Adams Township

Location: north side of CR 625S, between SR 109 and CR 200E

   Beginning out of tragedy, the Gilmore Cemetery developed on the farm owned by Hugh Gilmore,1775-1834, whose large family had migrated from Virginia to southern Madison County in the late 1820s.  Hugh's wife Lucretia died suddenly in February of 1833 and so became the first burial in the ground that Hugh donated as a graveyard to the farming neighborhood.  On April 20th of the following year, Mrs. Elizabeth Judd and Mrs. Morris Gilmore were killed when the team of horses pulling their wagon to church bolted down a hill and caused the wagon with occupants to crash into a bridge just east of the cemetery.  A year later, Hugh, himself, was killed while clearing trees in the cemetery, and he was buried beside his wife.  Other members of the Gilmore family were buried here including son Morris Gilmore,1808-1879, who in 1838 built the first brick house in the township.  (For a picture, go to the Adams Township page.)  Over the decades, the cemetery would hold many of Adams Township's first important citizens.

    Abraham Adams, the first person on the burial list below, is also the first pioneer to Adams Township and the one for whom the township is named.  (For more on Abraham Adams, go to Adams Township.)

    Col. Thomas Bell, 1791-1892, was born in Kentucky and came by way of Ohio in 1828 to Adams Township.  He became a prominent and popular man in the frontier community.  He was chosen as the representative to the state legislature for eleven successive terms.  In fact, his popularity was such that in one election only one vote was cast against him.

    Other early settlers resting in the Gilmore are John Nelson, 1776-1847,  Garrett McAllister, 1802-1853, and Samuel Cunningham, 1791-1843, and members of their families.

    According to W. Lloyd Scott, first chairperson of the 1973 Madison County Cemetery Commission, the first gravestone transcription of the Gilmore Cemetery was done in the early part of the 20th century by Betty Devol.  The data was placed on cards housed in a soft file folder.  These records eventually became the property of Nellie Gray Hallowell, whose estate turned them over to Scott.  Along with the personal data from the gravestones, Ms. Devol included the memorial verses, so often obliterated by time, which were popular with the Victorians:

For John Hays, died Feb. 14, 18??

            "How dark looks the World and how dreary

            When we part with friends we have loved.

            But there is Rest for the faint and the Weary,

            And friends---Meet with loved ones above."

For Oliver N. Hicks, son of S.M. and A. Hicks, died Sept. 7, 1871, aged 11 m 2d

            "Sweet little bud for earth too fair

            Has gone to Heaven to blossom there."

For Elizabeth Joice, wife of Archibal Joice, died Jan. 20, 1884, aged 75 years

    "We miss thee from our home dear Mother,

    We miss thee from this place

    A Shadow o'er our life is cast,

    We miss the sunshine of thy Face."

For Nancy Poor, wife of George Poor, died May 3, 1891, aged 76 yrs 10d

    "Rest mother in quiet sleep

    While friends in sorrow o'er thee weep."

For Thornton Rector, born Dec. 25, 1804, died Dec. 6, 1877

    "When we at death must part

    How Keen how deep the pain,

    But we shall still be joined in heart

    And hope to meet again."

For Sull Rector, son of Peter and Mary Rector, died Jan. 6, 1874, aged 6y 4m 18d

"Sleep on dear Sull and take thy rest,

God called thee home--He thought best."

Modern historians and genealogists continue to be indebted to the unsung transcribers of the past, like Ms. Betty Devol.