Indiana Spirit Quest #555 Foster Cemetery Traditional Cache

This quest will bring you to the Foster Cemetery in rural Morgan County. It appears this started as a small family cemetery but eventually became a public cemetery for families in this part of Jefferson Township. This is really a pretty cemetery, built on a hillside and entirely wooded. Of course this is likely to hinder GPS signals, but I have left a spoiler hint if you need it. This cemetery has special meaning to me as I discovered my Curtis great-great grandparents are burried here. There are also many veterans here. While this is an old cemetery, burials have occurred as recently as that last 10-20 years. The lane that accesses this cemetery is not obvious and looks like someone's driveway. In fact, the lane is used by a home owner to access his driveway and then continues back to the cemetery. There is room for 3-4 cars at the end of the lane. There is a small Foster Cemetery sign at the turn-off but you can only see it if you are travelling west on Ballinger Road. The home owner had the lane blocked on one of my visits, but came out and moved his car for me, and seemed like a nice guy. Just tell them you are visiting the cemetery if asked. It's about 100 yards from the house back to the cemetery. .

Spanish-American War Veteran

There are two veterans of the Spanish-American War at Foster, and there is a third at the nearby Mt Olive Cemetery. All were members of the 158th Indiana Infantry. This was an Indiana National Guard unit that was activated for the Spanish American War. They were enrolled on April 26th, 1898 and mustered out on November 4th, 1898. The United States declared war on April 25th and at 6:15PM that day Governor James Mount received a telegram from the Secretary of War with a request that Indiana provide 4 infantry regiments and 2 artillery batallions. The Governor said it would only take 24 hours and Indiana National Guard units were enrolled the next day. Indiana was the first state to meet its quota. The duration of the war was so short that none of the Indiana units were involved in combat.

Civil War Veteran

There are Civil War veterans here for at least three different regiments. This headstone is for Wesley Curtis, who was in Company E of the 139th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. And yes, he is my great uncle. Other units represented at Foster include the 13th, 20th, and 151st Indiana regiments. The 13th and 20th regiments served for the entire duration of the war, while the 139th and 151st spent the last months of the war on guard duty.

FIND LOGS ON THIS CACHE THAT INDICATE NIGHT CACHING WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE!!

The cache container is a small lock 'n lock box. There is room for small trade items. You MUST sign the log to claim a Smilie. If you cache at night, or don't sign the log, or reveal the additional hint in your log, or don't fulfill any additional requirements, your find log will be deleted without notice...If you think these terms to be unfair, don't bother to hunt this cache. 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 of our pioneer dead, and cache in, trash out.

None genuine without this official SixDogTeam seal. Photographs taken by Lead Dog, (C) 2006 by RikSu Outfitters, unless otherwise noted.

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