Archived Cemetery News

"Did you miss it the first time around?" If so, I have added a new page which will host some of the older news. A lot of these topics were worth saving for those that are just finding our website. Hope you enjoy it!
Want to add something? Send an e-mail to me, Deanna West or mail a copy of your information to Deanna West, 2356 N. Wozniak Road, Michigan City, Indiana 46360.

Treasures From The Past

Previous Updates

January to February - 2008

The only Indiana county larger than LaPorte County is Allen County. And as far as number townships; LaPorte has the most of any county within the state of Indiana. The commissioners of the past chose to have 24 townships. But 3 of those townships have disappeared; Van Buren, Madison and Anderson. (See our LaPorte County Histories Page to see when various townships were established).

Van Buren became Cass, Dewey and Hanna township. In 1836, there was to be a township named Madison which would have been situated where the Lincoln and Johnson townships are located today. This township never materialized voted down by the citizens, for whatever reason.

Finally in 1861, George Bosserman wanted to create a township known as Anderson which was also in the Lincoln and Johnson township areas. This would have also cut into the boundaries of what was then known as Scipio, Centre and Union townships. There was much discord and within 11 days after its development, the commisioners rescinded their decision.

November 2007

Buried Treasure - Records of Chicago's Early Years Those of us who live in Chicago have always thought that there were little or no records available for the years before the Great Fire of 1872. Little did the pigeons at the dilapidated warehouse on Chicago's South Side know they were roosting near historical treasures!
      The October 14, 2007 Chicago Tribune Magazine had a fascinating story of the discovery of City of Chicago Council proceeding records that go back to the city's founding. The complete article, written by Tara McClellan McAndrew, can be viewed at:>Due to time constraints, the September project was rescheduled for the first week of October. We will be adding some school grade photos for Mill Creek and Stillwell schools which are on loan to us from Pat VanDierendonck .

Great news!
Indiana State Library -   Indiana State Library has moved to its new location at   http://www.statelib.lib.in.us//>
The Indiana State Library now has the marriage listings up to 1850 and before and also 1993 to 2000 marriages back on line. Follow this link to our marriage page and then go to their site from our

In the past months several more school graduations and enrollments of various grades were added. Our historian/researchers are busy at the libraries collecting these choice bits of history. We have been concentrating on the schools prior to 1900 to help in "Covering the missing census years of the 1890's" Do you have any school grads of enrollments up to and including 1960? Let us hear from you.

Too numerous to list are the added information tidbits and pieces that have helped us add to our on line cemeteries. We would suggest if you haven't used our search engine lately, you might give it a new try.

We are still seeking school graduation listings for students graduating from the 5th, 8th and 12th grades before 1900. Please take a few minutes and note the school classes we already have on line by following this link. School Days
Added to this conglomeration is a new Researchers Completed listing. This allows researchers and historians to follow and also communicate with you as to what listings we are still in need of.

Still hunting for photos, histories and parishioners of the Old Houses of Worship through out early LaPorte County and the pastors that lead their flocks. To view what we have to date, look here Houses of Worship.

October and November

Hello Researchers. To assist both new and frequent visitors to our site, I added to the topics on our index page, viewed at  , with an expansive description of what can be found under each heading.

Also - Added to the Index page is a link to Rootsweb and their Social Security Death Index.

Yearly county death indexes will be coming to the site soon.

We are still seeking school graduation listings for students graduating from the 5th, 8th and 12th grades before 1900. Please take a few minutes and note the school classes we already have on line by following this link. School Days
Added to this conglomeration is a new Researchers Completed listing. This allows researchers and historians to follow and also communicate with you as to what listings we are still in need of.

July to August 2007    1. New this month is US Gen Web “Search Us” sponsored by the US GenWeb which was developed by Daryl Lytton. This link takes the viewer to both the Indiana Search Us site or the US GenWeb Search Engine. I've placed it on the index page just below our "Free Find" search box for readers convenience.

2. We've added a Book Page with the publications being offered through our site, other sites and links to available sites with Books being offered for LaPorte County, Indiana. This includes books being offered for the LaPorte County Genealogical Society and a link to the LaPorte County Historical Society publications for sale.

