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John Franklin Crick

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John Franklin Crick Veteran

Birth
Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA
Death
31 Oct 1910 (aged 72)
Clinton County, Indiana, USA
Burial
Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana, USA Add to Map
Plot
Section 10 Lot 660
Memorial ID
View Source
John Franklin Crick was the son of John C. and Anna Catharine (Clemmer) Crick. John moved to Indiana with his parents from Virginia in 1855. John married Elizabeth Ann Sparks on January 2, 1862 at "Uncle Bill's home (William Crick?)" in Perry Township, Clinton Co., IN. John served in Company I, 86th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War and was wounded by a musket ball in his right hip in the Battle of Stones River (TN) on December 31, 1862 . While in the war, John's eldest child, Martha was born on December 6, 1862 and while John was recuperating in Nashville (TN), Cincinnati (OH) and Indianapolis (IN), he would not see his daughter for 2 1/2 years. John and Elizabeth had 7 children: Martha Jane (Crick) Ramsey, Margaret Ann "Mike" (Crick) Isgrigg, John Thomas Crick, Nettie Mae (Crick) Loveless, Laura Belle (Crick) White, Joseph Allen Crick and Curtis Sherman Crick.

(In the article below, it states that they couldn't find the grave of John Franklin Crick. John Franklin Crick has always been buried in Bunnell Cemetery. It was John's father, John C. Crick (and his mother) who was buried in White Cemetery (later Davis Cemetery?) and all the graves were either moved or plowed under. If you look on the 1878 Perry Twp. Clinton County, Indiana Atlas, you can see a cross for the White Cemetery directly north of Colfax.)

Frankfort (IN) Times
Thursday, December 14, 2006

"'It's like they never existed'
Clarks Hill man claims Colfax cemetery plowed over

Nicole Brooks
Staff writer

Robert Wilcox stood on County Road 880 West in Colfax and turned his eyes toward a plowed field.

Here, he said, on this half-acre of land, is where his great-great-grandfather is buried.

But no one has been able to find the exact spot John Franklin Crick, born 1837, was laid to rest in 1910.

The headstones belonging to the 30 to 40 graves in this small cemetery, named Davis Cemetery, were moved sometime in the 1960s, Wilcox said. Today no trace of the burial site remains. A map listing all the known cemeteries in Clinton County includes Davis, but the word "gone" appears next to it.

"It's like they never existed," Wilcox said of the people buried there. "It's a horrible feeling."

As he grows older, what Wilcox wants more than anything is to find the headstones and return them to their original places.

If that is not possible, he wants "Davis Cemetery" proclaimed on a plaque stationed on the small hill.

One day, all who know about the cemetery will be gone, he said. He fears a new home could be built on that spot. Someone digging into the ground to build a basement could churn up Wilcox's ancestor.

Visited cemetery as a child

Growing up in Clarks Hill, Wilcox visited his grandmother in Colfax. Every year on Memorial Day they would visit Davis Cemetery and leave flowers on the grave of John Franklin Crick, a Civil War veteran.

Grandpa Crick, as Wilcox calls him, enlisted in the Army on Aug. 19, 1862, according to his discharge papers in the Clinton County Recorder's Office. He retired a private.

Crick was shot in 1862 in Tennessee, Wilcox said, and spent two years recovering before he was strong enough to come home.

He was granted a discharge June 30, 1865.

Crick died in Perry Township on Oct. 31, 1910, at the age of 72. His death certificate, on file at the county board of health, lists cause of death as cancer of the liver. The certificate also states his occupation as a farmer.

He was buried Nov. 2. But Davis Cemetery does not appear on the death certificate or in his obituary, published Nov. 1, 1910 in The Frankfort News.

Wilcox admits that memory is fallible, but he is positive Crick is buried there.

Certainty unclear

"I'm not sure you'll ever be able to find out who's buried there," said Joan Bohm, a county historian and librarian for the Clinton County Historical Society.

In the 1960s Bohm and a team of genealogists cataloged every known cemetery in the county. She believes Davis Cemetery existed, but any historical documents detailing who is buried there haven't been found.

Wilcox remembers the Crick headstone and the cemetery clearly. There was a fence around it, he said, and a road off County Road 880 West that led to the entrance.

It was in the late 1960s, Wilcox said, that the headstones disappeared.

Headstones discarded

Wilcox's brother, Keith, didn't make the Memorial Day trips with their grandmother. Keith doesn't remember the cemetery.

However, Keith, who was in the bulldozing business, does claim to recall landowner Joseph Bell contacting him in the 1960s.

"(He) had a pile of stuff he wanted me to bury."

Keith dug a hole in the woods in which to dump the stuff. A headstone tumbled out of the bundle of weeds and old brush he was burying.

