Hi all, it's been a long time since I've posted to this list. I was at one time the county coordinator for Elkhart and LaGrange counties, but record of that was lost when the new site was built. On to the point... I was recently searching for an ancestor of my husband, James Finton, who was born in 1794. I ran across a small bit on Google that said he was buried in Washington Twp. in "McNeil Cemetery", but the page that it linked to no longer existed and wasn't cached by Google either. So my father and I set out with GPS to locate this cemetery, searching for several days in Washington Twp. to no avail. Of course, we then started knocking on doors, feeling rather determined. We knew the cemetery had been surveyed by Lester Binnie in the 70's and he recorded that James Finton was buried there. We asked three people, each who sent us to a neighbor's door for more specific directions, until we came to the right place. The cemetery is located on private property and set back in the woods half a mile. The landowner was a very nice gentleman who explained a little bit about it, took us back and allowed us to explore on our own. At one point a previous owner had pulled out the stones to make a sidewalk ( ! ) but was required to put them back when word got out. He just propped them against trees. I have never in my life seen a cemetery overtaken by nature like this one is. It has become what appears to be a raspberry (?) patch and is a chaotic mess, which left us unable to tell which tombstones we had already looked at and which we had not. Honestly, words cannot describe, so hopefully you will be able to view these pictures: From just a few yards away you can't tell that it IS a cemetery http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/CopyofIMG_7621.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/2c7dfe9c.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/e9acc581.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/a04de049.jpg It was as if the vines and briars were what held the tombstones in place http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/5f8dfb8c.jpg The stones that aren't broken are in excellent condition and quite legible http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/IMG_7618.jpg It was described repeatedly as a Civil War cemetery and many of the burials are young men. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/93963080.jpg At one point a fence must have surrounded the cemetery http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Hawthornefae/IMG_7688.jpg _____________________________________________________________________________ I have personal permission to come back and work on it and to bring trusted volunteers. I was very pleased with the attitude of the owner, who wants to be sure that he is present when workers are there and be involved every step of the way. He feels a moral obligation to take care of it, but it really is quite a diaster and too much for him to keep up with. The raspberries need to be cut down to about knee height and then pulled out by the roots or they will continue to come back (he has only attempted to mow them down, but couldn't really do that because of the tombstones). It will be a huge task. I guess I'm looking for some advice on what to do here. There are multiple broken stones that need to be repaired, but I do not have the expertise to do so. There also appear to be no coordinators in the counties surrounding Kosciusko. Someone suggested bringing in the Lion's Club, but I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with that idea. If anyone is nearby and interested in helping out, please contact me at this email address. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. Rebecca Akens Goshen, Indiana