|
|
|
|
|
INDIANA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ASKS FOR HELP
FROM HOOSIER RESIDENTS IN LOCATING TOMBSTONES
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) is asking for help from Hoosier residents in a statewide project to locate gravestones made of whetstone.
In the pre-Civil War era, Indiana's whetstone-quarrying district in Orange County produced commercial-grade gravestones. These whetstone tombstones were one of Indiana's first commercial products, but the industry was largely unknown until IGS geologists began studying the Orange County whetstone deposits from which the tombstones came.
"The stones are characterized by a distinctive layering, which allows for easy identification of their origin in Orange County, unlike most other stones used during this period," said IGS geologist Erik Kvale.
"Geological investigations have shown that these whetstone beds were deposited on an ancient silty tidal flat and that the thickness of each siltstone layer can be directly equated to the daily, and sometimes semi-daily, rise and fall of ancient tides on that tidal flat," Kvale said. "These ancient recordings are so exact that it is possible to determine, among other things, the phase of the moon during the time the layers were deposited. So significant is this discovery that these Indiana deposits are now known internationally in the geological community."
Kvale, Richard Powell, who is also an IGS geologist, and Michael McNerney, an archeologist from Illinois, are attempting to map the distribution of these gravestones throughout Indiana and beyond, with financial assistance from the Indiana Historical Society.
Those interested in this project can learn more at a talk by Powell on "Whetstone Tombstones, a Forgotten Early Indiana Industry" on Thursday (May 27) at 4 p.m. in the Indiana Geological Survey Building, Room S201, on the corner of 10th St. and Walnut Grove. For more information on Powell's talk, contact IGS at 812-855-7636, igsinfo@indiana.edu
In the 1800s, Indiana was a major producer of whetstones, which are stones used to sharpen a variety of implements. This mining industry was centered in Orange County, where well-sorted, uniformly cemented siltstone is common. At the peak of the industry in the late 1800s, annual production was about 300,000 pounds, and it was once stated that a Hoosier household without an Indiana whetstone was no Hoosier household at all.
Most commercial whetstones produced were transported from the quarries in ox-drawn wagons to the West Fork of the White River or the Lost River. Flatboats, keelboats or barges then floated the stones down these rivers and eventually to the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In some cases they were shipped on to New Orleans and overseas from there. Production persisted into the late 1980s, when the last quarry closed.
Strata seen in the Orange County whetstone quarries have many similarities with the whetstone headstones found in many cemeteries in the region. They are composed of finely layered siltstone, with the thickness of each layer measured in millimeters. What is unique about these deposits is the organization of the layers into couplets consisting of a thick layer and a thinner layer. These couplets show a cycle of progressive thickening and thinning.
"This pattern of progressive thickening and thinning of the layers is absolutely diagnostic of the whetstone beds and allows us to positively identify this stone when we find it in cemeteries," Kvale said.
Whetstone gravestones are among the oldest preserved in the southern part of the state, and the graves of several historically important Hoosiers from the early 1800s, such as Col. Francis Vigo and Robert Buntin, are marked with these monuments.
"Despite the age of these stones, most of the whetstone gravestones are so durable that the lettering and scroll work look as though they were carved yesterday rather than 150 to 180 years ago," Kvale said.
Whetstone headstones have been identified in a number of pioneer cemeteries in southwestern Indiana and Pope County, Ill., as well as in other Illinois pioneer cemeteries near the Wabash River. The limits of the distribution of these gravestones are not yet known, but they probably extend along the Lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers and parallel the other commercial trade routes of early Indiana, such as the canal network.
Some of these routes are known, but others are only inferred. Indiana residents can help by participating in this search. If anyone encounters a whetstone monument or one that they suspect may be such a monument, IGS asks that they photograph its face and an edge-on view and send the photographs to Erik Kvale, Indiana University, Indiana Geological Survey, 611 N. Walnut Grove, Bloomington, IN 47405 or contact Kvale by e-mail at kvalee@indiana.edu
(Hal Kibbey, 812-855-0074, hkibbey@indiana.edu)