"Jill's Great-great-great grandfather's Home" Top 5 Page for this destination Indianapolis Off The Beaten Path Tip by deecat

Please click the photo; it is PANORAMIC

On our Spencer, Indiana, Adventure, Jill tells the background of why we went to Spencer in the first place:

"My ancestors left Monroe and Owen counties in Indiana in the 1850s and lived in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas before settling in Oklahoma. However, the house where my great-great-great grandfather, Rev. Leroy Mayfield, had lived is still found near Bloomington. I had an address, so Dee and I went to find the house and the nearby cemetery where Leroy and his family were buried.

I had tried to contact the present owners, but did not succeed. However, we found the house and photographed it from the car. Next, we traveled down the road to find the family cemetery. I spotted a few headstones through some trees. One of my landmarks for the cemetery was a gravel pit. We found that the gravel pit was still in very active use. We parked carefully out of the way of the trucks and carefully crossed the road to a trailer that stood in front of the cemetery.

A woman greeted us cheerfully and replied that we were welcome to visit the cemetery. She warned us about a downed tree, but didn't mention the barbed wire. That wire didn't stop either of us.

I dashed about reading stones and finding familiar names. I photographed a number of the stones. They were not in good condition, but I've seen worse abandoned cemeteries and was delighted to view the home and final resting place of one of my more interesting ancestors.

Rev. Leroy taught himself to read the Bible and became a Baptist circuit preacher in the 1830s. According to the history books, he was involved in the formation of Indiana University."

Yet, Jill and Dee continue the adventure...