POPLAR GROVE FRIEND’S CEMETERY

Poplar Grove Friends Cemetery's earliest burial was 1845 with most burials before 1900.  This cemetery was recently (2006) restored.  Some of the photos in this database are from October 2000, so you will be able to compare the before and after photos.  Pat Pointer and I (Debby) photographed this little cemetery on September 30th, 2006.  This cemetery is sometimes called "Pickett Cemetery."

Poplar Grove reading

August 15, 1947 Report

A long abandoned pioneer day cemetery situated at the rear (that is, north) of the site of a long vanished “Quaker” or Friendly Meeting House in northwestern Ervin Township of northwestern Howard County, in northcentral Indiana.  In the absence of detailed Howard county maps, and of Howard county histories (available at Kokomo and at Indianapolis), we of the L’Anguille Valley Historical & Memorial Association of Logansport (in that adjoining county of Cass) confess to being somewhat confused by the curving roads and winding stream (Little Deer Creek) of this vicinity, but believe the cemetery to be in the N.E. ¼ of Section 6 of Township 24 North of Range 2 East (of the Second Indiana Principal Meridian).  It is about twelve miles west-northwest of the Howard county, county seat city of Kokomo , and is one mile or more slightly east of due south of the southern Cass county town of Young America .  From the main corner in the town of Young America, on State Highway 18, we went south for a little more than half a mile (passing the large Young America cemetery) to the Howard county county-line, and then half a mile still farther south to the hamlet or region known as Poplar Grove, and then turned left (east) for three-tenths of one mile, and halted just before rounding a major curve in the easterwardly winding road.  Climbing a barbed wire fence on our left (north), we walked north for perhaps about one city block through a little woods (passing what we are told is the site of the meeting house) and over another fence (or through a gate) into the long abandoned and (on August 15, 1947) wholly neglected cemetery, which was found to be an almost impassable or impenetrable “jungle” of blackberry bushes, tall weeds, shrubs, and untrimmed trees with low hanging branches.  Only one of our fieldworkers was willing to attempt fieldwork under these almost impossible conditions. After nearly five hours of fighting his way through these thorny defenders of the usually erect but often fallen and prostrate and lichen and vine covered old grave markers, some of which were almost completely covered with decaying vegetation, and after an hour’s recess when a heavy downpour of rain made fieldwork utterly impossible, he finally emerged with the following record (which is entirely unchecked and is almost doubtless incomplete).  Pending someone’s making a re-canvas of this cemetery at a more favorable season, or after an army of workmen have cleared away the “jungle” (and raked away the earth and decaying vegetation from now buried and unseen grave markers), this tentative record is being sent the Indiana Historical Society, for permanent deposit in the Indiana State Library, by the Cemetery Research Committee of the L’Anguille (Long-eel) Valley Historical & Memorial Association of Logansport, Indiana, in respectful tribute to the “Quakers” or Friends, to whom northcentral Indiana owes so much by Robert B. Whitsett, fieldworker.

Poplar Grove reading

Cemeteries of Howard County, Indiana