Wilhelm Cemetery

Directions: Smithfield Township, DeKalb County, Indiana, SR°28 T°35N R°13E
This cemetery is located on the west side of CR35, north of CR18. From US6 in Waterloo, go north on Center St. and CR35. We checked this location, but could find no signs of a cemetery due to high grass. We were told by the owner that there were still grave indentations.

History:
From the Archives of John Martin Smith, submitted by John E. Wilhelm

The Cemetery
100 plus years ago, due to lack of transportation or no modern embalmment, it was convenient to have a burial plot on the farm. Such a plot was started on the Wilhelm Farm. It is located on a knoll at the east side of a wooded valley and half-way between the North and South farm lines. As a small boy I can remember a decent wrought iron fence and gate around the site. With time and deterioration, it collapsed. My father, Edward Wilhelm, thought something should be done to at least keep the livestock from running over it. But since there were other relatives who should have had as much interest as himself, he thought they should help with the expense. However none could be found who gave a hoot about the graveyard. One cousin (Mary Thompson) did come to take a look. Headstones were never purchased. Each grave was simply outlines with fieldstones and left to memory. Mary got on her hands and knees and brushed the leaves and grass away from the stone outlines and named the graves. Before that I only knew it as the graveyard.
If of interest to anyone, there is David Wilhelm and his wife Christina, three old Maids - Carline, Lizzie and Kathrine, Mary Schwartz, and her infant Grandson, son of Charles Schwartz, and a brother of Christina, ------Schambacher.
This generation has nearly forgotten those past generations, and I assume another generation will not even remember there is or where is, this ancestral grave yard.



The map location is approximate.