HUTCHINS CEMETERY
The exact location of Hutchins Cemetery is not known. We do know where at least some, if not all, of the bodies ended up. On Lot e073 at Mt Tabor are the tombstones
of John & Mary Conner, Morgan & Rebecca (Conner) Clevenger, and Lois (Conner) Stout, wife of Hiram Stout. A note in the records indicate the lot owner, William Dunkin, had
purchased the spaces to reinter the bodies being removed from Hutchins Cemetery. No location for the original cemetery was included, and time seemed to erase it's site
from local memory.
John Conner died July 28, 1840 aged 54 yrs 28 dys
Mary Conner died Aug 27 1857 aged 66 yrs 8 mos 22 dys
Lois Stout wife of Hiram died Sept 28 1843 aged 26 yrs 6 mos 1 dy
Rebecca Clevenger wife of Morgan died Dec 27 1844 aged 32 yrs 1 mo 1 dys
Morgan Clevenger died May 14 1847 aged 35 yrs 4 mos
Working to establish a paper trail, Juanita (Weaver) Lewis and Phyllis (Weaver) Hiett researched for some time trying to locate this cemetery. It was quite time
consuming project, but easily reproduced today. On March 10, 1825, David Branson, then of Highland County, Ohio, received the E 1/2 of the SE 1/4 of Sec 22 containing
80 acres via land patent from the federal government. On September 20, 1834, David and wife, Hannah, then of Grant County, Indiana, transferred the same piece of
property to the heirs of Jacob Branson, deceased, namely Sarah Branson, Thomas M Branson, David O Branson, Elizabeth Branson, Mary Jane Branson and Levi J Branson,
having already received the sum of $150 from the late Jacob himself. On June 18, 1838, Polly Branson, Thomas M Branson, Sarah Branson, David O Branson, Elizabeth
Branson, Mary Jane Branson, and Levi J Branson, sold the property to Sewell Hutchins for the $700. On March 3, 1862, it appears that Hutchens may have sold at least
part of the land to Jacob Leach. The deed for that transfer is not currently available so the details are unknown. What is available is a deed dated December 25,
1869, where Eliza Hutchens sold a 25 acre parcel off the southeast corner of the E ½ SE ¼ to William Dunkin Jr totalling 25 acres plus another 1 acre plot in another
section for the sum of $1325. No deed reviewed for the parcel containing the original cemetery ever had an allowance set aside for any cemetery.
Juanita and Phyllis spent hours combing the area on foot searching for any evidence of the old burial ground, but to no avail. One Sunday afternoon in 1980, along
with me, Jennifer Lewis, they decided to try one more time. After searching the 25 acres of weeds, we decided to knock on doors close by. No luck. We agreed to
stop at one last house before admitting defeat. The couple there said they knew nothing about a cemetery nearby. Their eleven year old daughter overheard the
conversation and joined in. She didn't know where a cemetery was per se, but she knew there were tombstones in a pig pen on a neighboring property! Ah-hah! If I
recall correctly, it was to the west of the house on the southwest corner of County Roads 167 S and 700 E in either what is now (2020) a heavily wooded area or just
to the west of it. The home of the little girl was across 167 on the corner. The pen, long unused, was a very low-roofed structure where, as a pre-teen, I could
not stand up straight. Of the two stones left behind, one was inscribed "John Conner died" with no date, and the other, a footstone, was inscribed 'E C' perhaps for
his daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Clevenger in 1825.
While there are more unknowns than known facts, from the information available, we know that the five burials, John Conner (1840), Mary Conner (1857), Rebecca Conner
Clevenger (1844), Morgan Clevenger (1847), and Louisa Conner Stout (1843) all died prior to William Dunkin Jr acquiring the property in 1869. He and wife Elizabeth
may have had plans for that area of their property prompting him to buy the lot at Mount Tabor. The early burials in nearby lots were for deaths in 1900-1910, one
could speculate that this lot was purchased in that approximate time frame as well. On August 1, 1900, the Number 1 oil well on the Dunkin farm was pumping 40 gallons
a day and two more wells had been sunk that same day according to the (Muncie) Morning Star the following day. In 1904, a fresh well on the site was described in the
Muncie Morning Star of June 3, 1904, as “one of the most promising producers in the Delaware county field”. Were the bodies moved to accommodate well drilling? It is
also unclear how the Conner family came to be buried on farm of Sewell and Eliza Hutchins. At the time John wrote his will, February 29, 1840, just 5 months prior to
his death, he owned six pieces of property spread across sections 24 and 25. If he was simply a neighbor, who is to say that there were not other neighbors laid to
rest there as well?
The last sighting of Hutchins Cemetery seems to have been Decoration Day 1901. According to The Morning Star of May 29, 1901, Ben Busa (Bush?) and J L Hutchins were
assigned to decorate graves at both Smithfield and Hutchins Cemeteries.
As always, anyone with additional information is more than welcome to drop me a line!
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