3. School Grads for Lower and Higher Grads has been expanded and added on to. This remains a work in progress.

4. New Links – Our index page now provides a link to Earlham College Library in Richmond, Indiana and its vast books and articles on the Quaker Research/Society of Friends.

Link to the Court Houses throughout Indiana now provided on the index page.

5. Over 75 New Obituaries have been added to our Obituary Collection.

July 2007 - If you are planning a visit to LaPorte County, don't forget to stop in at the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum.   They are in their new building now and just may be able to help you uncover more of the past in searching for information about your ancestors.

With the assistance of Judy Morgan, we copied and organized the donated obituaries from the old cemetery files into an alphabetical indexing system. You can see how we subdivided them by going to:
Death Notices and Obituaries

And have you made out your Genealogical Will yet? We have a form that you can feel free to use at:
My Genealogical Will

Updating and seeking histories. At present, I am going through each cemetery and updating some of the histories that accompany and tell the story of that cemetery, its surrounding area and its past.

Also, check out our Land Measurements page. It comes in handy when reading old property deeds etc.

June 2007 - Guest Editor - Guest Editorial of the month comes from Donna Nelson The Acorn, 13 January 1916
   A Few Pioneer Events Remembered by Avery I. Barnes Three Oaks, Mich., Jan. 10, 1916
   Mr. E. K. Warren - The 25th of April, 1839, Cyrus Barnes started from Onondaga Co., N. Y. for La Porte, Indiana, by team, with his wife and three children, of which I was the oldest. When we arrived at Old Buffalo we took the boat for Toledo, Ohio. The boat stopped at Ashtabula, Ohio, to land freight. Being told they would have ample time, my father and another man went ashore to get feed for their horses. While gone the captain, having some trouble over the freight, pulled off and left them ashore. Instead of stopping at Toledo as agreed the boat went on to Detroit and then back to Toledo and landed us. A friend helped get our horses and wagon off the boat and found a place for us to stay.
    From Toledo we came by team. This side of Detroit I saw the first train of cars. Instead of steel rails as are now in use they used square timbers with a piece of band iron on the top.
    We arrived at Hamilton, a small village near Hudson Lake, La Porte Co., Indiana. There were no county fairs those times but the people were in the height of horse racing. When we left Hamilton for the Galien woods we came by the Hicks neighborhood. While on the way we saw a horse, pasturing in the woods, with a cow bell on his neck. It was all woods at that time with only here and there a small clearing. The woods were green with leeks and you could smell the cows breath a long ways. The milk and butter would also taste of the leeks. My father traded his team and wagon for 50 acres of land, in Sec. 17, Galena Township, La Porte Co., Indiana. The 17th of May we moved there. There was a small house and two or three acres of cleared land. Father was then taken sick and as we had no team my brother and I had to dig up the ground, so as to get a little corn planted. In the fall I took the ague and fever. I shook every day for eight weeks. Our pigs fattened on beech nuts and so we had plenty of good meat to eat with our corn bread. In the winter father bought a yoke of oxen and hauled logs to the saw mill and had to give half of the lumber for the sawing. He hauled some poplar lumber to La Porte and sold it for $5 per thousand. In 1840 I went to La Porte to a Fourth of July celebration. Our neighbors had two daughters and two sons. As they wanted to go, my brother James and I went along. They had no horse so they hitched an ox to a wagon and one brother drove for the girls. The other one walked with us. There were about fifty there. At noon they set a table in a grove but it was all eaten up before we got there. But we enjoyed ourselves first rate for boys any how. There was no Three Oaks at that time. In the spring of ’41 the snow stayed on so long we ran out of feed and we had to cut down trees for the stock to browse upon. As they would eat the small branches, we kept them from starving and saved them all. I then was 13 years old; from then on I had to handle an ax. I helped cut the road from our place to the New Buffalo road past the place I afterward bought. When I became of age, I worked for fifty cents a day to get money to make the first payment on the place. I now live on Sec. 18 which at that time was all heavy timber. That was in the year 1850. In the early forties I first went to New Buffalo. Our neighbors went to the post office there to get a letter. Those times when you got a letter you had to pay the postage yourself. Mr. Stilson, that was the man’s name, had to pay two shillings to get the letter after going seven miles for it. I went along; there was not much of New Buffalo at that time. All I can remember, there was one grocery or so and a light house. The light house was on the west side of the river, on a high hill. The first plow I used had a wooden mould board with a piece of iron fastened on for a point. I wish I had it for your museum. But we soon had better ones. The log school houses and churches soon gave way to better ones. We enjoyed ourselves about as well as we do now, though we had to work pretty hard. We could have wild turkey and venison most any time as there were plenty of both. I think I am the oldest settler in Galena Township, as I came here in 1839. I lived in this district since that time. From Avery I. Barnes, R. R. 1 La Porte, Ind.

