Resurrecting the Sturtevant Cemetery

Before and after: November 10, 2024 and March 9, 2025



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Images courtesy of Michael White.

We can't say that the Sturtevant[1] Cemetery has been completely lost — it has been visited several times from the mid-20th century to the early 21st by local volunteers who have described its location and transcribed those of its stones that could be found and read, and the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society makes that information available. We can, however, say that the Sturtevant Cemetery has become inaccessible and largely forgotten.

Over the past year or so, local historian Michael White has devoted many hours to the cemetery — not only researching it extensively, but also going out into the woods to locate it and, through a lot of hard physical work, uncovering it from years of neglect. The photos above show the cemetery as he first found it in November 2024, and then again in March 2025, after several clean-up visits with a couple of other volunteers.

I like the sequence below, showing a piece of a grave marker being uncovered from a layer of mud, until you can partially read the epitaph. After more excavation, a full headstone is revealed.




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Images courtesy of Michael White.

Of the epitaph, I could only read the first three words: "Gone to inhabit…" An online search for such an epitaph turned up this one …


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… in a late-19th-century book of epitaphs offered by the Vermont Marble Company.

But the top part of the stone is not legible, so we don't know for whom that epitaph was chosen.


Michael has written up his findings on the history of the cemetery and the Sturtevant family, and presented them to relevant governmental agencies, such as the Lake County Parks Department (which owns the cemetery) and the Ross Township Trustee, as well as two local historical societies. The cemetery is fortunate to have such an energetic advocate. It deserves advocacy, as part of our local history. Its graves are those of early settlers of eastern Ross Township. It is the final resting place of a young Civil War soldier who died in the service. It is even the scene of a possible grave robbery.

With Michael's permission, I am posting the paper he compiled, which contains historical summaries and numerous research sources, and the PowerPoint presentation he prepared for his talks to officials and historical societies.

• The history paper is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MlCNcvZCv2q1XG6i-BHEByYvY4bNZ6-V/view?usp=sharing
• The PowerPoint PDF is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QZuvQ-SVIu85Qh-ItiAblIAtagK9SnD-/view?usp=sharing

Michael also took numerous photos documenting the cemetery as he first found it, and as it slowly began to look like a proper burial ground through his (and two other volunteers') clean-up work. The photos above come from this collection. I am sharing the full collection below.

• The initial condition of the cemetery on November 10, 2024: click to view album
• The first clean-up efforts on February 28, 2025: click to view album
• Ongoing clean-up on March 2, 2025: click to view album
• The latest clean-up visit on March 9, 2025: click to view album (also a short video from this visit)

There remains a lot of work yet to be done, to complete the reading and restoration of the grave markers, maintain the cemetery, and, possibly, persuade the Lake County Parks Department to make it officially accessible to the public. Anyone who is interested in helping is invited to contact Michael White at fwmichaelwhite@gmail.com.


Here's a lovely sunset photographed from the Sturtevant Cemetery … or maybe it's a sunrise for the Sturtevant Cemetery?


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Image courtesy of Michael White.


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[1] This family name shows up in several spelling variations. In my blog I have been indexing it as "Sturtevant" just for the sake of consistency.

A Very Short History of the Deep River Church

I came across this article in the May 14, 1975 issue of the Hobart Gazette about the Christian Church of Deep River, whose original building is now the Deep River County Park visitors' center.


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It's interesting that the old-timers of 1975 did not remember Contractor Abel, unless he was one of the volunteers mentioned. But I believe he and his family belonged to the German Lutheran Church in Hobart, so it isn't likely that he was volunteering his services to the Deep River church.

The article does me a favor by explaining the "Willing Workers," as I was unclear about its origin. I have seen that ladies' aid society mentioned numerous times in the early 20th-century newspapers (for example, a 1922 social column previously posted announced their fund-raising sale and supper). The earliest such mention I can find in my notes was in June 1906,[1] so I guess the 1975 old-timers' memories were off by just one year. Which is remarkably good.

I only wish the article were clearer about the location of the dance hall! [6/24/2026 update parsonage/dance hall identified]


The photo of the Sunday School class includes some familiar names as well as some I have scarcely looked into.

