Burk Cemetery
Washington Township Section 12, Township 22, Range 8
Un-named and Tilled Under
This is the first of a multi-part series looking at reinterments and cemeteries whose existence has been lost altogether.
On August 1, 1837, Robert Burk of Rush County, Indiana, was granted a patent on 80 acres in Delaware County. That parcel lying in Washington Township was described as being the "west half of the southwest quarter of Section twelve in Township twenty-two north of Range eight east"[1]. In a slightly confusing twist of surveying fate, Washington Township has two sections numbered 12, as well as 13, 24, 25 and 36. This situation occurs in all four townships on the western edge of the county[2]. To be specific, this township 12 is the most northwestern township in the county, the only one to border both Grant and Madison Counties.
Washington Township
Map of Delaware County by Griffing, Gordon & Company, 1887
Robert Burk married Mary Jones on December 1, 1831, in Rush County, Indiana.[3]
In 1850, Virginia-born Robert aged 42, Indiana-born wife Mary aged 34, son Joshua aged 6, and daughters Martha E aged 4 and Matilda aged 6 months, were living on the property in Delaware County, listed between neighbors Frederick Ice and Andrew Rinehart.[4]
Richard's exact death date is unknown. He penned his will on March 3, 1856. It was presented for probate in Delaware County on July 29, 1856.[5] He left the homestead, personal property and some additional real property to Mary as a life estate to then pass on to daughter Matilda Burk. He also left property to daughters Martha Elizabeth Burk and Permelia Furnish, wife of Benjamin Franklin Furnish. Permelia married Benjamin in 1849 and as a result, missed the 1850 census with her parents.[6] Joshua is not named and is assumed to have died prior to March, 1856.
In 1860, the widowed Mary and her two younger daughters appear to still be on the homestead, being enumerated between Frederick Ice and his son Ransom. Mary's real estate holdings at the time were valued at $1600 and her personal property at $300.[7]
On October 2, 1862, in Delaware County, Mary Burk married Elijah Ward.[8]
By 1870, Mary Ward is living with 37 year old daughter Permelia Furnish and her husband Benjamin in Fairmount, Grant County. She is helping to care for the couple's 9 children and a boarder.[9]
On November 17, 1876, Mary along with daughter Matilda and son-in-law John Johnson sold the family farm to William A Howard for $1800. The property was described as containing 80 acres more or less "except a certain grave yard on the east side of the said land situate on the north forty, the boundaries are to be as the same is enclosed at present."[10] At this time, it appears that this single sentence is all of the evidence indicating that this cemetery ever existed.
Description from Deed
Approximate Location
Later deeds, William A and Susan Howard to Robert C and Joseph F Howard in January 1877,[11] Joseph F Howard to Robert C Howard in June 1878 (Robert's undivided half interest)[12], Robert C and Pandora Howard to Garrison Dawson in February 1883,[13]
Mary (Jones) Burk Ward moved on to Sedgwick County, Kansas, where she died on September 24, 1890.[14] While she
was buried there, one has to wonder about the burial location of first husband Robert Burk and young son Joshua back in Indiana. Was it them
who were buried in that little fenced-in burial ground in Washington Township? Were there others there? More children? Neighbors? The precise
location of it and who was laid to rest there has been lost, but its existence has now taken its place among the acknowledged cemeteries in
Delaware County.
The Delaware County InGenWeb Project website claims this cemetery was the burial site of members of the Ice and Ward families. Ice family
members were being buried elsewhere. Zion Chapel Cemetery, established by 1836, contains the earliest extant Ice marker being that of Martha
in 1851 and family burials continuing there into modern day. With Ice and Burk families both being established there in 1837, and the Ice
family using Zion Chapel consistently from 1851 on, it seems like a distinct possibility that any earlier Ice burials were also at Zion Chapel.
Elijah Ward's family was already established in Musick Cemetery near Summitville, Madison County, prior to his marriage to Mary so there isn't
much reason to think his family was interred there. As for other community members, it can't be known who or how many were buried in the lost
cemetery.
© On The Banks of White River, Jennifer Lewis, 24 Feb 2025
