Heritage rescued

Portland’s Pioneer Cemetery is on its way back.
To say it has taken awhile — the Jay County Cemetery Commission has been working on the project for four and a half years — would be an understatement.
Actually, neglect of the tiny cemetery on a wooded knoll not far from the Salamonie River has been a concern in some quarters for 140 years.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Jane Spencer, Jay County historian and a member of the cemetery commission.
But where there was once a patch of overgrown brambles and a smattering of broken headstones, a recognizable cemetery is taking shape.
The latest effort to save the cemetery (also known as Jaqua Cemetery) began in 2008 when the cemetery commission approached the Jay County Commissioners seeking to have the land surveyed. Some records indicated that the land had been deeded to the county, while adjoining property owner Dean Poole had paid taxes on the property for decades.
Once it was surveyed, the land — west of what was formerly Sheller-Globe Corp. plant No. 1 — was appraised and purchased. Poole was also compensated for the taxes he’d been incorrectly charged over the years.
But it wasn’t until the commissioners agreed to deed the cemetery property to the Wayne Township Trustee that work could begin in earnest.
“The cemetery commission itself did the initial work,” said Spencer. Other commission members include Mike Leonhard, Rick Hambrock, Paula Confer, Paul Pinkerton, and Rex Pinkerton, who serves as commission president.
Poole and a crew of his employees took out a number of small trees and underbrush. Wayne Township Trustee James Brewster found funds in his budget for removal of some larger trees and is taking responsibility for mowing the property.
And as the brush and weeds were cleared away, more and more headstones were found from graves dating back to the county’s pioneer era.
Graveyard Groomer Pioneer Cemetery Restoration, based in Connersville, worked the property carefully with probes, finding more half-buried stone markers. Each stone is now marked by an orange ribbon, and there’s a chance that more headstones could be found.
“There’s more to be done,” said Spencer. “We had already flagged where we knew were markers. They probed and found markers we had never seen. We’re trying to see now if they can find some more.”
The cemetery dates back to some of the earliest days in Jay County history, with burial records dating back to about 1837, but neglect seems to have been its fate.
As early as 1872, the condition of what was then known as the Portland Graveyard or the Portland Burying Ground sparked editorial concern in local newspapers.
“Is this burying ground to remain in its present condition another year, or will the good citizens of this community take steps toward its improvement?” asked the Portland Democrat. “Those of our friends who pass from our midst to the grave are surely deserving of a more respectable place in which their remains are to be placed. ... The remains of what was once our most respected citizens are unmarked with even a rough board.”
By about 1896, the cemetery, which was close to the tracks of both the Nickel Plate and the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroads, had fallen out of favor when Green Park Cemetery was established. A number of bodies of Civil War veterans were exhumed at that time and re-buried at Green Park.

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