Wilhelm Cemetery
Directions: Smithfield Township, DeKalb County, Indiana,
SR°28 T°35N R°13E
This cemetery is located on the west side
of CR35, north of CR18. From US6 in Waterloo, go north on Center
St. and CR35. We checked this location, but could find no signs of
a cemetery due to high grass. We were told by the owner that there were
still grave indentations.
History:
From the Archives of John Martin Smith, submitted by John E. Wilhelm
The Cemetery
100 plus years ago, due to lack of transportation or no
modern embalmment, it was convenient to have a burial plot on the farm.
Such a plot was started on the Wilhelm Farm. It is located on a knoll
at the east side of a wooded valley and half-way between the North and South
farm lines. As a small boy I can remember a decent wrought iron fence
and gate around the site. With time and deterioration, it collapsed.
My father, Edward Wilhelm, thought something should be done to at least keep
the livestock from running over it. But since there were other relatives
who should have had as much interest as himself, he thought they should help
with the expense. However none could be found who gave a hoot about
the graveyard. One cousin (Mary Thompson) did come to take a look.
Headstones were never purchased. Each grave was simply outlines with
fieldstones and left to memory. Mary got on her hands and knees and
brushed the leaves and grass away from the stone outlines and named the graves.
Before that I only knew it as the graveyard.
If of interest to anyone, there is David Wilhelm and his
wife Christina, three old Maids - Carline, Lizzie and Kathrine, Mary Schwartz,
and her infant Grandson, son of Charles Schwartz, and a brother of Christina,
------Schambacher.
This generation has nearly forgotten those past generations,
and I assume another generation will not even remember there is or where
is, this ancestral grave yard.