aka  Makepeace/Chesterfield/United Brethren

Union Township

Location: north side of 10th Street, between Anderson City Airport and Linden Lane in Chesterfield 

    The name for this cemetery is the anglicized version of the German last name Aughterbine.  William Aughterbine of Germany was the founder of the Society of United Brethren, and in the early 1830s this was a very popular Protestant movement.  As soon as 1835, settlers in Chesterfield organized a United Brethren Church and named it after the movement's founder: Otterbein (Aughterbine).  Brazelton and Stephen Noland, William Dilts, John Suman, Henry Russell, and J.C. Guston and their families were some of the pioneer settlers who attended.  They first met in each others' homes because they could not afford to build a house of worship.

    Around 1842/3, Brazelton Noland donated the land and moved others to help erect a brick church, the first brick church in Madison County.  He made and burned the bricks himself.  Adjacent to the church was the Otterbein Cemetery.  Earlier than the Otterbein Church though, this land was used for burials by the Noland family.  Daniel Noland and his wife Mary Wilson, parents of Brazelton and Stephen, were the first to be buried at this location.  They were both born in Maryland and had initially migrated to Wayne County, Indiana. Daniel was a veteran of "America's second fight for independence," as some historians refer to the War of 1812.  However, when the territory known as the "New Purchase" opened, Daniel, Mary, and their adult children were among the first to enter, arriving July 4, 1822, to what would become Union Township.  They homesteaded the land just east of where the Anderson Airport is now.  Mary, born in 1766, died on this Hoosier frontier April 30, 1825.  She was the first to be buried at what would become the Otterbein Cemetery, and her gravestone, for many years, was considered the earliest in the county.  Its inscription read:

"In memory of Mary,

consort of Daniel Noland,

who departed this life April 30, 1825

in the 60th year of her age." 

Her husband Daniel, frontiersman and veteran, was buried by her side; he died January 12, 1829, at sixty-three years.  His gravestone once read:

"In memory of Daniel Noland

Who departed this Life January 14th, 1829

 in the 63rd year of his age."

        The Otterbein Cemetery area probably contains the remains of more pre-Civil War veterans than any other cemetery in Madison County.  There are two soldiers from the Revolutionary War:      

    Captain Litchfield is listed in the DAR Index of Revolutionary Patriots.  His grave is listed as unmarked in the Otterbein Cemetery area, possibly in the adjacent Potters' Field, by the American Legion's Cemetery Record of Deceased Veterans.  An American flag is usually placed near Henry Russell's marker to acknowledge Capt. Litchfield's contribution.  Very little information can found concerning Litchfield's life in Madison County.  He was an early settler in Union Township and may have come to Chesterfield alone.

   From the War of 1812, there are three veterans as listed in the American Legion's Cemetery Records of Deceased Veterans:  Daniel Noland, discussed above, a (Mr.) Younge, and John Suman.  This latter is another interesting early settler who in 1822 began a farm one mile west of Chesterfield on the vacated Delaware village of Bucktown, named after Chief Buck/Killbuck.  Mr. Suman turned the "Bucktown Hole" near White River into a thriving farm where he grew corn and raised hogs.  Suman sold his hogs at the closest market at that time--Cincinnati.  He had to "drive them" there, which in farmers' terminology means he walked them.  The journey took over twelve days.  Mr. Suman's agricultural practices made him wealthy enough in 1846 to purchase the first threshing machine and later the first reaping and mowing machine in the township.  John Suman was born in 1789 in Maryland and died in Chesterfield in 1856.

     Four soldier veterans from the Mexican-American War are buried at Otterbein:  John M. Dilts (son of William and Jane Dilts) was born January 1, 1820. If some historians are correct and the William Dilts family came to the county as early as 1819, then son John M. would be the first white child born in the Chesterfield vicinity.  John's partially destroyed grave maker is at right.  The emblem, still discernable, is that of the Masons.  War of 1812 veterans Richard Godwin, Elijah McClanahan, and Isaac Vanmeter are also buried here, along with ten soldiers from the Civil War.

    Amasa Makepeace, who settled on the east side of Mill Creek with his wife, two daughters and seven sons in 1821/2, was the head of Madison County's first prominent family of businessmen.  Mr. Makepeace established the first post office in Chesterfield; he was the postmaster for over twenty-five years.  He also was the township's first justice of the peace.  Amasa built a grist mill on Mill Creek, possibly taking over a mill started earlier by William Dilts.  The Makepeaces' first, two-horse wagon load of goods to be sold in Cincinnati contained coon, deer, and bear skins and beeswax.  Natural resources were so plentiful that the next trip required three, two-horse wagons to transport their merchandise: the family soon became wealthy.  A civic leader as well, Amasa Makepeace was the foreman of the grand jury that indicted four whites for the massacre of friendly Native Americans.  (For more on the crime and trial, go to the Madison County history page.)  Amasa Makepeace died February 28, 1845, and is buried at the Otterbein.

