What Happened to Grandma's Babies?

Until I started digging more deeply into the census records, I was sure that I had written down everything about the family group that was my maternal 2nd-great grandparents, John William and Ellen (KING) WRIGHT.  I always knew that my great-grandfather, Virgil, had a younger brother named Chester Arthur, who went by the name "Mike".  End of story, right?


The census records tell a slightly different story, beginning with the 1900 census of Monroe Township, Madison County, Indiana.  Ellen WRIGHT is a wife, aged 31, married for 14 years and the mother of 3 children, 2 of them living.  So that means that one of her children was deceased by 1900.  In the 1910 census of the same township, Ellen is aged 41, married for 24 years and the mother of 4 children, 2 of them living.  So sometime between 1900-1910 there was another child that was born and died.


I'm now seeking two additional children for this family:

Unknown child # 1: born between 1888 (marriage date) and 1900 census; died before 1900 census

 Unknown child # 2: born between 1900 census and died before 1910 census.

Who are these additional children?  Are their names lost to time?  There are no headstones in the local cemetery.  No one has included them in any family group sheets I've ever seen for this family.  There is no known Bible record that shows who these babies might have been.


A search of the birth records indexed by the WPA has been negative for any WRIGHT that would match this family.  Likewise for the death records. Indiana law required the recording of births in 1882.  However, compliance with the law was sketchy up until around 1900.  These births probably took place at home during this time period.


My best bet would be to find a mention in a local newspaper, but alas, the local paper in Alexandria at the public library starts with 1905.


Any clues on where to begin to find these babies?

The first wife of Edmund G. Pierce (1837-1875)

My maternal 3rd-great grandfather, Edmund G. PIERCE, was married on October 17, 1858 in Preble County, Ohio to Lydia DUELL, daughter of Joshua and Abigail (BORTON) DUELL.  Lydia was born March 26, 1838 in Pilesgrove, New Jersey.

Edmund and Lydia's marriage was short-lived, as she died September 14, 1860, according to her tombstone, and is buried in the West Grove Cemetery, Centreville, Wayne County, Indiana.  The Borton/Duell family Bible record, however, records her death as "Lydia B. Pierce departed her life the fifteenth of the eight month 1860".

Lydia's family were Quakers, and I haven't found any evidence that Edmund was, though I do not know what faith the Pierce family was.

Ancestry user oregontrailgal has provided me with information from the Bible, and has posted the information online.

I have yet to find the family in the 1860 census.  They could be in either Preble County, Ohio or Wayne County, Indiana.  Edmund was living in Wayne County, Indiana in the 1850 census.  After Lydia's death, he married Catherine GROENENDYKE in 1864 in Madison County, Indiana - my line.

Preble County, Ohio and Wayne County, Indiana are both border counties, so I will have to continue to search for records in both places.

Historic Quaker Cemetery Disturbed

From across the Rootsweb mailing list for Hamilton County, Indiana comes the following disturbing news:

In the early-mid 1960's the Westield Women's Club embarked in a "beautification project" that resulted in the removal and stacking of the grave markers in the Westfield Old Friends Cemetery on south Union Street. They contacted Conner Prairie and offered them the stones but were told that the museum wasn't interested in any stones with dates of death after 1836. When a few interested citizens learned of the "project" and expressed their dissatisfaction with the treatment of this graveyard the stones were re-set in four rows on the back of the cemetery along with a single marker with the names of all known burials and a marker commemorating the civil war veterans buried there. All of the burials remained in place with no way of determining the exact location of the dead, since the markers ahd been moved from their original locations.

Fast forward to 2010:

The City of Westfield Parks Department has commenced construction of a new park to be named the Old Friends Memorial Park on the property. This will include constructions of walls, trail ways and water fountains. Initial demolition in the northwest end of the property has already yielded intrusion into a grave. A backhoe sits on top of graves ready to disturb more graves. All of this is within the rights of the City of Westfield as a municipality. The Hamilton County Cemetery Commission is initiating action to at least bring a pause to this project for further consideration by the Westfield city government.

If you are interested in genealogy in Hamilton County and share our dismay that a local municipality would show such utter disregard for the remains of our ancestors, please contact the City of Westfield Parks Director, Melody Jones, at (317)804-3100 and share your displeasure with this project. You may write Ms. Jones at 2728 E. 271st Street, Westfield, IN 46074. In an election year, disfavor expressed about an issue like this goes a long way.

Bob Goode

Hamilton County Cemetery Commission

You can read more about this discovery covered by the local Fox affiliate here.

So many cemeteries have been lost to time and/or development, and the story about this one hits home because I discovered I had ancestors buried there.


A listing of some of the burials known to have taken place at the cemetery are listed on the Indiana Genweb.  Among those buried there are my maternal 5th-great grandparents, John W. and Mary (BARKER) DAVIS.  


In looking over the list of names at the cemetery, I see many Quaker names that I recognize as relatives, including: Baldwin, Bales, Barker, Davis, Hiatt, Jessup and Stout.