April & May 2007 -

Teeter Cemetery Book for sale. The book is $10.00 plus postage charge of $1.50. Contact Donna M Nelson for further details at: donnamnelson@comcast.net

This is our first Cemetery publication and we hope to be able to offer more publications as time goes by.

Our Thanks to Michele Cuff and her efforts in the continuation of photographing the tombstones at Hanna Cemetery.

Donna Nelson finished her dunelady.com/laporte/histories/LaPorte_Orphanages.html">Orphan's Home article for the genweb and it's on line and ready for view.

Phyllis Ekovich worked on a fresh reading for Springfield Cemetery, LaPorte Co, IN over the summer months. I have added burials on line that were not noted before. I will be working on restructuring this list during the winter months.

Several obituaries up to 1955 were also added to the site this past month. Thank you to everyone that continues to submit them.

April - 2007  

A Look Back at Newspapers in Rolling Prairie
By: Gloria Arndt

As early as 1884 there was movement to incorporate the town of Rolling Prairie according to “The Daily Bee”, a small (approximately 2” by 3”) newspaper. The newspaper was published in Rolling Prairie by Robert Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs was described as a “juvenile editor” by the Michigan City Enterprise newspaper. The earliest known paper published by Burroughs was 1883. In 1884 the newspaper was called the “Rolling Prairie Bee” and had increased in size (4 ½” by 3”). Under the banner of the newspaper was printed “Small Beginnings Sometimes Have Great Endings”. The tiny newspaper reported local doings as follows: “Mr. C. Towner wishes whoever borrowed his wheelbarrow sometime ago to return it or inform him where he may get it.” “Miss Kitty Worden has returned from her visit in Michigan .” “The gross proceeds of the social last Wednesday night amount to nearly $13.00.” “The M. W. parsonage has a new well.” “We are pleased to note the fact that Mr. B.F. McCarty has built a stone sidewalk by his Blacksmith Shop. It is the only walk of its kind in the city.” The Bee announced it would suspend publication of the paper with an undated notice but their job office was still operating and solicited the publics business. The Rolling Prairie Bee had been available to customers for 5 cents for 1 month, 25 cents for six months, and 1 year for 50 cents. Out of town subscribers had to pay 1 cent per week for postage.

Not many of the “Rolling Prairie Record” newspapers survive, the ones that have survived are undated. The publisher was Lowell E. Noland. The “Record” was available to subscribers for $1.00 per year. In addition to local information the newspaper contained an ad as follows: Hair-O-Zone, the greatest of hair tonics with a coupon good for 65 cents.

It is likely a resident of Rolling Prairie or the residents ancestor saved a few copies of the “Bee” and the “Record” and donated them to the La Porte County Historical Society Museum . Because of their sharing we are able to enjoy the newspapers.

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Feb. 2007 - Monthly Editorial from Guest Writer
Michigan City Pierhead Light
Anniversary
By: Patricia Gruse Harris

February 17 is the 23rd anniversary of the Michigan City Pierhead Light with Attached Elevated Walkway being placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1904 the U.S. Lighthouse Service commissioned the construction of the Pierhead Lighthouse with its attached elevated walkway, built as a single unit. The walkway is more commonly known as the Catwalk and was used by the lighthouse keepers to access the light in bad weather. The entire structure came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939 when the U.S. Lighthouse Service was discontinued. In 1983 the Coast Guard scheduled the “catwalk”, along with many others on the Great Lakes, for demolition.

