Crisman Cemetery, Portage TownshipIndex of Crisman Cemetery burials . . . .
The index of Porter County's Portage Township cemeteries published in 1995 by the Northwest
Indiana Genealogical Society provides the following statement concerning the
Crisman Cemetery:
Benjamin & Elizabeth (Baughman) Crisman
arrived in Porter
Co. in 1850. Their family consisted of
Solomon, Isaac, Addison,
Oliver, Henry, Milton, Haney, Wesley,
Eliza, Jane. While
excavating for a service station at
the SE corner of US 20
in section 1, stones were found. One
stone had I. & J. Crisman
and another had Wilbur - Martha
children of I & J Crisman.
Isaac Crisman was born June 3, 1839
and married Jane
White on December 12, 1870.
This note in the Portage Township cemetery index was most likely based on the
following article published in The Vidette-Messenger on July 11, 1962,
written by reporter Rollie Bernhart [Volume 36, Number 6, Page 1 Columns 1-3 and
Page 6, Column 6].
Grave Question
By ROLLIE BERNHART
PORTAGE -- Decendants of Portage
pioneers, Isaac and Jane Crisman,
are currently mulling over a
monumental question involving recently
unearthed family gravestones.
The three stones -- a family monument
and two headstones -- were
found by workmen at the southeast
corner of U.S. 20 and Crisman
road during excavations for a new
filling station.
Big question to descendants Mrs.
Celia (Crisman) Nealon and her
sister, Mrs. Max Wheat, was the
locale of the family cemetery.
Both Portage women are of the opinion
that the family plot was
located north of the spot where the
stone were found, in an area
north of the former Soule restaurant.
Erected By Pioneers
The feel it is impossible to believe
that heavily travelled U.S. 20
could now be running through and
desecrating the Crisman
family graveyard. "If so," they
asked, "how was the law evaded
involving desecration of graveyards?"
The monument apparently was erected
by pioneers Isaac and
Jane Crisman, grandparents of Mrs.
Nealon and Mrs. Wheat, in
memory of two children, Wilbur and
Marta, who died in 1876
of scarlet fever at ages of five and
three.
Both the monument and headstones are
of unpolished marble
and in excellent state of
preservation. The headstones bore
the names of Wilbur and Marta on top.
Mrs. Nealon, who resides north of the
highway on Crisman
road, said she and her husband found
other tombstone markers
of the two children when they
acquired their present property
20 years ago. She belives [sic] there
was a township graveyard
extending north or south of U.S. 20
along Crisman road, which
may have become neglected and
overgrown with weeds and
brush prior to construction of the
highway in the middle 1920's.
She said she intends to do some
research and checking of
records at the courthouse in
Valparaiso.
Meanwhile, excavators at the filling
station site may turn up
more evidence of the possible
existence of a graveyard.
Isaac Crisman, son of Ben Crisman,
who migrated to the
Portage area, was reported to have
been the township's first
trustee and its first postmaster.
Isaac and Jane resided at 355 Crisman
road, south of U.S. 20,
now occupied by Glenn Hankinson.
About one week after this story concerning Crisman Cemetery was published, the
following column appeared in the July 19, 1962, issue of The
Vidette-Messenger [Volume 36, Number 13, Page 1 Columns 3-4]:
Explanation Offered Crisman Grave Mystery
By ROLLIE BERNHART
PORTAGE -- Any possibilities of the existence of the pioneer
Crisman family
cemetery at the southeast corner of U. S. 20
and Crisman road in Portage, were
dissipated in a report from
Mrs. Celia (Crisman) Nealon today.
The question of the family cemetery being located at the
intersection arose
after workmen two weeks ago unearthed
three family gravestones during excavation
for filling station at
the corner.
Mrs. Maude Blair, 500 Old Porter road, who knows her early
Portage history well,
aided Mrs. Nealon and her sister, Mrs. Max
Wheat, in clearing up the mustery
Wednesday.
