aka Sturwalt/Deadman

Monroe Township

Location: 1/2 mile west of SR 9, south side of CR 1300N

    Because the Mt. Tabor Cemetery is situated close to the border between Monroe and Boone townships, it holds pioneers from the northern section of the former and the southern section of the latter.  The Mt. Tabor was, at first, the repository for the burials of members of the Mt. Tabor Methodist Church, one of the earliest churches in Monroe Township.  The church was organized in 1838 and as was the custom and necessity of the time, members first met in each others' homes and later in the local school house.  In 1850, the congregation had enough money to build a house of worship northwest of present-day Alexandria.  Samuel McMahan, whose stone is pictured below, his family, and the Austin family, well-represented in the burial list, were some of the first congregants.  While the Mt. Tabor Church was eventually disbanded--members choosing to attend other, more convenient Methodist places of worship--the Mt. Tabor Cemetery continued to be used by local farming families.  In fact, the well-kept burial ground is still serving the needs of the descendents of many of the original church members.

    A member of the first family to settle in Boone Township is resting at the Mt. Tabor.  George W. Smith, 1830-1883, came as a six-year-old with his father Wright Smith and mother Lydia in 1835 to settle on land two and a half miles north of the cemetery.  Later, George and his wife Elizabeth had several of their children die in infancy, and those children are buried here with the father.  (For more on Wright and George Smith, go to the Boone Township page.)

    Another important family of early settlers to northern Madison County were the Nobles.  According to family genealogist Mary Lou Pease of Midland, Michigan, the Nobles were originally from Worcester County, Maryland, with patriarch Jonathan Noble being listed there on census records for 1790, 1800, and 1810.  He, wife Nancy Driskill, and the family moved west into Clermont County, Ohio, by 1820 and were in Rush County, Indiana, by 1840.  Son Elijah Noble, on the Mt. Tabor list below, who died 1871 at "70 . 9m. 11d." entered land in 1848/49 for Boone Township.  His brother James and his family settled near Rigdon in the extreme northwest corner of the county.  The father Jonathan followed his sons into Hoosier territory, living near Elijah and the Mt. Tabor Methodist Church when he died at age eighty. Although Jonathan, by some oversight, is not listed below, the pictures above show his stone.  Once a tall, narrow tablet, it has broken into three sections.   There are, indeed, several generations of the Noble family buried here.  John N. Noble, 1818-1887, son of Elijah and wife Lydia Anderson, has a stone in the Noble plot and is shown on the 1876 plat map for Boone Township as owning land in nearby section 35.  Descendants plan to install a new memorial marker for Jonathan Noble, head of this family of Madison County settlers.

    An early settler to the northern part of Madison County, Robert Webster is interred here with many of his family.  Robert was born in Delaware, January 15, 1814.  On September 23, 1834, he married Rebecca Fisher, born October 24, 1817, also of Delaware.  The new family moved west to Fayette County, Indiana, in 1836.  Three years later they moved to Boone Township, west of Summitville.  In 1864, the Webster family moved across the township line into Van Buren where they homesteaded the land and put down roots.  As historian Samuel Harden explains, "Here in the woods the earnest struggle for a home began: a hard fought battle, but victory came, as it always does, to the courageous, faithful soldier.  Plenty came at last to bless this interesting family..."  Robert and Rebecca had ten children, many of whom married second generation settlers, like themselves, and stayed in the area:  Daniel, Henry, James, William, Robert, Celia, Eliza, George, Noah, and Rebecca.  "Mr. Webster was an honest man, highly respected by all who knew him, strong and well fitted for pioneer life," continues Harden.  The Webster family were members of the Methodist Church and so are buried in its Mt. Tabor Cemetery.