Local concerned citizens organized to fight demolition. After much litigation and congressional help and the support of Mayors Arnold and Behler, the Coast Guard offered to donate the catwalk to City of Michigan City in 1991. Mayor Behler agreed to accept when funds to restore & maintain are identified. In 1993 Historic Landmarks of IN placed the catwalk on the list of Ten Most Endangered Sites in Indiana and the City of Michigan City applied for and received $40,000 ISTEA grant for restoration including replacement of walking surface grating and illumination of catwalk.

On Feb. 17 1994 Mayor Behler presided at the kick-off of the campaign by Save the Catwalk Committee to raise $120,000 for restoration and endowment fund with a steering committee of Edward W. Beutner, Patricia Harris, Betty Rinehart and Marilyn Swope. Later that year the Coast Guard completed their agreed upon portion of the work with the repair of shirred corner stanchion, removal of deteriorated concrete walking surface and painting of the entire pierhead lighthouse. An endowment fund was established with the Unity Foundation of La Porte County with donated funds.

On 21 Dec. 1995 the City received a Christmas present as Mayor Behler accepted transfer of deed from USCG for the catwalk. During the summer and fall 1996 the restoration and illumination is completed and on a blustery 2 Oct. 1996 the lights are turned on for the first time. On 7 Dec. 1997 a large donor marker is dedicated at the shore end of the catwalk. Total cost of the restoration and illumination was $91,012.60. Besides the grant which ultimately paid $57,400, $76,500 in cash donations and $17,227 in in-kind donations was raised. Unused funds remain in the Unity Foundation of La Porte County for future maintenance and donations are still accepted.

The marker is covered for the winter to protect it from the blustery lake weather, but will be uncovered come spring. The lights on the catwalk are turned off for the winter because there is no navigation, but will be turned on come spring. The illumination makes a delightful walk along the pier on a nice night.

Area Archeologist offers Children's book - one of our local volunteers and archeologist has written a wonderful children's book with beautiful illustrations.   "If I Were An Archeologist" by: R. A. Hapke.
Also illustrated by: Mr. Hapke and D. Wolters. Interested parties can find out more about this offering on www.bransoncreations.com

October / September - 2006 News Updates -

More school listings were added in September.
Work is continuing on the County Orphanage Collection and we hope we will be able to display it on line sometime in November.
Several obituaries up to 1955 were also added to the site this past month.
Coming up this next month will be photographing and posting to site, the townships from a circa 1920's atlas for LaPorte County.

New on our web site this month is an addition to our Military pages. It is titled America's Wars, contributed to our site by Larry Chester, a fellow genealogist.

Hesston Church Records were also added with some of its initial members listed. This can be viewed at:

Also the Marston Family Bible records have been added to our Genweb site.

August - 2006 - News Updates - Hanna Cemetery - from the desk of Don Jessup A bit of news about the Hanna cemetery. June 2006. A new white vinyl fence has been installed along the front of the cemetery. It is scalloped along the top. Looks very nice. Don Jessup

Let's hope that one of our many volunteers can take a digital picture and send it to us. We'll make sure to post it on our Hanna Cemetery Site. Pine Lake Cemetery News - For finding out about ancestors or for present needs in making arrangements for a newly departed Pine Lake Cemetery now has it's own site. You may reach them at:

July 20, 2006  

  Check out the Hudson Cemetery site for new work that the Pioneer Cemetery Commission has been doing in the last few months. For just one example, note the new fencing at   Looks Great!
  The Missing Census Years.   The 1890 US census reports were destroyed by fire and the remainder were later destroyed per someone's "less the brilliant" decision. Therefore our research group has been concentrating on the school and business records for this period of time within our county. Sorry folks, but the school records that were previously on the Genweb site for LaPorte were not passed on to me when I took over as coordinator for LaPorte County Genweb. Therefore we are in the process of rebuilding the lists of the graduating classes previously on site and additional school information that was not on site before. Please submit or resubmit any listings that you might have for school classes and graduates.

  New Maps were added this month too. Go to our main page and click on LaPorte County Maps.

