunzinger (Co. A 112 Ammunit TN); Adam L. Walker (IN Pvt. Co. I Casual Det.); James M. White (IN Mus 3CL H 2 CO 36 Inf.)

War of Southern Independence vets include: Eph'm Redman (Co. C 91st OH INF); T.T. Scott (Co. G 18th IL INF); D.S. Tantlinger (Co. I 13th IN INF and:

William H. Stiver
died December 8, 1861
Aged 16 years 9 mo. 27 days
Died in the Service of his Country
Co. E 11th, 44th IN VOL REG

Henry Brenneman
Died May 13, 1862
Aged 21 years 12 days
Co. E 11th Reg. IN Vol.
MORTALLY WOUNDED AT SHILOH

Here's an interesting One: Levi F. Connell, 1901-1922, Pvt. Co. 168 B No Russ Exp.

(The North Russian Expedition, Siberian A.E.F. (Archangel) was an extension of World War I against the Soviet Government that had made a post-revolution peace with Germany and was holding Allied P.O.W.'s)

The cache container is a plastic pill bottle, if I remember correctly. BYOP. Park with 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.

Cache In - Trash Out!

Click to subscribe to ftwaynegeo! None genuine without SixDogTeam seal. All 35mm photographs taken by Lead Dog, copyright 2004 RikSu Outfitters unless otherwise noted. (Photos taken with 1970 Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL SLR) We are the Go Gators! Bound for the Peach Bowl to play the Miami Hurricanes SixDogTeam and you are not and we approve of this cache. Don't mean nuthin'!!