Another Lost Soul Recovered!

I am certain many of you are aware that the Historical Society has been working in

various cemeteries on stone restoration. We have completed our work in a couple of

them and were done with Wright/Gaddey cemetery except for raising three stones that

had toppled over some time ago. Two of these stones were very large and additional

equipment was needed to raise them. In fact, one of them is estimated to weigh over

2500 pounds!

The smallest stone was believed to be a cenotaph, a marker for someone who isn’t

really buried there and is actually buried elsewhere. His name is Ruben Berkshire. He

died in Orange County, Indiana when his son, Charles, was only 10 years old. Charles

and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried in Wright cemetery and the stone for Ruben is next to

theirs. It is a plain stone with an inscription that states, “Ruben is not buried here but is

in Apple Hill Cemetery in Orange County, Indiana”. We have no information as to how

long the stone has been down on the ground.

We got an invoice for the repair of the stones, and it says for the repair of “Lucinda

Berkshire”. I was confused. There was no stone for Lucinda Berkshire. There is no

known Lucinda Berkshire buried in Wright cemetery; not on Find-A-Grave, not in Irene

Black’s cemetery book, no documentation anywhere. However, it is a beautiful stone

with a stone bible at the top. It is perfectly preserved with her dates of birth and death.

She was the wife of Ruben.

So, I asked, "was the information about Lucinda lying face down in the dirt all these years

with Ruben’s inscription on the backside?" Yes, it was!

One more lost soul recovered!! by Marilyn Wagner

If the rain ever stops and the buffalo gnats go away, the cemetery group will be back at work. If you want to be included, send your email to Nancy King nancyjking49@gmail.com or Donna Burton lawrenceloare@gmail.com with your phone number and we will contact you when and where we are going to be working. There will also be a cemetery restoration program by John Fish sponsored by the Toussaint Dubois DAR at the History Center 6:00 on July 16 2025. Its free to the public.