Mrs. Blair took Mrs. Nealon to a spot north of U. S. 20. directly
south of the
present Portage Township School administration
building and "positively"
identified the section where the township
cemetery was located, Mrs. Nealon
stated.
It is Mrs. Blair's opinion that members of the pioneer Crisman
family are still
interred there, even though there are no visible
stones or markers. The cemetery
is located on a high bank
overgrown with trees and thick brush.
The mystery of how the three recently unearthed stones, in
Wilbur and Marta, son
and daughter of I. and J. Crisman, became
buried at Crisman road and U. S. 20,
still remains unsolved, Mrs.
Nealon said today.
This short news item appeared in the October 19, 1882, issue of the
Porter County Vidette published in Valparaiso [Volume 26, Number 42, Page 8,
Column 2]:
Joy's Run.
Fields, who owns the Geo. Hunter
farm, refuses to allow any more
grave to be dug in the grave
yard on his farm and gives notice to
have those removed already
there. As there is no deed for the lot,
his wish will probably he [sic,
be] complied with.
The following week, on October 26, 1882, in the Porter County Vidette,
was the following notice [Volume 26, Number 43, Page 5, Column 5]:
NOTICE.
To vacate burying ground.
ALL PERSONS HAVING BODIES OF
FRIENDS buried upon the
farm one-half mile north of
Crisman Station, porter county,
Ind., known as the old George
Hunter farm are requested to
remove them at their earliest
convenience.
OSCAR FIELD.
Present Proprietor.
Collectively, this information strongly suggest that the Crisman Cemetery was located in the
north one-half of the southeast
quarter of Section 1. The 1876 plat of Portage Township indicates that this land
was once owned by George W. Hunter.
The following obituary for one of Isaac Crisman's children appeared in the
December 7, 1876, issue of the Porter County Vidette [Volume 20, Number 49, Page 3, Column 6], and may refer to one to Martha
Crisman or Wilbur Crisman:
Joy's Run Items.
One of Ike Crisman's little children
died Thursday of scarlet
fever; the other is at the point of
death.
Interestingly, the death notice published for Elizabeth Crisman on December 20,
1888, in The Tribune, published in Chesterton, indicates that the
Crisman Cemetery was still being used for burials. Elizabeth's death notice can
be read below.
The following is map from A. G. Hardesty's Illustrated Historical Atlas of
Porter County, Indiana, published in 1876, showing the approximate location of the Crisman Cemetery:
NOTE: If you have information that you
like to add to this database, including corrections, then please contribute it
to
Steve Shook.
CRISMAN, Elizabeth (Baughman)
Birth: August 16, 1816, Carroll County, Ohio
Death: December 15, 1888, Crisman, Porter County, Indiana
Note: The following death notice for Elizabeth Crisman appeared in the December
20, 1888, issue of The Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
[Volume 5, Number 36, Page 1, Column 6].
DIED -- On Dec. 15th, Mrs. Elizabeth Crisman, of Typhus fever. The funeral took
place on the 17th inst., and the remains buried in the Oscar Field cemetery.
Mrs. Crisman was the wife of Benjamin Crisman and was an old settler of Porter
county, having come to the country with her husband in 1850. Her home was at
Crisman Station.
CRISMAN, Isaac
Birth: June 3, 1839, in Carroll County, Ohio
Death: February 3, 1923, in Portage Township, Porter County, Indiana
Note: husband of Jane (White) Crisman; tombstone for Isaac Crisman appears in
the McCool Cemetery in Portage Township
CRISMAN, Jane (White)
Birth: 1847, in Illinois
Death: 1898, in Portage Township, Porter County, Indiana
Note: wife of Isaac Crisman
CRISMAN, Martha
Birth:
Death:
Note: daughter of Isaac and Jane (White) Crisman; given name may have been
Mertie
CRISMAN, Wilbur
Birth:
Death:
Note: son of Isaac and Jane (White) Crisman; given name may have been spelled as
Wilber
Crisman Cemetery data prepared by Steven R. Shook