Harry Pierpont's Grave

Tuesday morning I drove to Indianapolis and visited the gravesite of Harry Pierpont and other members of the family.  The cemetery was easy to find, not too far off from I-70 as you come through downtown Indianapolis.


I stopped at the cemetery offices, located at 435 West Troy Ave, and obtained a copy of the plot map to show me exactly where the members of the family were buried.  The offices are actually located at nearby Calvary Cemetery, approximately a mile or so from Holy Cross and St. Joseph cemeteries.

The red marks show the location of the Pierpont plot.  There are actually two plots, side by side.  The grave markers are rather plain, not elevated.  If you didn't know who you were looking for, it would be easy to overlook.


Earlier correspondence with the cemetery revealed the following information about the burials of Harry, Lena, Fred and Gilbert:

Hi Travis,  here is the information that you have requested.

Lena died on 10/21/1958, at the age of 75, she lived in Lakeville, Indiana, she belong to Sacred Heart parish, her next of kin was Joseph Pierpont and he apparently paid for the funeral expenses, her funeral was held through Kirby Mortuary. There are other family members buried at this same location. Here is a list of their names:

Fern Pierpont, age 19, died Aug. 7, 1919

Harry Pierpont, age 32, died Oct. 17, 1934

Lena Pierpont, age 75, died Oct. 25, 1958

Joseph Pierpont, age 80, died Oct. 6, 1961

All these family members are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Section 3-G, Lot 252, Lena is in grave 2.

Hopefully I have helped you, if you need anything else, please feel free to contact me.

By the way FYI, we have just opened a new area in Holy Cross in which can be purchased for family burial until sold out.

If you are interested in knowing more about this new area,  just let me know. We haven’t had any burial for sale for 25 years, now we do until it’s sold out.

Sincerely,

Denise Ruell

317-519-5506

Denise Ruell
Family Service Advisor

435 W. Troy Avenue
Indianapolis, In 46225
Tel: 317-784-4439
Fax: 317-789-0360

Five Things I Learned On My Last Research Trip

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I took a couple of mental health days from work to do some much needed genealogy research. Monday, I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Allen County Public Library.  Tuesday, I was able to visit the Indiana State Archives in Indianapolis.


Not only was I able to make some good finds, I learned a few things about planning my future trips:


1. The stomach matters: Packing a lunch or finding a place to eat nearby to where you are researching is important.  Sometimes I can get so engrossed in the genealogy "zone" that food doesn't seem important, until it is.  By that time, either I'm ready to pass out from hunger or have to cut my research short.  On Monday, I violated this rule and didn't pack a lunch, or leave the building to eat.  I started researching at 9 a.m., and by about 2:30 p.m., the hunger pains were beginning to overtake me.  On Tuesday, I had learned my lesson and packed a couple of sandwiches so I could go out to my car for lunch.


2. You cannot plan for every contingency: Copiers will jam, microfilm readers will be broken, roads will be under construction.  Dealing with these issues has more to do with handling my temper and frustration issues than anything else.


3. Staying focused is harder than it seems: Too often, I can easily get sidetracked from my plan of attack, especially when I'm at a new research location or it has been awhile since I've been there.  Walking past a stack of books, I catch myself reading the bindings, wondering "didn't I have some family in that locale?"  If I'm not careful, I'm soon down a rabbit hole, researching some collateral line that wasn't part of my main goal for the trip.


4. Eating an elephant takes many small bites: Trying to do marathon research sessions and gathering information on multiple lines in one trip isn't practical. Better to plan out what lines and what sources you are going to research before taking the trip.  Using my "to-do" list in my Rootsmagic software and online library catalogs really helped me handle this on my latest trip.


5. Sometimes the last second shot brings victory: Just when you're about to wrap it up for the day seems like the time when you check that one last source and make a great find!  On Monday, right as I was about to leave - I spotted a source on the stacks, played a hunch, and found information that I wouldn't have suspected to have been in the Fort Wayne library.


I'll be sharing some of my finds in upcoming posts, but here is a synopsis of what I found:


Monday, Allen County Public Library: Researched obituaries from microfilmed copies of the Evangelical Messenger and located over a dozen obituaries of paternal ancestors; located death notice of Fern Pierpont in Indiananapolis News; researched arrest of Harry Pierpont and Thaddeus Skeer in Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette issues of 1925; copied information from published genealogies on Eileen's Rinehart line and my Alderman/Luark connection


Tuesday, St. Joseph Cemetery, Indianapolis: Visited cemetery office and located plot map; photographed tombstones of Pierpont family


Tuesday, Indiana State Archives: Researched Dillinger gang files relating to Harry Pierpont and obtained copies; including correspondence from his mother to the warden, governor, etc. asking for his release.

John High In Hospital

Anderson Herald, Anderson, Indiana, April 5, 1961, page 3

IN HOSPITAL


John High, who was injured in an auto accident last week in Grant County, is a patient at St. John's Hospital, Anderson.


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John High, my maternal great-uncle, was apparently injured in an auto accident in the spring of 1961.