Monument City Cemetery

I have been search for the burial site of Susannah Overly Smith for many years.   A number of years ago, I found records which indicated that there was a Susannah Smith buried in the Monument City Cemetery.  The transcription on the tombstone read  "wife of James".  This made me hopeful that at last maybe I had found my GGGGrandmother.  I searched with hope of finding Smith family members who may have lived near by but I never located any.  It seemed highly unlikely that this was my Susannah but I figured if I was ever in the area, I would visit the cemetery anyway to try to rule in or out the possibility.  And besides....who does love to visit a beautiful old cemetery at sun set?

When we were in the Fort Wayne area in early September,  I would get my opportunity to visit Monument City Cemetery and satisfy my curiosity. Before leaving home, I went to findagrave.com to get directions.  It was relatively close to our campground in Bluffton so it made perfect sense to add this to the plan.

The Cemetery is located at the end of a rural road.  It's on 800W just south of 250 S. It was relocated from its original site when the city of Monument City was cover up by the damming up of the Salamonie River to create Salamonie Lake in 1965.  The description below is from the internment.net website written by Ellen Callahan in 2002;

Lat: 40° 47 09"N, 85° 36 10"W
Polk Township Sect 31

Located in Polk township on 800W just south of 250S. 

This is a list of only tombstone inscriptions, I did this list myself in April of 2001, recent burials have been added. There are about 56 plain markers.

There is a monument in the front of the cemetery that is a memorial to the enlisted men from Polk township who died during the civil war. It was first erected about 1869 near the center of the township on the north bank of the Salamonie River. In 1900 it was to moved to the town of Monument City.

About 1965 this cemetery was relocated and the town razed to make way for the Salamonie reservoir. The monument was relocated to this cemetery and it has a list of soldiers with their regiments and death dates. It is not known where they are buried.

Even though I thought the location of this cemetery is beautiful, it makes me sad to think that it was  the result of having been relocated. 

Civil War Monument moved from the north bank of the Salamonie River

Seven of the twenty seven Civil War Soldiers listed on this memorial are:

John Ripley Wyckoff - Born 1848 the  son of Samuel and Melinda Wyckoff,
Enlisted in Company A of the Indiana 13th Calvary,  Died February 13, 1865

Enoch Morgan - Born 1829 , Enlisted in Company G, Indiana 34th Infantry Regiment on 10 Oct 1861, Died March 22, 1862

Theodore Ellis -  Born about 1837, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Ellis, Enlisted in Company E, Indiana 47th Infantry Regiment on 13 Dec 1861,  Died  July 31, 1863, From Battle wounds.  He was survived by a wife, Rebecca and a son, Daniel.

Daniel Denton - Born in 1823, Enlisted in the Indiana 47th Infantry on October 9, 1862,  died May 16, 1863 in battle in Champion's Hill, Mississippi.  He was survived by a wife, Nancy, a son John and a daughter Susan.

Eli Dille - Born 1841 the son of Ichabod  and Rachel Dille , Enlisted  26 Mar 1864 in Antioch, IN as a Private in Company E, 47th Regiment Indiana Infantry , died May 16, 1863 in battle in at Champions Hill, Mississippi.

Henry Click, Born 1846 the son  of Harmon and Rhoda (Wilson) Click,   Enlisted  26 Mar 1864 in Antioch, IN as a Private in Company E, 47th Regiment Indiana Infantry, Died April 22, 1864 in New Orleans, Louisiana of Typhoid Pneumonia.

Thomas Slytor, Enlisted in Company E, Indiana 47th Infantry Regiment on 13 Dec 1861,  Died from wounds on 25 May 1863.

As you can see it was getting dark when I took this picture and unfortunately, I did not realize that there were additional names on this monument.  So this photo was taken of the front of the monument only.  I spent some time researching each of these soldier. The information, included above, is what I have found.  I hope that it may someday help  answer a question for some other researcher.  None of these men are in anyway related to me but each deserves to be honored for they lost their lives to ensure that we can all live as free men and woman.   If I ever get back to the area, I'll take photos of  the other sides of  this monument and write about  those honored soldiers, as well.  My blog about Susanna will be this week's Tombstone Tuesday in a day or two.

Happy Hunting, 

Jan Smith