Mrs. Flora Maxwell, presumably the Sunday-School teacher, had been born into an old Ross Township family, the Sturtevants, and had married Douglas Maxwell. Thus Olive Maxwell, in the first row, was her stepdaughter.

We already know of Philip Waldeck and his untimely death. Through his mother, he was a cousin of Clarence Maybaum ("Maybawm" is a mistake).

George Casbon, born in 1897, was a child of Thomas and Ella Casbon[2] and lived in a brick house on the north side of what is now 73rd Avenue (later owned by the Buchfuehrers).

Raymond Wood was the son of William and Martha Wood, and a great-grandson of John and Hannah, who founded the village of Deep River. The "Ford agency in town" mentioned in the article was run by William and Raymond.

Floyd Yager was born in 1897 to George and Anna. The extended Yager clan has already furnished considerable material for this blog, from Floyd's eccentric uncle, Fred, to his elegant brother, George Jr., but Floyd himself seems to have led a pretty quiet life. His family's farmhouse on 73rd Avenue is still standing.

Now we get to the less familiar names.

I believe that George Sandburg's father, John, bought Huffman's mill in 1903, and his mother, Lucy, had been a Baker.[3] George remained a Porter County resident through the 1940 Census, but by 1950 had moved with his wife to Tennessee, where he is buried.

Thus far I have indexed the surname Ditlow only in connection with "South of Deepriver" social columns (1921 and 1922). Raymond and Cecil Ditlow were brothers, born into a Union Township farming family. This 1942 article about their parents' 50th wedding anniversary gives a little of the family history …


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"Mr. and Mrs. Abe Ditlow Celebrate Golden Wedding," Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 21 Sept. 1942.

.. as does their father's 1947 obituary:


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Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), 17 Mar. 1947.

Raymond and Cecil are both buried in Mosier Cemetery.

As for the surname Riley, I have found it several times in my notes, in connection with minor social news, and once it got into the blog, but I am confused about the relation of the various Rileys to one another, if any. The Riley in this photo, Marion, was the daughter of Edwin Stanton[4] and Rose (Miller) Riley and was born in 1897. In 1917 she married Reid Peck and lived out the rest of her life in Valparaiso. She, too, is buried in Mosier Cemetery.

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[1] "Thursday, June 21st, from two to four o'clock, there will be a ten-cent Tea served by Mrs. B.H. Wood at Deepriver and by other members of the Willing Workers society on Mrs. W.M. Waldeck's lawn. Everybody invited. Mrs. Casbon, President." "General News Items," Hobart Gazette, 15 June 1906.
[2] Per his entry on Findagrave.com, his middle name was Perry — the maiden name of his grandmother.
[3] The surname appears as both "Sandburg" and "Sandberg." Since George himself used "Sandberg" when he signed his WWI draft card, I will be indexing it that way.
[4] He seems to be variously referred to as "E.S.," "Edwin S.," and "Stanton," which contributes to my confusion.

The Robbed Grave of Sturdevant Cemetery

Artist's facial reconstruction of Esther Ann Granger Peck.

A fellow member of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society alerted me to a story (which is now being reported by numerous sources and even being discussed on Reddit) about the identification of a skull that had been found during the 1978 remodeling of a home in Batavia, Illinois. DNA testing did not exist in 1978, of course, so means of identifying the skull were limited at that time. Now we have not only DNA testing but a lot of people who have submitted their DNA for genealogy purposes.

And so we have learned that a young woman's grave, marked in the little Sturdevant Cemetery in eastern Ross Township, has been at least partially empty for a long time.


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From Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Ross Township Cemeteries (1995).

The full story is here: Kane County Coroner’s Office and Batavia Police Department Team with Othram to Identify 1978 Jane Doe. This video story shows the house in Batavia where Esther's skull was found.

Esther's listing on Findagrave.com, which formerly led to Sturdevant Cemetery, now shows her as being buried in Batavia.

