Cross stones in Van Buren Township’ s Melott Cemetery.
a store, and a Redman’ s lodge. The church is still standing and the cemetery surrounds it. It’ s over 150 years old,” she said.“ There’ s a lot of heritage there.”
Many volunteers including employees of Indiana Oxygen and South Central Indiana REMC, Sherriff Scott Southerland and his family, and surviving ancestors of people buried there, such as Max Scrougham and his son Bruce, have spent hours removing fallen limbs and trees, mowing, pruning, and straightening tombstones. The township trustee is finding funds to help clean and repair stones.
“ We have tried to assess all of the cemeteries in Brown County, but we haven’ t gotten to all of them yet,” Wolff said.“ There’ s a committee in the county that is trying to bring the cemetery information up to date and correct some of the information.”
The group is working to bring up to date the work of legendary Brown County genealogists Ken and Helen Reeves.
“ The Reeves’ work on cemeteries was extensive and there is a cemetery book, but nothing has been done to bring the book up to date,” she said.“ The desire is to preserve some of the stories and some of the history and heritage of Brown County.”
Peaceful Valley Heritage helped support the restoration of the Old Log Jail and is trying to get other projects off the ground, including preservation of the Dickey and Neff houses and the historical marker for the State Park. The recently acquired state historical marker for the Brown County Bluegrass Music in Bean Blossom is a result of their efforts.
The cemetery committee meets once a month on the third Thursday of the month at one o’ clock at the public library in Nashville.
At a special public meeting scheduled for August, an Indiana Department of Natural Resources archeologist will talk about who is responsible for what in old cemeteries, what can and cannot be done. Wolff is hoping more people who are interested in old Brown County cemeteries will get involved in many different ways.
“ Because I’ ve tried to get some of this work done, people think,‘ Oh, you have a passion for cemeteries!’ but I don’ t. I just think there’ s some heritage there and I do think we ought to save as much as we can,” said Wolff.
A booklet In search of Henry Cross by W. Douglas Hartley and a DVD with the late Jack Weddle talking about the Henry Cross stones are available at the Brown County Public Library. •
July / August 2016 • Our Brown County 51