Funeral homes in Churubusco in neighboring Whitley County often have burials in Eel River Township cemeteries.
Active cemeteries still accepting burials usually have an office or sign near an entrance with a contact phone number. Most cemeteries originally had a sexton who kept the records for burials, maintained the cemetery, and lived close by. A local funeral home may know if original burial records exist for inactive cemeteries. Church graveyard records may be with the church if still active or its successor. Rural cemetery burial records are sometimes kept by a longtime local business nearby such as lawn tractor business or barber shop. Large cemeteries may have a dedicated paupers burial area such as at Lindenwood or the Catholic Cemetery often with no visible markers. The office would know if such areas exist. It is likely many were buried in nearby burial grounds without permanent markers.
The Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter NSDAR Allen County Indiana Cemetery Project made cemetery readings in 1932 that may contain information available no where else. In 1982 the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana updated the cemetery readings that revealed many tombstones from 1932 were missing. The results were published in Cemetery Township books available on their www.acgsi.org website and at
The Genealogy Center at the
Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The NSDAR starting taking photographs in 2008 of every existing tombstone at over 147 cemeteries in twenty townships over several years and published them on their website stating: "there are over 165,000 photos on this web site. And transcriptions for over 219,000 people." "Member volunteers visited each cemetery and photographed each tombstone. The tombstones were then transcribed exactly as they were written. There is no other information on any person other than what is listed." They have a Master Name Index.
All known Indiana cemeteries have been surveyed by SHAARD Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD) and whatever information was found sometimes including history, maps, and photos is on their website.
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View Allen County, Indiana Cemeteries in a larger map
Click on aqua Eel River Township pins to see cemetery names
Eel River Cemetery
Northeast corner of Carroll and Madden Roads, near U.S. 33, across from Riverview Cemetery.
The First Death. — Late in the fall of 1832, a stranger, traveling on foot, sought the house of Adam Hull, and asked for lodging and food. He was taken in, and, during the night, he arose from his bed and walked toward the door, where he was seized with convulsions and died the next morning.
A few weeks subsequently, a family of emigrants by the name of Fosdick, stopped for the night with Mr. Hull, and it was ascertained that several of their childreu were suffering with scarlet fever. During the night, one child died, and, two days later, was followed by another. These children and the stranger previously alluded to, were buried on the south side of Eel River, in ground which was afterward consecrated for cemetery purposes.
In 1836 he came to Eel River township and entered land, and in 1837, he and W. M. Lansdale attempted to drive their wagons through, but on reaching the Black Swamp could only make four miles a day, and at St. Mary's village abandoned their wagons and came through on horseback. They arranged for the building of their cabin, to which they brought the family in the fall of 1837. Mrs. McKee died January 17, 1839, and was the first person buried in the cemetery, conveyed by her husband. Mr. McKee did an important work in the early settlement in the organization of Wesley Chapel church, and was an official member and an ordained minister of the gospel.
Jeremiah Gump and Gump Reunion newspaper articles mention the Gump family arrived in Allen County 1834 on the People page.
Gump Road is around three or four miles long going east to west, around four miles southeast of the cemetery in Huntertown to Auburn Road. Huntertown Elementary School is on the corner of Lima and Gump Roads.
George Wappes has a Woodsman of America tree shaped tombstone. His October 31, 1902 newspaper obituary called this the Warcup Cemetery.
Wappes Road is a six mile long north south road from Ari south to almost Carroll Road around 6 miles west of the cemetery in the Huntertown area.
11022 Carrol Road,
northwest corner of Carroll and Madden Roads, near U.S. 33 across Madden Road from Eel River Cemetery
Corporate Office – 1140 Lake Ave, Fort Wayne, IN 46805
Riverview Cemetery used to have ornate wrought iron fencing shown here at the corner of Carroll Road with Madden Road by the Eel River Church building. The fencing was damaged, removed, and replaced with landscape stones, shrubs, and fencing shown in the Street View photo on Google maps.
The Quest for a ... Tank? How an M-41 Walker Bulldog made it's way to Riverview Cemetery by Lynette Fager published February 1, 2014 on Business People magazine.
This Tribute to... The Armed Forces Of The United States Who Served Their County In Viet Nam Erected By... The People Of Fort Wayne June 14, 1968 Breakfast Sertoma Club.
The Facebook post references the Hannah Strong WANE-TV article Veteran raises concern over incorrect memorial sign shown above stating: On CBS WANE News 15 this morning, a Vietnam Veteran was wondering where the old tank memorial had been moved? We know, because Hofer and Davis, Inc. staked its location at Riverview Cemetary a few years ago. Shared January 5, 2023 to True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook on Facebook.
Vietnam Memorial M-41 Tank with six military service branch flags on August 24, 2014. Coast Guard, Air Force, POW/MIA with USA, Navy, Marine Corp, Army
If anyone saw the dedication of the Walker Bulldog M-41 Tank yesterday (Veterans Day) at the Riverview Cemetery at 11425 Carroll Road, it looked a little different than this. This is a picture we took after Dave McComb, of D.O. McComb and Sons Funeral Homes had us stake the location of the Tank and flagpoles on Wednesday October 23, 2013. The Tank was moved and escorted by the "Freedom Riders" motorcycle club on November 1, 2013. Will try to get a picture of the new veterans section next time we are at the site.
In November of 2016 we were honored to stake the tank, flagpoles and lighting for D.O. McComb's at Riverview Cemetery. We wish to thank all the veterans today for their service. The folks at Hofer and Davis, a Division of ForeSight Consulting, LLC.
Methodist Cemetery. Earliest date 1835. No longer in use. Records no longer exist. The photo is a metal plaque with all the names and dates on it. IN DNR Latitude 41.2058 Longitude 85.2686.