Granger was her maiden name. She married Zalmon Peck on December 20, 1864 (Indiana Marriage Collection) when she was about 16 years old and he about 27. A Reddit user has even come up with a copy of the marriage record:


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Comment by cassodragon to thread titled, "After 45 years, Kane County Jane Doe (1978) is Identified." Reddit, Oct. 24, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldoe/comments/1gb57iy/after_45_years_kane_county_jane_doe_1978_is/


A look at the 1874 Plat Map shows why the cemetery was also known as the Dennis Cemetery: the Dennis and Sturdevant farms were next to each other on what is now 89th Avenue:



I do not know exactly where the cemetery is. Findagrave.com describes it as being 0.7 miles east of Randolph on 89th. That sounds like Sturdevant, not Dennis, land. (In the census records, the Dennis family appears only in the 1870 Census — Thomas (41) and Mary (26) and a couple possible in-laws.[1] The Sturdevant/Sturtevant name is more pervasive.)

The cemetery can't be seen on modern satellite view. It can't be seen on the 1978 aerial view from the Lake County GIS website, either:


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Image from https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/18676999665349e492506de765490541/page/Parcel-Info/.

That's just a screen shot. You can enlarge the 1978 aerial view more if you go to the website yourself, but you still can't see the cemetery. By the way, per the GIS info, all that land now belongs to the Lake County Parks Department.

I will try to get the 1939 aerial view, but that's not as easy as it used to be.

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[1] I came across an item in the "Hobart" column of the Crown Point Register of September 30, 1886: "The other day we met our friend, Thos. Dennis, formerly of Lake Co. He is as fleshy and good natured as ever and lives in Chicago."

Stop Signs on Main Street

Is it possible that traffic through the intersections of downtown Hobart was not controlled until the autumn of 1922, when Fred Rose, Sr. installed six stop signs?


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Hobart Gazette 3 Nov. 1922.

In the next column we learn that Charles Shults, having quit farming, moved to the Buchfuehrer house on Lillian Street, and I hope someone comes along pretty soon to tell me where that was.

We also learn that Charles' wife had been a Lute. Per the Indiana Marriage Collection, Charles Shults married Lydia Lute in Porter County in March 1897. The same source tells us that William Shults married Vena Lute in February 1896. I wonder if these were two brothers marrying two sisters?

In the far-right column, we recognize our friend, John Killigrew. I believe he won that election.

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Elsewhere in the "Local Drifts" of the same issue, we find this little item:

Jacob Yeager [Yager] and son, Adam, and John Sturtevant of near Deepriver, left Monday in a Ford touring car for Frederick and Baltimore, Md. They were equipped for camping out, and may not return for several weeks.

Jacob Yager was in his mid-60s, John Sturtevant about 52 (1920 Census); if they could stand camping out, well, good for them.

South of Deepriver

Social news from the countryside early in May 1922:


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Hobart News 11 May 1922.

The Guernsey family was planning another reunion.

I don't know who Albert Starr was, but he lived in Valparaiso (1920 Census).


Over in the left-hand column, we hear of an auto accident "south of Ainsworth," but we don't get enough details to figure out exactly where it happened.

The Death of "Bone"

This obituary from the Lake County Star of 12 Dec. 1920* doesn't explain how Daniel got the nickname, "Bone," but I suspect it came from his middle name, Beauman.

The Rev. T.H. Ball, in his Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, Indiana (1904), had this to say:

Daniel Beauman Sturtevant, of section 28, Ross township, has lived in this vicinity all his life, and from his boyhood days of sixty years ago to the present almost the entire development of Lake county has taken place, so that few men are better informed by actual personal experience of the material history of this portion of the county. He has lived continuously on one farm for over fifty-five years, and all the associations and interests of his life are bound up with it, and there it is his good pleasure to pass the remaining days of his busy and prosperous career and await the summons from an activity that has borne much fruit and been worthy and beneficial to the community in general.

