Anderson Township

Location: southeast corner of Madison Ave. (CR 100W) and CR 350S

    On the 1876 plat map for Anderson Township, J. (Jonas) Whetstone is shown as owning almost 240 acres of farmland straddling Madison Avenue; his land is bounded on the north by CR 350S.  His house sits down a long lane on the west side of the avenue.  At the southeast corner of the intersection of Madison Avenue and CR 350S, a church and cemetery are shown.  So named because Jonas Whetstone donated the land for both, the Whetstone Church is still thriving, and the accompanying cemetery is still being used.  The only change has been the location of the church which, having steadily increased in the number of members, now functions in a much larger building on the northeast corner of the intersection opposite the cemetery.  Like so many other pioneer cemeteries, the Whetstone was begun out of tragic necessity: the early death of family member Julia Whetstone, January 17, 1867, at twenty-two years of age.  She was the first to be buried here.  Jonas, 1814-1890, and family members Peter, Susana, Jane, et. al., also rest here, opposite the home where they lived and in the land they owned.    

    The Whetstone Cemetery expanded in accordance with the needs of the faithful who wished to be interred near their place of worship.  One such congregant and minister, according to historian Harden, was Curtis Langley, whose pillared monument is in the picture above.  Curtis was born February 6, 1806, in Randolph County, North Carolina; he was the son of Jonathan Langley and Ruth Hale.  The family came in 1828 to Madison County. 

    At some point in the next ten years, Curtis met Naomi Gustin, 1819-1901. They were married in Chesterfield  by the Union Township Justice of the Peace Amasa Makepeace on August 22, 1838.  Naomi was the daughter of John Gustin and Jane Howe, who had raised their family in Warren County, Ohio, where Naomi, her sisters Mary and Renee, and brother Thomas were born.  Their Gustin relatives had helped settle the southern part of the county including Chesterfield.  (For more on the Gustins, go to the Otterbein Cemetery page and the Keesling Cemetery page.) 

    Curtis and Naomi had ten children and eventually became members of the Whetstone congregation. One of their daughters, Sarah, is in a picture on the Madison County history page with her husband John Hull and their eight children in front of their log house located only one and a half miles southeast of the church.  As an interesting note, after the death of Curtis in 1875, Naomi married Jonas Whetstone who, as explained above, had donated the land for the church and cemetery and who, like Naomi, had a few years earlier lost his spouse.  Additionally, while Naomi's name does not appear on the list below by some oversight, the Langley stone does bear her name and dates indicating that she was buried next to Curtis, the father of her children.

    Historian Samuel Harden had this to say of Curtis Langley:

"Mr. Langley was a well posted man, well informed, and a minister of more than local note.  He was formerly a Dunkard [German Baptist], but the last years of his life belonged to the Christian, or Newlight, Church, as well as his wife [Naomi]... Mr. L. was in person about five feet eight inches high, stoutly built, with light hair and complexion.  He will long be remembered as one of Madison County's best as well as earliest citizens..."

    Occasionally descendents wish to install a memorial stone for an ancestor whose marker has been destroyed or who was buried in the cemetery without one.  If the exact location of the grave is known, then re-installation is perfectly acceptable.  The cemetery board or association should be notified first out of courtesy.  If the cemetery is under the care of the township trustee, then that official will need to be contacted before work is begun.  In many cases, though, the exact location of an unmarked pioneer or settler's grave is not known.  As long as descendents can prove by historical record, family bible, personal remembrance or artifact, etc., that the individual was actually buried at the cemetery, township trustees will help locate an unused plot and allow a commemorative stone for an ancestor to be placed there.  Many cemeteries in the county have new memorials installed by family genealogists in recognition of their forbearers.