New Castle/Henry County YMCA Summer Camp Visit to a Pioneer Cemetery
On Thursday, July 30, 2005, the Henry County Cemetery Commission had as our guest the staff and the young ladies and gentlemen from the New Castle YMCA's Summer Camp. It was a day of learning about the history and respect of our pioneer cemeteries along with a little history of the cemetery and its surroundings.
The Evans cemetery located in Prairie Township, just north of New Castle, was the perfect location for this project. It was originally started as a cemetery for the "Lick Creek" Baptist church and later maintained as a family burial ground. The very first sheriff of Henry County, first probate judge and later State Representative, Jesse Healey and several Civil War veterans are buried here along with many of the original church founders.
It was something new for us and we and the kids all had a great time doing the tombstone rubbings and they got to keep the originals to take home with them. It was a good time had by all of us and we enjoyed having the young people out there learning what a pioneer cemetery is and to respect the graves of the people buried there. Hopefully we can have this as an annual project with many more kids in future years and teach them at this early age respect for these pioneer cemeteries.
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