Mr. Sturtevant was born in Porter county, Indiana, just three miles east of the farm where he has lived so long, on April 27, 1840. His father, John Sturtevant, was born in the town of Barton, Vermont, in 1806, and was reared, educated and married there. He came to LaPorte county, Indiana, in 1833, being one of the first carpenters to follow his craft in that now populous county. In 1836 he moved to Porter county, locating on the farm where he remained until 1848, when he settled on the old farm in Lake county now owned by his son, and where he died on January 1, 1858. He belongs to the list of early settlers of the county, and was also successful in his general career. He married Miss Louise Cass, who was a native of New Hampshire and a cousin of Dr. Lewis Cass, who was one of the pioneers and foremost men of Lake county. She died at the age of thirty-eight years, having been the mother of three sons and three daughters.

Mr. D.B. Sturtevant, who was the second child and eldest son, was eight years old when he went with his parents to Lake county, so that most of his boyhood was spent on the farm which as a man he has tilled and made the source of his livelihood. He is now the owner of about five hundred acres, some of it in Porter county, and on this he is still actively engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He has about a hundred and fifty head of cattle and a good lot of hogs. His farm is one of the model places of the township, and he has made it so mainly by his own labors and most efficient management. Mr. Sturtevant was a raiser of the registered Herefords for a number of years, but has now retired from that business. He has given his best years and efforts to this life work, but has also taken an intelligent interest in the world about him, co-operating in community affairs and regularly casting his ballot at national elections for Democratic principles.

Mr. Sturtevant was married in 1866 to Miss Eugenie Wood, who was born in Iowa, but came to Lake county in girlhood. They are the parents of four children, John, Judson, Flora and Carrie. John was a student of Valparaiso College. Mrs. Sturtevant was born in Keosauqua, Iowa, October 31, 1844, a daughter of John and Caroline (Brown) Wood. Her father was a native of Vermont and her mother of Virginia. Her great-grandfather, David Wood, was a hero in the Revolutionary war, and the gun he carried in the war is yet in the family as a souvenir.

Mrs. Sturtevant was reared and educated in Ohio, She came from a family of teachers. Mrs. Sturtevant is a member of the Christian church of Deep River, Indiana.

This is how the Sturtevant land appeared on the 1908 Plat Map:**


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By the time of the 1926 Plat Book, Charles Gernenz held the 120 acres in Section 20; D.B.'s son John owned the 240 acres in Section 28 (ownership of the 26.6 acres south of E. 89th is not clear); and D.B.'s daughter, Flora Maxwell, owned the 80 acres in Section 21.

Flora's husband was (if I've found the right people in the 1920 Census) Douglas Maxwell, and they lived in Porter County.

John Sturtevant was unmarried.

D.B.'s daughter Carrie married John Prescott. The 1920 Census, in March, shows the Prescotts in Ross Township, with D.B. and Eugenie in their household — which, being on rented land in southeast Ross Township, may be on the Sturtevant land, but I do not know if that could be the "near Ainsworth" mentioned in the obituary above.

I would like to know the story behind D.B.'s death. According to his death certificate, he fell from a third-story window. The accident may have happened at the Allenel Sanitarium, where he was undergoing treatment for some unknown condition.

Now he rests peacefully in Mosier Cemetery, beneath a lovely stone.

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*See also "Funeral of Daniel B. Sturdevant Held Tuesday Afternoon," Hobart News 9 Dec. 1920.
**For Jerome Chester fans, I should mention that the 1900 Census shows him boarding with the Sturtevants.

Gernenz v. Everybody

Now we find Charles Gernenz seeking to quiet title on this 120-acre parcel:


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From the 1926 Plat Book.

Why now? Beats me. The 1908 Plat Map shows that land owned by Daniel B. Sturtevant … who isn't named in the action to quiet title. Per the 1891 Plat Book, the land was jointly owned by Henry Stelling and Albert Buchgert, also not named. The 1874 Plat Map gives the owner's name as "T. Wehrenburg," which may have some connection to the Frederick Wehrburg named in the action.


From the Hobart News of Oct. 7, 1920.

TLDR summary: Baker, Carter, Davis, Hacker, Larabee, Marston, McDonald, Melbie, Muller, Preston, Raymond, Schneewind, Smith, Summers, Toothill, Wehrburg, Wheeler, Wilcox.