Southview/Oak Hill Cemetery in the News in 1926

(View from Southview/Oak Hill Cemetery looking towards town)

While researching another subject I came across an old newspaper article mentioning our beloved old cemetery in Nashville, Indiana. I thought it of interest to many who champion the cause of restoring our oldest cemeteries. You can also see more photos taken of the cemetery stones in the past years on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Southview-Cemetery-Nashville-Indiana-Help-us-Preserve-our-Heritage (sorry I couldn't get the link to work)

OAK HILL CEMETERY, in the northwest part of Nashville, is one of the oldest cemeteries in this part of the state, and over two hundred bodies are resting there. Some whose names inscribed on the monument are weather beaten so that is is nearly impossible to know who is resting there, and at some graves the marker or monument has fallen over. It is noticed too, that some of the graves cannot be located for the weeds and underbrush that has grown around them. The road is in such condition that the casket containing the body must be carried to the cemetery and the relatives and friends are compelled to walk. Scarcely a family in Nashville or in this county who have not a relative or a friend buried in this cemetery. A few hours’ work with several men would make Oak Hill a beautiful cemetery. (Brown County Democrat article of June 10, 1926)

Thanks to our Township Trustee for keeping it mowed now. One of the many interesting stones in the cemetery is featured below:

Notie Calvin, Daughter of T. D. & Linda Calvin, Born Sept. 28, 1880, Died Dec. 23, 1892

Lineage Society - Hooray! The Gold Nugget

Hooray! I finally got a break on my grandfather's records. I had tried everything to find one piece of documentation that held all my grandfather's information. The death certificate was blank with no parents listed. The marriage application gave the mother's wrong last name. No birth record could be found for him in any county where he lived. His obituary gave his mother's wrong first name. So I had wracked my brain - what other piece of documentation could I get that would give me the information that I needed? Suddenly it occurred to me - his social security application! That would be the one piece of paper that he would have had to fill out himself. That would be the one government document that would still be available to obtain with just a little effort.

So I got it two weeks ago. After I opened it I did my own little happy dance right there in the post office parking lot. I was elated all week. It gave his full name as George Allen Dunn, address R.R. 4, Nashville, Ind., age 38, born Oct. 28, 1898 in Boone County, Ind. His father's name was George M. Dunn and his mother was Rose E. Ferguson. It was signed in his own handwriting (I recognized his handwriting) on June 4, 1937. It looked like two people had filled it out because some of it was printed and some of it was in cursive, but I know he had to have had direct imput on this document.

I didn't know that Social Security dated back that far - 1937. I'll keep this information for future use. I may be able to use it again for another ancestor's records. Now I can proceed forward on my application for Jefferson County First Families membership. This document was well worth the wait. Time to get back to my notebook to see which piece of documentation I'm going to have to look for next. One note, I received another copy of the same document a week later. Looks like they were making sure it got sent out.