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Hebron Cemetery

According to an article by Mrs. Ruth Irwin Heck, a descendant of Joseph Lame, Joseph and his wife Mary Bates-Lame moved to Indiana from Kentucky. They had first settled in the vicinity of Madison in 1809, establishing a residence at the north end of Dugan Hollow on top of the hill. On August 28, 1813, Joseph Lame entered an 160 acre federal land grant in what is now Monroe Township. This land was located in Section 36, Town 5, Range 10 East.

On April 13, 1830, Joseph Lame, being of the Baptist faith, donated one acre of the northwest quarter of this section to the Trustees of the Hebron Church, the church having been organized on March 5, 1828. [See Bob Scott's account of the Hebron Baptist Church history]. On the same day, he also gave one and one-half acres of land to Ruel Custer, Thomas Jameson, Caleb Lame, James Wildman, Sr., & Jacob Bryan, Trustees of the burying ground & school house. This indenture was recorded on April 14, 1830. Mention of the church ground is only listed in the index, the church is not mentioned in the recorded deed written on this date. The indenture which transfered the school and burial ground records the location as "all the following described piece or parcel of land (towit) being a part of the NW qr. of sec. No. 36 in town 5. North of range 10 E Beginning at a stone one rod from the NW corner of sd qr. sec. thence with the line of sd section East 30 poles to a stone Thence North 8 poles to the Beginning containing one and a half acres more or less in Jefferson County Indiana."

At the time the above indenture was made, there were already at least twenty burials on this land. The earliest burial which can be accounted for by a tombstone inscription, is that of Mildred Humphreys Smith, who died in June of 1815. A few months later, William Watlington was buried here. Up until the time that Joseph Lame gave the land to the trustees of the burial ground, several members of the Humphreys family were buried here. Several of these first burials were that of children. Some of the other people buried here before 1830 were from the Moore, Cope and Steele families, and also Hannah Jameson, in Feb. of 1830. Joseph Lame, a 24 year old was buried here in June, 1817.

On one of my visits to Hebron Cemetery, I had the good fortune to meet Ruth Irwin Heck and her brother Richard Irwin. As previously mentioned, they are descendants of Joseph Lame, who gave the land for the church, school and cemetery. They both attended the school before it closed. An interesting fact given by Richard was his memory of several tombstones once being in the middle of the center section which are no longer there.

I completed the following survey on Sep 30, 2000. However, my final step in this work, is to recheck my list and resolve discrepancies. For this survey, I used the D.A.R.'s 1941 records, which I compared against the tombstone inscriptions. Several obvious errors were found in the D.A.R.'s records, other discrepancies I need to verify once more to resolve them as best can be done. For a "single stone," I have used the abbreviation "ss." The bold print represent stones that I was unable to find, but which were in the D.A.R.'s records. Perhaps in rechecking the cemetery they will be discovered. Some of the people buried here have two stones. There are two reasons for this. One, being that veterans had a military stone as well as a family stone. Secondly, family members erected newer stones and left the original stone in place. Some of these new stones consolidated several family members' names. I have placed an asterisk beside the names where there is a duplicate of the same individual.

My final comment is to make mention of the beauty of the land in and around this hallowed ground. The bluish-green haze of the Indian-Kentuck valley can be seen to the east, while a tall tree line runs across the north end. To the south, one sees a picture of hilly pastures where cattle sometimes graze. And finally to the west, stands the brick church with its tall white steeple and the old stone schoolhouse. It is very quiet here, except for the wind and the killdeer's cry. In the 1800s, my german emigrant gg-grandparents lived only a few miles due north, along the Indian-Kentuck Creek. They now rest at Hebron Cemetery, with their children Charles and John Housefield, Maggie Watkins and their descendants. It is to them, John H. Housefield & Eliza Droste, that I dedicate this body of work.

Ruth Hoggatt
Copyright September, 2000.
All Rights Reserved.

Hebron Cemetery. Photo by Ruth Hoggatt, May 24 2000.

Hebron Cemetery Survey

Hebron Baptist Church Records

Under construction.