Mendon Cemetery

Pioneer Cemeteries and Their Stories,

Madison County, Indiana

aka Menden/Mingle

Location: southwest corner of SR 9 and CR 1050S

In the picture above, the white Mendon Church, erected in 1868, represents the congregation of early settlers who erected their first house of worship at this site around 1831. Now this second frame edifice sits, as its predecessor did, across the road from the congregation's original burial ground, the Mendon Cemetery. This building is an excellent example of 19th century craftsmanship. A stone near the door explains that the church was completely hand made and that the podium and pews are from native yellow poplar. The church, in fact, is still used. Descendents of the original settlers hold an annual meeting here "to commemorate the valiant pioneers who sacrificed so much."

The brick school house #11, to the right, has been converted into a private residence.

The Mendon Cemetery receives its name from the Mendon/Menden post office. At the intersection of CR 1050S and what is now SR 9, several miles south of Pendleton and almost on the southern boundary of Madison County, the Mendon post office stood for about twenty-five years. Early settler Thomas Jordan built a store at this intersection and stocked it with merchandise. Shortly thereafter, he sold out to Morgan Drury who operated the store and established the post office. Drury was the appointed postmaster, and he ran the office out of his house. His house was on the northwest corner of the intersection. Around 1831, a Methodist Episcopal Church was formed and subsequently erected a house of worship to the west of Mr. Drury's home/post office. At about this time, across the county road from these buildings, the cemetery was also designed for the congregation. In 1844, a United Brethren Church was added in the southwest corner alongside the cemetery. Evidently both churches, as well as area residents around what was called "Menden," used the cemetery. Mendon even had doctors who practiced there over the years: Drs. Richison, Wiseman, and Williams.

Mendon never became a town or village, in spite of its buildings and businesses, because the area was never platted or laid into town lots. The two churches and school house #11 are represented on the 1876 township plat map for Fall Creek even though the last postmaster, Jonathan Wiseman, resigned his position in 1850/1 and the last store merchant was Elliot Irens. The cemetery, however, was taken over by an association toward the end of the 19th century and has new sections nearest the highway with the old settlers' section at the back, closer to Lick Creek.

Among the pioneer families that made use of the Mendon Cemetery were the Mingles. There is a large contingent of Mingles buried in the old section, and at one point, the cemetery was even referred to by the Mingle name. A patriarch of this family was John Mingle who fought in the Revolutionary War.

John Mingle is listed in the DAR Index of Patriots. He was born in 1758 and came to the southern part of Madison County along Lick Creek with his family in the 1820s. He built a homestead near the little settlement of Menden. A historical note also has him titled as a reverend. He died in 1842 at eighty-four years of age. This flat DAR commemorative is placed beside a descendant's larger monument. Evidently, there is no traditional marker on John's grave, and the burial site's location is unknown.

Another pre-Civil War veteran is Prentis Champlain buried in grave 1, lot 99, block 2. He is recorded in the American Legion's Cemetery Record of Deceased Veterans as a soldier during the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s. His gravestone has no birth or death dates, but it does have his regiment: "Co. D 4th Ohio Infantry."

Click here for a list in .pdf format of burials with headstones