Newman Cemetery

The original land transfer for this isolated rural cemetery located between Meredosia and Arenzville is found on page 521 in Deed Book KK, in the Morgan County Courthouse. Dated 1 March 1856, the document shows that Benjamin Newman, Jaral Wilday and his wife Catharine Wilday, sold to Simon P. Newman, Lorenzo D. Graham, James A. Post, Charles Wilday, David Giger, John F. Skinner and William Burrus, for $1.00, 2 1/2 acres of land located in Section 3. Those receiving the land had been appointed a body of trustees for the purchase of "George Newman Burying Ground." As found on page 136 of Deed Book 40 in the Morgan County Clerk's office, more land was added to the cemetery on April 4, 1891. On that date, Alexander Wilday & Tabitha, his wife, sold to Thomas Naylor, Starrett Coy and John D. McLain, as trustees of the Newman Cemetery, for $1.00, a part of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 3 in Township 16N, Range 12W. The said land is conveyed in trust for the sole purpose of a burial ground, and no other.

When visiting the cemetery on September 6, 1976, Robert W. Dalton and his youngest daughter, Brenda Lee Dalton, found the cemtery to be a difficult place to find. Entrance was made by driving about 100 yards along a trail covered with weeds as tall as the car, and then driving along a very winding and dusty dirt road for perhaps 1/4 mile, then driving across a pasture to the cemetery fence. A previous attempt to find the cemetery had failed. The cemetery was practically free of brush but apparently had not been mowed that growing season. The compilers felt that they probably missed some tombstones because of the tall and dense vegetataion. Several tombstones were so badly weathered that they could not be read.

The following paragraph is copied from an undated and unsigned history of Grace Chapel Methodist Church: "We have on record an account of a Rev. William Drinkwater, a Methodist minister who served the churches in this vicinity, devoting his life to preaching the gospel and doing good. His examples and good life were long remembers by older settlers. He had for his residence a hole in the ground on the bank of the Indian Creek about a mile and a half above the old Babb and Horns mill which I am told by the older settlers that the mill was located on the farm now owned by Mr. Fritz Hammer, formerly known as the Ogle farm. Remnants of the old mill were still in existence. This farm is close to Grace Chapel and not far from the old camp meeting ground which served the entire community in an early day.