July 1, 2006    

Schools of LaPorte Co., records. Along with adding HS Graduating Classes, we are also adding the 8th grade graduating classes up to 1930 to our collections of school records on the Internet.
Military Pages – for the next few months we will be collecting and posting War Memorial Photos to our Military Pages. If you have a photo of a war memorial in our county, please scan and send us a copy. Cemetery pages – we continue to update and correct old listings when and where necessary.
Biographies - Each month I try and pick a few family names that there has been interest in, by viewers dropping by our website. Biographies that I am working on for the month of June are the Hollandsworth (Hollingsworth) and the Trinoskey (Trojanowski) families of LaPorte and surrounding counties.
New to our site - Snippets: These are just brief glimpses of the past. We have added this category to our selection of interesting topics to read from the LaPorte Genweb site. So, snip those snippets and submit them to us. Follow the link here.

July 2006 - Monthly Editorial from Guest Writer
July 2006
INDEPENDENCE DAY, La Porte County (IN)
Fern Eddy Schultz, La Porte County (IN) Historian

Independence Day means different things to different people and at different times in our lives. Today, we less often hear it referred to as Independence Day—to most it is the 4^th of July. If you were to take a poll, it is quite likely there would be a large percentage who would not know why it is a day of celebration. Many express their idea of it as being a day off work for a cook-out (weather permitting) and to view a parade.

This year of 2006, is the 230^th birthday of our nation—the document we call the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress on the 4^th of July 1776, although the original resolution was introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia June 7, 1776. This document called for the Continental Congress to declare the United States free from British rule. There are many interesting facts about the signers of this document—some were not even present the day of the signing. Wm. Floyd, Philip Livingston, Frank Lewis and Lewis Morris (the New York delegation) did not vote on the resolution until July 9^th.

Not a single signature was added to the document on the 4^th. By early August, most of the fifty-six had been affixed. The only one remaining unsigned was Thomas McKean—he did not sign until 1781. This document has been credited with making the United States the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” These words we sing and hear in our National Anthem—The Star Spangled Banner. Although the words to this were written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, it was not adopted as our National Anthem until 03 March 1931.

Many events occurred between the signing of the Declaration and the adoption of our National Anthem. Many of these have great impact on our family history. Wars have been fought in which our ancestors served and gave their lives so we would remain a “land of the free.” Immigrants from numerous countries arrived in the United States of America during this period and this country’s makeup became a truly diverse one. They wanted to be a part of this “land of the free.” These are the people we research because they are our ancestors.

Soon La Porte County will be celebrating this day with various events. As we look back in our history, we find this has been done in many ways—some the same as today. In 1904, a cannon of political significance in La Porte County was fired in celebration. However, the gentleman in charge of the firing of the “democratic cannon” got a surprise. The gun burst and was blown into several pieces, wrecking its carriage and knocking him down. The cannon had been made by private subscription at the Lake Shore Railroad shops during the Civil War and had been used as a stimulant to the Union cause, being used to call meetings and to celebrate victories. It finally fell into the hands of the republicans and the last memorable political battle the gun performed was during the presidential campaign of 1876. During this campaign, republican coffers were strained and a democratic offer of cash was accepted and a transfer of the cannon was duly made in writing.

So with the 4^th of July 1904, this cannon, which figured politically and served as an interesting part of La Porte County’s history, became a part of the past. It is very important that we remember “why” we are celebrating Independence Day (4^th of July). As it approaches in 2006, we might want to take a few minutes away from the fireworks, the parades and the cook-outs to recognize that we probably would not be able to do these things had John Hancock and others not put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence.

June 2006 -
Monthly Editorial from Guest Writer - "Indians of NW Indiana" La Porte County - By Russell A. Hapke, archaeologist MA.
For June this year, I was asked to create an article on Native Americans in the Dunes region. Not sure of what to write, there have been several trips across the keyboard, several times the words were deleted, and several more rewrites to follow.

Do I write of the prehistoric Adena and Hopewell cultures who left several state recorded mound sites in the area? Or of the changes in attitude concerning the Native American heritage over the last two centuries? Hmmm…should I dare even go into the half myth – half reality of many families who are hell bent on proving they have a Native American ancestor? When it comes down to it, perhaps the best thing that can be done from my standpoint is to share what I learned as a general theme during the years spent as an archaeologist throughout the Midwest.

"The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know." -- Socrates . The same can be said about Native American knowledge. The more you learn, the less you know about Native Americans. One can spend an entire lifetime learning about one ‘family’, within one clan, within one tribe, within one county, within one region, within one state, and so on and so on. If you are lucky, you can at least understand the most basic of patterns; and from that, you will gain a great appreciation of historic and prehistoric Native American life.

