Roadside Burial Plot TALES THE TOMBSTONES TELL

The Tombstones Tell - Republican Observer September 15, 1955

           A Forgotten Cemetery

    Down on Oak Ridge there is a forgotten cemetery of which little is known. It is a small plot located near the Stibbe farm at the junction of two town roads, one coming up from Hoosier Hollow where it join the main ridge road. One would not notice the three or four tombstones standing or laying there. So obscure is it and so far forgotten that relatives of those buried there "had never heard about it" until told a number of years ago by the writer of this article of its location. A tall hickory tree stands as a marker for the spot.

    One of the stones, which now leans up against a fence post reads:

        "Jasper W., son of A. M. and M. A. Breneman, died,
        Dec. 30, 1874, aged 4 months and 18 days."

    The little boy was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Breneman who will be well remembered by older citizens of this area. Another child is buried in this little spot. A grandparent also sleeps away the years "where the cross roads meet." Strange how folks become separated, with two children buried on Oak Ridge, Mrs. Breneman and her son Mart, are down in the Indian Creek cemetery near the village of Orion, yet Mr. Breneman was laid to rest in the Richland Center cemetery where a flag flies over his grave on each Memorial Day. Anthony was a Civil War veteran. We knew him well.

S. F.

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