aka Reason/Manis

Pipe Creek Township

Location: north side of CR 900N, between CRs 500W and 575W

    The Howard Cemetery is the resting place for many of Pipe Creek Township's first settlers.  In 1834, Joseph Miller and family from Wayne County, Indiana, were close behind the Shells and Siglers in pioneering the farmland along Pipe Creek.  Actually arriving before any improved roads, Joseph, in fact, was the area's first blacksmith, an indispensable position among pioneers.

The harsh pioneer life certainly took it toll on the female members of families.  Many of the well-preserved gravestones in this cemetery are for women.  One of the earliest is that for Minervia Ridegway, left, who died January 4, 1849.  Another woman who died in her twenties was Sophia Messner, right.  By contrast in the middle, Sarah Allen, who died March 24, 1857, lived to be sixty years old; she was born around 1797.

    Represented here are the Tharp/Thorp, Johnson, Ebert, Reeder, and Ring families, all of whom had members residing in the township before 1840. 

    Henry Plummer is safe-guarded at the Howard.  He was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, in 1806.  He decided to homestead in Madison County in 1836, after having previously resided in Wayne and Rush counties.  Only five years after arriving, Henry started in local government, being elected as county commissioner in 1841.  He also served as township assessor and trustee.  County historian Harden knew him personally:

    "Mr. Plummer is a  prominent member and exhorter in the Christian Church.  He is regarded as a number one man, plain and unassuming in his manners, and a Christian gentleman.  He resides two miles north of Frankton, where he owns a fine farm.  The writer first met him while gathering material for this work, when he tarried overnight with him and received the hospitalities of his family."

    Although not listed as early settlers, Aaron and Elizabeth Pickenpaugh must be the oldest couple having legible gravestones at the time the transcriptions for this cemetery were made.  Aaron died October 30, 1866, at "70y 3m 4d," making his birth year around 1796.  Elizabeth was born around 1795 since she died January 31, 1864, at sixty-nine years of age.  From the next generation, Henry Pickenpaugh is listed with them.  Possibly a son, he died five months before Aaron and was forty-one years old.

    The burial ground, itself, is fortunate: it is well-preserved with many stones from the 1840s and '50s still intact.  This is in spite of the fact that it has not been protected by a modern cemetery association, business, or church.  The Howard is a jewel among pioneer cemeteries.  Its pristine condition is to the credit of surrounding land owners and residents.