Many of us wonder if we will ever find that projectile point in the farmer’s field, or perhaps wonder if that weird ‘hump’ of dirt in the cow pasture may just be an ancient Adena or Hopewell mound. We know it’s out there and we’re content with just that…knowing. As an archeaologist, it’s not about the ‘digging’ all the time. Many times is it purely about the ‘knowing’ it is there and hoping we can protect it. I’ve seen a burial or two…and handled it just like I would any other burial, in any modern day cemetery…I left it alone, reminded of the reverence someone had for their family member laid to rest. The most important thing we learn as we ‘research’, is that they were people who loved and cared for their families much like we do today. And to that end I cannot stress enough.

In researching Native Americans, it is much like researching our own historical lineages. Sometimes, the information is really fantastic! Sometimes, the information is not quite what we’d want the neighbors to read about… But all the time, the research is about life. Of course, instead of marriage licenses and property deeds, there are fire pits and projectile points. Sometimes it’s a tall tale blurted out by relatives at the family reunion; and other times it is a quiet journal entry in a family bible that cants about the ‘unforgiven’ marriage that should not be spoken of again, but was recorded by some caring soul. To state a Native American ancestor in a lineage is common, but to be able to prove it takes the skill of a PhD.

May 1, 2006
Donated Information keeps pouring in!
Viewers continue to send in "wonderful things" for our Gen Web Pages. Additional church photos and histories along with family biographies are being placed on line at the current time.

Early Marriages - Work on early Marriages for La Porte county 1850 to 1870 continues. Although it is a work in progress, we now have a start on line with all the surnames of the alphabet being represented.

School records and graduating classes - We are slowly going through the graduating classes of each High School with in the county and trying to assemble a complete and accurate on line record for each graduating class. If you have a graduating listing before 1960, please contact us at: laportecountyin@yahoo.com

   has also been added; showing where some of the families went to once they left LaPorte County .

April 1, 2006Enjoying our new Gen Web Home
Our historians and volunteers have continued sending in "wonderful things" for our Gen Web Pages. Make sure to keep watching and reading as our site expands.
Christine Scott took on the daunting task of typing the Military Records from the Packards 1876 History of La Porte County and its Townships. The link to these listings are at the top of the Military Page.
We have commenced working on the Marriages for La Porte county 1850 to 1870. We already have the A surnames up and are carefully working on adding more to these listings as time permits.
The La Porte Roots Web Archives are still up and running. This includes - 1850 Census, Early Settlers, La Porte City Newspapers 1920 & 1940 Obit Index, H. C. Chandler & Co.'s Business Directory For Indiana - 1868 - This Table of Contents is maintained by: Katy Hestand.

March 1, 2006      Setting up our new Gen Web Home - It has been challenging but a lot of fun setting up our new Gen Web home. Since the old site was taken down; we started anew and several volunteers pitched in to make sure the La Porte County Gen Web site would be full of wonderful information.

We migrated our family histories and photos over from the Cemetery & Research site, to SHARE with everyone. Also being added are County Histories from Packard, Jasper, History of La Porte County, Indiana, and Its Townships, Towns and Cities. 1876. In doing this, viewers can read about the founding of this wonderful county and its townships and the people there in.

A slide show and photos of various places, schools and old houses of worship around the county should bring a great perspective to those joining us. We will be adding more photos and information in the near future.

February 22, 2005 - After 9 years, Glen McGlothlin is saying farewell as Webmaster and County Coordinator to the La Porte County Gen Web. We wish him the very best.
In addition to this news; I am continuing with the cemetery site and will also be the County Coordinator for the LaPorte County Indiana Gen Web site. Our NEW URL address is  

I want to represent all of La Porte County and with your help, I will do just that.
And yes, to any of you that are wondering, our cemetery site will stay strong and active. So keep submitting that wonderful information and we will add it to the site. The Cemetery Site will work in unison with the LaPorte Gen Web site and visa versa.

January 18, 2006 - In an effort to improve our site, I gave many of the pages a fresh look and also streamlined some for quicker loading and hopefully easier access to locate information sought. Thanks to Russ Hapke for helping me reorganize the front page layout. Fact is the more animated graphics you have on a web page, the slower it loads, especially for our friends with older PC's and Web TV.