Keith didn't realize at the time that he was burying the headstone belonging to his great-great-grandfather's grave.

The cemetery has been unmarked and planted in soybeans for 40 years, Robert Wilcox said.

"Now my brother and I are the only ones who know where the headstones and graves are," he said.

Joseph Bell is deceased, but the land remains in the Bell family. The Wilcox brothers have never gone to talk to them about the cemetery, they say, because they don't want the family to feel harassed.

Getting help

A few months ago, Wilcox sought help from Clinton County Veterans Affairs Officer Joe Root.

Root said the two met on Oct. 27. Root did some investigating of his own but could not find records proving Crick was buried in Davis Cemetery.

Root called the sheriff's office the day of Wilcox's visit.

Sergeant Glenn Ashwell and Deputy Sheriff John Byers went out to Colfax to interview the Wilcoxes.

Byers said the Wilcox brothers showed him a spot on County Road 450 South about 500 yards from the cemetery site, where they say the 30 - 40 headstones were buried.

"The woods that did contain them are gone now," Byers said.

Byers said he also met with Doyal Bell, Joseph Bell's son.

"He remembers as a kid a cemetery being there," Byers said.

Doyal Bell declined to talk about the situation with The Times, saying only that it is a personal matter.

Nothing illegal

Dismantling a cemetery on private property became illegal in Indiana only five or six years ago, said Jeannie Regan, cemetery registry coordinator for the State Department of Natural Resources. The law isn't retroactive, she pointed out, so no one will be prosecuted for something that happened to a cemetery years before.

Hoosiers were not even required by law to keep track of cemeteries until 1939, Regan said.

Wilcox's fear of a home builder digging up his ancestor is valid.

"It happens," she said.

If a cemetery is not marked, she said, how would anyone know it's there?

In the case of Davis Cemetery, Regan said she would recommend a plaque be placed on the half acre. It would be nearly impossible, she said, to replace the headstones.

Many land owners are afraid to work with the cemetery registry, because they think their land will be taken away or they will face legal action, she said.

This is rarely the case, she noted.

In remembrance

Wilcox's only hope is that the final resting place of John Franklin Crick and the other residents of the former Davis Cemetery will be designated again.

"I'm not bringing this up to get anyone in trouble," he said.

Wilcox believes the people buried deep in that soil deserve more than to be plowed over and forgotten.

He can still see the outlines of the graves in the ground, even after all these years, he said.

"Everything leaves its mark.""
John Franklin Crick was the son of John C. and Anna Catharine (Clemmer) Crick. John moved to Indiana with his parents from Virginia in 1855. John married Elizabeth Ann Sparks on January 2, 1862 at "Uncle Bill's home (William Crick?)" in Perry Township, Clinton Co., IN. John served in Company I, 86th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War and was wounded by a musket ball in his right hip in the Battle of Stones River (TN) on December 31, 1862 . While in the war, John's eldest child, Martha was born on December 6, 1862 and while John was recuperating in Nashville (TN), Cincinnati (OH) and Indianapolis (IN), he would not see his daughter for 2 1/2 years. John and Elizabeth had 7 children: Martha Jane (Crick) Ramsey, Margaret Ann "Mike" (Crick) Isgrigg, John Thomas Crick, Nettie Mae (Crick) Loveless, Laura Belle (Crick) White, Joseph Allen Crick and Curtis Sherman Crick.

(In the article below, it states that they couldn't find the grave of John Franklin Crick. John Franklin Crick has always been buried in Bunnell Cemetery. It was John's father, John C. Crick (and his mother) who was buried in White Cemetery (later Davis Cemetery?) and all the graves were either moved or plowed under. If you look on the 1878 Perry Twp. Clinton County, Indiana Atlas, you can see a cross for the White Cemetery directly north of Colfax.)

Frankfort (IN) Times
Thursday, December 14, 2006

"'It's like they never existed'
Clarks Hill man claims Colfax cemetery plowed over

Nicole Brooks
Staff writer

Robert Wilcox stood on County Road 880 West in Colfax and turned his eyes toward a plowed field.

Here, he said, on this half-acre of land, is where his great-great-grandfather is buried.

But no one has been able to find the exact spot John Franklin Crick, born 1837, was laid to rest in 1910.

The headstones belonging to the 30 to 40 graves in this small cemetery, named Davis Cemetery, were moved sometime in the 1960s, Wilcox said. Today no trace of the burial site remains. A map listing all the known cemeteries in Clinton County includes Davis, but the word "gone" appears next to it.

"It's like they never existed," Wilcox said of the people buried there. "It's a horrible feeling."

As he grows older, what Wilcox wants more than anything is to find the headstones and return them to their original places.

