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Indiana Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10507, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46852-0507

Index of Smith Cemetery, Adams County, Indiana

Contributed by Capt. David G. Smith, USN Ret.; Reformatted by Margie Roop Pearce & Jim Cox

NOTES:

The Smith Cemetery is located about 1.5 miles directly south of the town of Monroe, between County Road 100 South and County Road 200 South, on the west side of the road. A church with 12 corners was built in 1866, is long since gone (it was still standing in 1918).

The 1879 plat of Monroe Township shows the land, some 75.72 acres, as belonging to Robert E. Smith, Jr., a grandson of my g-g-g-grandfather Robert Smith (1786-1868). The cemetery begins at the end of a long lane and extends to the abandoned railroad bed of the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad. When the cemetery was read in 1996-1998, the existing stones were in two sections: the first section was to the west, near the railroad bed, and the second was to the east, starting at the end of the entrance land. The two sections were separated by an open area that might have been the location of the Twelve-Cornered Church.

A plat recorded by Robert E. Smith, Jr. on 4 April 1892 indicates that the plots in the cemetery extend from a point 17.5 feet from the railroad right-of-way (west end) for a distance of 263 feet. At that point it joins the "west line of Old Cemetery." The plots are in three rows of 18 and are numbered to 54. Each plot measures 12 by 18 feet in size.

35 rows of tombstones were inventoried in the cemetery, with Row 1 starting closest to the railroad bed at the west end and Row 35 being 445 feet to the east. In the "Row" column, the notation "NS" indicates that a tombstone was not found, but that research indicates a burial.

The cemetery is on the east side of County Road 500 East, about 1/3 mile north of the intersection with County Road 900 North. It is the oldest cemetery in Union Township.

This database may be searched in the following ways:

• Fuzzy – will search for that string of characters. Searching for Berry would yield Berry, Berryman, Millberry, etc.
• Exact – will search for that exact text only. Searching for Berry would yield only Berry.
• Soundex – will search for Soundex equivalents. Searching for Berry would yield Berry, Beery, Biery, etc.

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