If you have Web TV and you can't access some of our large cemetery pages, let us hear from you and tell us who you are looking for. We'll bring up the pages here and let you know if there are any ancestors there.

Hanna Cemetery -We will be entering an extended listing for Hanna Cemetery sent in by Dorothy Stephenson now that I have a healthy PC again.

From the Study and notes of Patricia Gruse Harris,
President, La Porte County Genealogical Society
Old Burial Book Study - AKA - (Old_Buryal_Book.)

The land for this cemetery, approximately one acre, was set aside by the founder of Michigan City, Isaac C. Elston, on the original plat of the town recorded 11 May 1835 in the La Porte County Recorders Office. Burials were made on this land and some immediately adjacent to the north and west, until 26 Nov. 1864, when the common council decreed that it was unlawful bury anyone anywhere within the corporate limits of Michigan City, except in Greenwood Cemetery newly laid out by the City. Over time it was totally abandoned and concerted efforts were made to remove all the remains and stones to Greenwood, a difficult task since some areas had drifted over with 16’ of sand. The site was later sold to the Michigan City School City.

On 24 Apr. 2003 construction workers working on the renovation of Elston Jr. High School unearthed some human bones. The Dept. of Natural Resources was notified and they brought in an archaeological team to study the site and make a thorough search for any more remains. I met with them on the historical aspects of the site and shared my personal research. More remains and artifacts were found and after study were reburied in Sec. “E”, Greenwood Cemetery in the same area as many of the 1880’s reburials were.

My research showed that some 500 persons had been reinterred, but no records of same survived. And since this was hundreds more than buried in Sec. “E”, a search of the tombstones in Greenwood with dates prior to 26 Nov. 1864 was begun, transcriptions made and stones photographed with the aid of my husband, Wm. Harris. The result was the identification of about 184 persons who had been interred in the Old Buryal Ground. All of this information along with maps, news articles, references found in the Common Council Minutes of Michigan City, IN, information on the persons reinterred and their families and the cemetery sextons, the archaeological investigation report by IPFW, and much more has been compiled into a book. As soon as it returns from the bindery the book will be on the shelf in the genealogy department of the Michigan City Public Library.

January 1, 2006 Site Update Your webmaster, me, Deanna West, has been a little quiet the last few months. Reason being; out of the two hard drives that my computer holds, one crashed. And if you haven't guessed yet, COPIES of the work for our cemetery site were all on the drive that crashed. Close to 100% of our material backed up on disk, net or hard copy, it will take me time to go through and make sure I update all the files with the most recent information that has been submitted. A fresh back up copy will be completed on a DVD today and again on completion of updates. Our free on line Internet Cemetery and Research pages were not affected by this problem. But I had to have a computer technician come in and look at my PC and deliver the sad news.

October - Novermber - "Heckman Memorial Cemetery" All known burials in Heckman Cemetery are now on line.

September & October 2005 Updates:   

Thank you to Oak Grove Cemetery in Wills Township. All known burials up to and including October 2005 have been submitted to us by: Carolyn Hunt.

September & October - 2005 "Heckman Memorial Cemetery"   Nearing completion  
Gloria Arndt, Russell Hapke, Pat Harris, Donna Nelson, Danny and Deanna West went out; re-read and photographed the stones in this cemetery. The work continued on Saturday, September 17th and remainder of rows, along with retakes, were completed on Monday, October 3, 2005. Donna Nelson is in the process of researching obituaries. Interested researchers may contact us and we will gladly forward a tombstone photo copy to you for your family tree.

From October 4, 2005 Cemetery News Page -

Oh No ...... Pirates !!!

Q. What is a Pirate or Pirating ?
A. Pirating is when someone illegally takes, either knowingly or unknowingly information or photos from your site and then reproduces it on another site; then takes credit for the information they copied. This does not include individuals who are using this information to build their own private family trees. That is why we put the site up. We wanted to give folks the ability to share their information and be contacted by other families researching the same groups.

Q. Who are these pirates
A. I call them number counters and lost souls. They may think they are doing a great service in entering tons of information or even photos that they have lifted from other sites, but they are not.