If that is not possible, he wants "Davis Cemetery" proclaimed on a plaque stationed on the small hill.

One day, all who know about the cemetery will be gone, he said. He fears a new home could be built on that spot. Someone digging into the ground to build a basement could churn up Wilcox's ancestor.

Visited cemetery as a child

Growing up in Clarks Hill, Wilcox visited his grandmother in Colfax. Every year on Memorial Day they would visit Davis Cemetery and leave flowers on the grave of John Franklin Crick, a Civil War veteran.

Grandpa Crick, as Wilcox calls him, enlisted in the Army on Aug. 19, 1862, according to his discharge papers in the Clinton County Recorder's Office. He retired a private.

Crick was shot in 1862 in Tennessee, Wilcox said, and spent two years recovering before he was strong enough to come home.

He was granted a discharge June 30, 1865.

Crick died in Perry Township on Oct. 31, 1910, at the age of 72. His death certificate, on file at the county board of health, lists cause of death as cancer of the liver. The certificate also states his occupation as a farmer.

He was buried Nov. 2. But Davis Cemetery does not appear on the death certificate or in his obituary, published Nov. 1, 1910 in The Frankfort News.

Wilcox admits that memory is fallible, but he is positive Crick is buried there.

Certainty unclear

"I'm not sure you'll ever be able to find out who's buried there," said Joan Bohm, a county historian and librarian for the Clinton County Historical Society.

In the 1960s Bohm and a team of genealogists cataloged every known cemetery in the county. She believes Davis Cemetery existed, but any historical documents detailing who is buried there haven't been found.

Wilcox remembers the Crick headstone and the cemetery clearly. There was a fence around it, he said, and a road off County Road 880 West that led to the entrance.

It was in the late 1960s, Wilcox said, that the headstones disappeared.

Headstones discarded

Wilcox's brother, Keith, didn't make the Memorial Day trips with their grandmother. Keith doesn't remember the cemetery.

However, Keith, who was in the bulldozing business, does claim to recall landowner Joseph Bell contacting him in the 1960s.

"(He) had a pile of stuff he wanted me to bury."

Keith dug a hole in the woods in which to dump the stuff. A headstone tumbled out of the bundle of weeds and old brush he was burying.

Keith didn't realize at the time that he was burying the headstone belonging to his great-great-grandfather's grave.

The cemetery has been unmarked and planted in soybeans for 40 years, Robert Wilcox said.

"Now my brother and I are the only ones who know where the headstones and graves are," he said.

Joseph Bell is deceased, but the land remains in the Bell family. The Wilcox brothers have never gone to talk to them about the cemetery, they say, because they don't want the family to feel harassed.

Getting help

A few months ago, Wilcox sought help from Clinton County Veterans Affairs Officer Joe Root.

Root said the two met on Oct. 27. Root did some investigating of his own but could not find records proving Crick was buried in Davis Cemetery.

Root called the sheriff's office the day of Wilcox's visit.

Sergeant Glenn Ashwell and Deputy Sheriff John Byers went out to Colfax to interview the Wilcoxes.

Byers said the Wilcox brothers showed him a spot on County Road 450 South about 500 yards from the cemetery site, where they say the 30 - 40 headstones were buried.

"The woods that did contain them are gone now," Byers said.

Byers said he also met with Doyal Bell, Joseph Bell's son.

"He remembers as a kid a cemetery being there," Byers said.

Doyal Bell declined to talk about the situation with The Times, saying only that it is a personal matter.

Nothing illegal

Dismantling a cemetery on private property became illegal in Indiana only five or six years ago, said Jeannie Regan, cemetery registry coordinator for the State Department of Natural Resources. The law isn't retroactive, she pointed out, so no one will be prosecuted for something that happened to a cemetery years before.

Hoosiers were not even required by law to keep track of cemeteries until 1939, Regan said.

Wilcox's fear of a home builder digging up his ancestor is valid.

"It happens," she said.

If a cemetery is not marked, she said, how would anyone know it's there?

In the case of Davis Cemetery, Regan said she would recommend a plaque be placed on the half acre. It would be nearly impossible, she said, to replace the headstones.

Many land owners are afraid to work with the cemetery registry, because they think their land will be taken away or they will face legal action, she said.

This is rarely the case, she noted.

In remembrance

Wilcox's only hope is that the final resting place of John Franklin Crick and the other residents of the former Davis Cemetery will be designated again.

"I'm not bringing this up to get anyone in trouble," he said.

Wilcox believes the people buried deep in that soil deserve more than to be plowed over and forgotten.

He can still see the outlines of the graves in the ground, even after all these years, he said.

"Everything leaves its mark.""


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