Indiana Spirit Quest #276:Faithful Family Retainer Traditional Cache

"An apple? Where's my candy, you XXX!" Fez, Trick or Treating on That 70's Show

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In just a year and a half, the quest has grown to over two hundred seventy caches hidden in twenty-seven Indiana counties, and two Ohio counties, and the hiders have grown to ten cacher teams, nine of which of which are comprised of Dogs and their Humans. Over 480 cacher teams have logged over 5,400 finds. One cache machine found 102 ISQ caches in a single day (daylight hours only).

(Photos by Shadow)

Welcome to Circle Hill, Pleasant Twp., Steuben County.

Listen to what the Mysterious Shadow has to say:

This is a large cemetery and growing quickly. The oldest area is to the east with growth westward. Driving lanes meander through it, so you don't really have to do much walking should you choose not to. But I highly recommend wandering around some of the areas, especially in the older part. This cemetery was sort of a replacement for the much older & smaller one in town.

There is an old central structure that looks to have been a crematorium in early years. The current use is that of maintenance & storage.

I located numerous veterans markers, from the War of 1812 through to Vietnam. Some of the veterans markers are very interesting.

Of particular interest is the tombstone of a known, former slave. Another is a memorial of a mountain climber that went up, but didn't come down.

I also have the coords for Gillies, Webster, & Dewitts graves should anyone want to use them. I haven't even been into the newer part at all. --THE SHADOW

Dan Webster
An Honest Man, A True & Loyal Friend
Born a Slave in Carroll County, Tenn.
Died in Angola
June 10, 1898
Aged 60 y's
Lived in the Family of W.G. Croxton for 25 years

From an old account: “One of the most readily recognizable monuments in Circle Hill Cemetery celebrated the life of Daniel Webster. Born into slavery, Webster became the beloved hostler (groomsman or stable hand) of local lawyer William Croxton's family. Webster's funeral in June of 1898 drew many of Angola's finest families.”

If you do wander around a bit, you may notice the tombstone of Thomas Fairfield, an Indiana National Guardsmen sent to Texas to hunt down Poncho Villa and never returned.

There are a lot of stories in this old burial ground.

This is the gravesite of Capt. Lyal Erwin, a helicopter pilot from Ashley, IN. killed in a non-hostile crash in South Viet Nam in 1965.

Excerpts from Continuing Research by Cemeterylady: "He graduated from Purdue University and taught special ed. children in Gary...In the summer of 1967, he and a group of other friends joined another group that was climbing Mount McKinley - all experienced climbers. They split into two groups part way up to climb both peaks at the same time, and radioed each other and the base camp that they had reached the summit. Then, while they were descending, a freak "Arctic" storm blew in- gusts above 90 MPH... Rescue attempts failed, and ... five ... or seven never returned. Henry was one of them... Henry's parents had divorced, and Mom lived in Oregon while Dad still lived in Lafayette... Grandfather, the Reverend Henry Janes, was a pastor in Angola and had been buried here..."

Final Research courtesy of Cemeterylady:

Henry Janes was Hank to his friends, and at 5'5 and 140 lbs he was the smallest of the twelve men who ascended Mount Mckinley in July of 1967 in what would become one of the most controversial climbs in history. (Pretend the rest of this is written in red, I can't bear to write the command a hundred more times--GC.com's decision to use HTML "Tidy", recognized as one of the worst applications ever, is astoundingly short-sighted)

Hank had been a Purdue student when he began climbing mountains with the Outdoor Club, and after graduation he kept in touch even though he had moved to Oregon to teach learning disabled students. That summer, he made plans to join other Purdue students, other experienced climbers, and a trio from Colorado to summit the highest peak on the North American continent.

He drove his battered van, dubbed the "hankmobile" to the base of the mountain loaded with gear, and they started up. They quickly became two groups coincidentally traveling together, but it was noted that Henry went from one group to the other because he was the quiet, steady one and "he seemed to get along with everyone".

As they neared the summit, one climber became ill and decided not to try to summit. Four others, who moved more slowly than the big men, stayed back while the seven bigger ones forged ahead faster. Those seven reached the summit, radioed the base, and went back down to a camp where the sick man was staying in a tent. Henry and his group arrived at the camp and planned to go on up the next day. The seven who had already reached the peak started down. But the next day, the weather turned. The four climbers reached the summit as the winds began and they radioed the ranger station that they were starting down.

They never made it.

The next radio transmission was poor, and after that there were none. All four men, and the sick man, were experienced climbers and two had even worked as mountain rescuers, so no one was particularly worried right away. But as the days passed, the expedition leader asked repeatedly for fly-overs, supply drops, and finally rescue teams.

None of that happened.

Twelve days after the quartet reached the summit, another climbing group headed up to search. When they finally reached the highest camp, they found a body in a tent and another on the trail. It was estimated that the winds had reached gales of 70 to possibly 90 mph.

Hank Janes' body was never found.

He is, as James Tabor named his book, "forever on the mountain". Henry's father was assistant editor of the Lafayette Courier-Journal, and his mother lived in Oregon. They had divorced, so they had no common home. But in a little cemetery in Angola, Indiana, Henry's grandfather (also named Henry Janes) had been buried years before. The memorial stone for Henry Janes, mountain climber, sits next to Henry Janes, pastor, on the east side of the hill where a mountain climber should be. His stone sits near the summit of Circle Hill honoring a man who achieved his dream.

ANDERSONVILLE P.O.W. CASUALTY

We believe this to be a monument to John Gillis, a member of Co. F, 4th Michigan Cavalry. There was no "Gillies" on the roster of the regiment, but there was a Claudius Gillis in Company F of the 4th, probably a relative, who also was known as "Gilles", so there may have been some confusion as to how to spell the name... Maybe the stonecarver compromised and instead of choosing either i or e, used them both...The National Park Service Records for Andersonville Prison list him as "John Gillis".

The cache container was a Decon deal. Now it's a film can. Now it's a pill bottle. Now it's a small Loc-n-loc. BYOP. .The cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out. XXXXX

"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: The SixDogTeam (Earthdog Patrick, Lead Dog, Wheel Dog) Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, Cache Commando, bbSurveyors and Dover Duo. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email SixDogTeam.

*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest

** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE** xxxxx