    Amasa's sons Allen and Alfred actually came to the county ahead of the rest of the Makepeace family and were instrumental in the development of the entire area.  They arrived in 1820 and camped along White River where, as merchants, they sold goods to early pioneers and the Native Americans.  While Alfred actually settled in the Indian village (now Anderson) in 1823 and contributed to its growth, Allen settled closer to his father Amasa in what was to be Chesterfield.  Allen  is responsible for starting a store near the Makepeace grist mill in the late 1820s, platting Chesterfield in 1830, and building in 1834 the second brick house in the township.  Allen Makepeace was a highly successful businessman, so much so that when he died in 1871, he was the wealthiest man in the county, estimated at over a quarter of a million dollars (back then!).  As befitting their financial station in life, Allen and wife Nancy have at the Otterbein the largest memorial.  The plot is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with gate, added Victorian luxuries. (A picture of one of the Makepeace houses is on the Union Township page.  For more on Alfred, go to the Pipe Creek Township page and the Anderson Township page.)

    Other notable pioneers of "firsts" are interred here. Jason Hutson died December 22, 1852, at "49y 2m 3d."  Jason was the first school teacher in the township and one of the first in the entire county.  Indiana law of 1816 stated that twenty houses or more in a township could open a school.  Union Township was incorporated in 1824, and in 1829 the required twenty homes opened their first school with Jason as schoolmaster.  Jason was the son-in-law of Daniel Noland.  One of the very first doctors in the county is resting here, physician G.W. Godwin,1800-1886.  Even though the 19th century was a "man's world," there were a few independent pioneer females.  One was Elizabeth Shimer, the first woman in the township and the second in the county to obtain land in her own name.  She filed for eighty acres in section 11 on December 12, 1823.

Not every story from the pioneer days is positive.  Sometimes, individuals could not cope with the hard life in the wilderness.  The column above is for members of the VanMeter family.  Relative Isaac VanMeter came to the county in the 1830s.  He settled with his wife along the east side of White River in Union Township.  In 1834, he became insane, according to historical accounts, and committed suicide by hanging himself.  Chronicler Samuel Harden relates, "His wife was a very intelligent old lady, and was my first school teacher.  She died in 1840 and was buried by her husband in the Chesterfield [Otterbein] cemetery." 

The two oldest, legible stones still existent at the Otterbein are pictured above: James Lonsdale who died September 8, 1842, and Susanna Shroyer who died May 7, 1840.

    Vandalized multiple times in the 20th century, the Otterbein Cemetery once held over 350 legible tombstones, according to records.  At most, only a third of the stones still exist.  The list of the pioneers and settlers interred here, presented at the bottom of this page, must be credited to the efforts of Fred R. Davis who in 1949 recorded the gravestone inscriptions and to the  Daughters of the American Colonies who made a second transcription in 1959.

    The MCCC is attempting to record from various public and private sources the names of all persons buried at the Otterbein who at this point are without grave markers.  For example, Richard Dilts,1790-1856, followed his brother William to Union Township.  Richard brought his wife Mary Gustin, 1814-1875, and their children.  Richard was the first to enter several parcels of land south of SR 32 and Mounds State Park.  He and his sons also developed a farm on the north side of Lindberg Road.  Before the 1840 census, his mother-in-law Jane Howe Gustin,1786-1844, moved to the Chesterfield area.  Jane is buried at the Otterbein and once had a gravestone legible enough to be recorded by Fred Davis in 1949.  Richard is also buried here between two of his sons--Daniel, born 1829, and Simon, born 1837--now in unmarked graves.   The Nolands, two of the earliest burials in the county, had  headstones as late as the 1970s; however, their markers have since been destroyed. 

    Even some 20th century burials are now without markers.  John E. Brown was born in 1828, the son of Friend Browne and grandson of Martin Brown, Sr. As a child with his family, he migrated to central Indiana in the mid 1830s.  He married Elizabeth Franklin when he was twenty and eventually operated a mill for a number of years on Fall Creek near its junction with Sly Fork in Madison County.  As an older family man, he followed his adult daughter and his in-laws into Kansas, but later returned to the Chesterfield area of this county to live near other relatives.  He died in 1918 when he was eighty-nine years old.  His grave is also among the many that have lost a headstone.

    In the fall of 2006, the Madison County Cemetery Commission undertook the refurbishment of the Otterbein Cemetery.  This coincided with the 175th anniversary of the founding of Chesterfield. Contractors Larry Brown and Herb Justice were hired to clear the undergrowth and repair the many damaged stones.  Their efforts converted a field into a memorial.

    Larkins' and Elizabeth's gravestones were among those restored in the fall of 2006 by contractors Larry Brown and Herb Justice.  The Martins, at right, were among the first families to the township. Elizabeth, who died in 1856, was the wife of John.  They first owned the land where the Adena/Hopewell Mounds are.  They sold that property to Frederick Bronnenberg, Jr., who preserved the Mounds for future generations. (See the Union Township page.)  The Moneyhuns, at left, are listed as later settlers to Adams Township.  Pictures of more restored stones from the Otterbein can be seen on the Otterbein Refurbishment page.

    While the original church has long since been torn down, the graveyard retains its original German name.  Ironically, the Otterbein now represents the best and worst of the modern world.  While a person stands in the midst of memorials to early pioneers, one can view a symbol of progress and modern technology--the Anderson Airport.   However, one also has to be aware of the violence and senselessness it took to partially destroy this very important part of Madison County culture and history.