Q. What's the big deal about pirating?
A. Well, it affects everyone in more ways than one.

Q. How does it affect the volunteers, historians and researchers?
A. Because it is extremely frustrating to those that have spent countless hours and dollars researching the families of that particular county. Although you might live in a totally different area and even another state, you are stealing from those that are working on building histories of the county. Most people that pirate do not even show the courtesy to either link back to us or show us as the source.

Q. How does this hurt private individuals trying to build their family trees?
A. They won't know where the information came from and what else we may have found on a particular family. So the additional information we have, us as historians and you as researchers, may fall into a chasm never to be recaptured.

Q. Is copyrighting on the net really a serious and legal issue.
A. Well, this attorney that wrote this article says it is. Take a few minutes and read
What is Copyright Protection?
By the way, he gives his permission to anyone that wants to link to this great article.

Q. How can I correct this error if I have already taken information without permission from this site.
A. Either remove the information or show us as your source.
Source should show this link - Source: La Porte County Indiana Cemetery & Research Association at
And if taken from our Veterans site: Source should show this link - Source: La Porte County Indiana Cemetery & Research Association Veteran Site at
THIS does not imply or state that it is okay if you do it in the future without our permission. No information should be stolen from this site for another site. This includes any other site that does not have their programs set up to link back to us as the source.

So Pirates beware!

On Sunday, August 14th, Russell Hapke and I (Deanna West) briefly visited and took a few general pictures at Heckman Memorial Cemeteryand Posey Chapel Cemetery.

July - Updates & Outlook
Pinhook Cemetery takes on a new look. Pictures taken in June of the new fencing and signage. Take a look.

June 9, 2005 -Carmel Cemetery Tour Hosted by The LaPorte County Cemeteries and Research Association
    Tour began at 6:00 P.M. with Bruce Johnson as our tour guide.  This tour was in lieu of our bimonthly meeting.

14 June 2005LaPorte County Indiana Genealogical Society 2005 Annual Cemetery Tour.   This years location was Hanna Cemetery. The program was Program hosted by Dorothy Stephenson and Don Hanna.

June 2005 Happy Anniversary to all the researchers that have been with us in the past 4 years.   They have helped to make this site what it is.

May 2005 - Veteran listings - Veterans for Salem Cemetery in Wanatah and the remainder of known veterans for Greenwood have now been typed by Sandy Mafera and are ready for viewing. Thank you Sandy!
  Revised burial listing for Patton cemetery with corrections and additions is still being worked on at the present time. This is a huge project that will take some time to complete.

April 19, 2005 - New burials at Oak Grove (Wills twp), and obits for the following cemeteries were added:
Kingsbury, Patton, Pinhook, Sauktown and Westville.

Early April 2005- A partial listing of St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Michigan City is now ready for view - thank you Christine Scott. The listing consists of many of the burials from about 1905 to the mid 1930's. A much improved and expanded burial listing for Kingsbury Cemetery is now also on line.

March 19, 2005 ...... The South Bend Area Genealogical Society hosted its seventh annual Michiana Area Genealogical Fair with Ryan Taylor as featured speaker. Three of our county organizations were there to represent La Porte County and its wonderful history . Along with the LaPorte Cemetery and Research Association, the La Porte Genealogical Society and the La Porte Historical Society were present.

March 24th - A thank you is extended to the La Porte Herald Argus for the editorial on our efforts. And an additional thank you to all the various cemetery associations for their continuous and conscientious work in our county cemeteries.

February 2005 Updates

Salem Cemetery in Pleasant Township, also known as Salem Chapel Cemetery in yesteryear, is now on line with burials up to and including 1949. Typed for the Internet by: Sandy Mafera. Thank you Sandy!

January News
More obituaries uploaded in the month of December. Badly needed PC has finally arrived and I have a lot of back log to be entered. Keep watching this site and using the search engine for future updates.
Please send us any corrections or additions that you may know of.
Contact Deanna at November and October News
Foster Cemetery Section 4 has been added and Section 5 has been updated. And older burials in Kingsbury, Heckman and Posey Chapel cemeteries along with additional notes are now on line.

July 6, 2004 - Burial locations for many of those buried in

July 5, 2004 -

Page updated and maintained by Deanna West - Dune Lady Web Designs