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Richland Township Location: north side of CR 300N, between CRs 200E and 300E
Excerpt from Pioneer Cemeteries and Their Stories, Madison County, Indiana.
The name of “Nelson Cemetery” is rather deceptive. Within this larger general area are actually four burial grounds. The first was the private graveyard for the Nelson family, early farming settlers. Theirs was actually the first cemetery in the township. The family's graveyard is located back from the road, behind the fence, and on the hills closer to Killbuck Creek. The earliest recordable stone at this location was that for Tobitha Nelson, daughter of Samuel and Rhoda. Fifteen year old Tobitha died July 2, 1833, a very early grave for the area since Richland Township had accepted settlers only starting in 1830. Tobitha may be the reason why the Nelson family had to choose a location to begin a graveyard. By tradition 19th century private burial grounds were usually on the family property, away from the living, and, if possible, on a hill. Hills figuratively were closer to heaven and pragmatically more difficult to plow. The hills that encompass the original Nelson family graveyard are tall and steep for the region.
Other members of the large Nelson family soon accompanied Tobitha, and among those with stones that could be transcribed was patriarch Benjamin, who was born in 1781 and who died in 1846. Benjamin Nelson started life in Greenbriar County, Virginia (now West Virginia). His father was John Nelson and his mother was Sarah Stearns; both were born around 1760. The Nelson family originally hailed from England from which Nelson emigrants settled first in Virginia. In Pendleton County, Virginia, (now WV), Benjamin married Delphia/Delphena Miller, whose father was Henry and whose mother was Barbara Arbaugh. Benjamin and Delphena eventually had thirteen children. The first two were born in what is now West Virginia. Sometime before 1813 Benjamin moved with his family, parents, and brother Solomon's family across the Ohio River to Lawrence County, Ohio. While living there the Nelson grandfather John died; however, Benjamin and Delphena had an additional nine offspring. The names of all their children were Sidney, Henry, Mahala, Benham, Isiah, William, John, Matilda, Isaac, Amos, Eliza, Nancy, and Benjamin Jr. In 1841, Benjamin decided to sell his property in Ohio and follow his brother Solomon and other Nelsons here to the Killbuck Creek area of Richland Township. At this new Hoosier homestead, fields were cleared for plowing, and a home and fences erected from the surrounding timber. Benjamin died only five years after arriving, but some of his Nelson roots were firmly planted in Madison County. Benjamin's brother Solomon, who settled here first, also died in 1846 at ‘’7y 8m 11d.’’ Benjamin's wife Delphena followed in 1876. She, like her husband, had been born in the 18th century, specifically 1792.
Other Nelson family members buried here include Elender, who died August 2, 1845, "in the 57th year of her age." That would make her birth year about 1788. Young adults Ashford, who died in 1851 at twenty-one, and Frances, who died in 1842 at twenty-six, speak of the short lives for many early settlers. Of course there were children who died young. Tobitha had a sister Emiline, who lived to be only "10y 5m 17d"; Emiline died in 1842. One year old Leander, son of John and Elizabeth, died on August 5, 1849, and six year old John S., son of Isaac and Mary, died September 12, 1860. Isaac had lost his wife Mary in 1855. Additionally there are seven more children under the age of thirteen who are buried here. The death rate among the young back then was often as high as one out of three. Furthermore, once a family's private graveyard was begun, it was very customary to offer its services to the neighboring farming settlers who had also lost loved ones. It is hard to imagine what those early settlers went through in the untouched Hoosier forests of the 19th century.
Veterans from the first half of the 19th century often took advantage of the government's offer of land patents in a newly opened frontier instead of monetary payment for their services. Such was the case for four pre-Civil War soldiers interred at the Nelson Cemetery according to the Atlas of Cemeteries and Record of Deceased Veterans of Madison County, Indiana. Former soldiers with their families would homestead wilderness acreage, survive the hardships, live from their produce, and be buried in the earth they settled. Three veterans from the War of 1812-- America's second fight for independence as some historians have called that conflict--rest at the Nelson: William Bell, Frederick Groves, and Joseph Wigner. Also, an E. Kiger is recorded as a veteran of the Mexican-American War in the 1840s. Additionally, there are seven veterans from the Civil War buried at this location.
Excerpt from Henry Miller Family and Descendants, Page 15
The Nelsons came from Pendleton county, Va. John and his family settled around 1803 in Greenbrier county, near Muddy Creek mountain. Some of his boys married in this area, bought and sold land, began rearing families. Before 1822 these children had left for parts westward. William, Solomon, John and Benjamin had settled in southern Ohio, in the counties of Scioto and Gallia. Later when the county of Lawrence (aound 1818) was formed from the above two counties, that is where they were living.
By 1845 the main parts of the families of William, Solomon and Benjamin Nelson, had moved again, settling in Madison county, Ind. Here they finished out their lives, that is, the older ones, around the area with Anderson, as a center. Several of the younger generation again moving farther west. This record will take up that of Benjamin Nelson and his children. (Continued on the profile of Delphena Miller)
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Originally entered by Brian Ward, Wednesday, February 19, 2014.
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Categories: Nelson Name Study