The cemetery records for Brown Township in Ripley County, Indiana indicate that several members of the Ellis family are buried across the road from the Benham Church Cemetery. But, are they?
The Records
Cemetery Records
Brown Township Tales: The History, Stories and Lore of Brown Township in Ripley County, Indiana includes a list of burials for cemeteries in the county. It contains the following entry:
‘There are some unmarked graves across the road from the Benham Cemetery. They are supposed to be members of the Ellis Family. The farm where they are buried is now known as the Lafe Benham farm. Mr. Roger Ellis’s nickname was “Toddy”. ‘
It also contained the name of the person who had provided the information and then listed Roger with his birth and death dates. Scrawled in cursive next to the entry is that he was buried with his wife and daughter. Thus, sometime between the time the cemetery lists were put together and the time they were scanned for the book, someone had noted that Roger was really in the cemetery with his wife.
Find-A-Grave
This information existed in several other places as well. If I recall correctly, it was also on Find-A-Grave. Records for him on that site were merged at one point with a brief reference to the grave supposedly being across the road.
The gravestone in Benham Church Cemetery does indeed have both his wife Susannah and his name on it. Still, we know that at least at one time, someone believed he was buried across the road.
The Questions
So, where is Roger Ellis buried? If he is buried in the Benham Church Cemetery, why was he believed to have been buried across the road? And, who are the other members of the family that were supposedly buried in the field across the road?
Who was Roger Ellis?
Let’s see if Roger’s life sheds any light on why he might have been buried outside of the cemetery.
Roger Ellis, my 4th Great-Grandfather, was born July 29, 1782 in Pennsylvania. The exact location is not known; however, speculation is that he was born in Washington County. His parents’ names are also not confirmed. A handwritten note in a record book indicates that his father was Obediah Ellis and a man with that name lived in the general area that Roger lived as a young man. However, no records have been found confirming this man as Roger’s father. And, that name does not appear in the Ellis Bible. Read more about the Mystery of Roger’s parents.
Kentucky
The first record suspected to be of our Roger Ellis is a tax record for Franklin County, Kentucky in 1801. Roger would have only been 19 years old. Then in 1805, he married Susannah Lewis in nearby Shelby County, Kentucky. Susannah was the daughter of Joseph Lewis.
The will of Joseph’s sister Susannah confirms Roger’s nickname as being Toddy. His sister gave Susannah 3 shares of bank stock and stated that she was the daughter of his brother Joseph and wife of Toddy Ellis. I wish all wills were this descriptive.
Indiana
In 1816, Roger and Susannah were living on Six Mile Creek in Shelby County. When Ripley County, Indiana opened land for settlement, Roger purchased land in Brown Township. Soon Roger and Susannah moved their growing family to Indiana.
According to Roger and Susannah’s daughter Mary’s obituary, the family did not stay long due to an uprising of the Native Americans in the general area. I assume they returned to Kentucky. However, they returned the following year, settling in Ripley County at their homestead located at the SW¼ of Section 14, Township 6N, Range 11E.
DNA Matches to Roger and Susannah’s Descendants
The table shows the number of DNA matches I have identified to date that appear to be descendants of Roger and Susannah. The chart shows matches to seven children. Two daughters, Susannah and Rebecca, married later in life and never had children. I have not found DNA matches to John, who I believe is a son, but whom I have not easily traced. Additional questions about others related to the family remain.
The Baptists
Middle Fork of Indian Kentucky Church, was formed around 1820 or 1821 in Ripley County. It was formally chartered in 1821 with eight founding members, one of whom was William Bassett. William was one of the first deacons of the church and was also my 4th great-grandfather (William Bassett, Sarah (Bassett) Nicholson, Cynthia Ann Nicholson, Rosa Isabel (Ellis) Mccracken Apt, Joseph Andrew McCracken, Joseph Edward McCracken).
In 1826, the church was deeded land described as NE¼ of Section 12, Township 6N, Range 12E. According to current maps and other information, this description appears to be incorrect. The church that replaced it is in the NW¼ of the SE¼ of Section 12, Township 6N, Range 11E.
The church was associated with the Madison Baptist Association and is listed in the minutes of the association in 1826 and 1845. The records for both years include R. Ellis as a member. This is likely Roger as other families mentioned married into his family.
Thus, it implies that Roger was Baptist. This is consistent with other Ellis families with whom he may be associated. At the time that Roger died, W.W. Ellis, who is likely Roger’s son Wesley W. Ellis, was active in the church.
Roger’s wife Susannah died in 1865 and Wesley moved his family to Minnesota within a couple of years. This may have been a significant portion of the church as membership had been decreasing in recent years. The Baptist church disbanded sometime around 1875, give or take a few years.
The Methodists
In the late 1800s, the church became the Middle Fork Methodist Episcopal Church. There is a claim that this happened much earlier. It is possible that both the Baptist and Methodist Episcopal churches co-existed at one time.
In 1899, a new church building was constructed. It may be that the Methodist Church was located at a slightly different location. A storage type building is located just south of the cemetery and it seems that location could have been the original location. It could have also have been located on the corner, which is now part of the cemetery.
The Middle Fork Methodist Episcopal Church later became known as Benham Methodist Church. Middle Fork was the name of a settlement that was later changed to Benham. Today, it is Benham United Methodist and is located at 648 E Co Rd 650 S ( Benham Rd), Versailles, Indiana.
The Cemetery
Benham Church Cemetery adjoins the church. The earliest burials in this cemetery pre-date either church with fifteen burials occurring prior to Roger’s death. Thus, we can eliminate the date the cemetery was established as a reason Roger might not be buried in the cemetery.
Since the Baptists started the cemetery and Roger appears to have been active in the Baptist Church, it seems odd that he would not have been buried in the cemetery. However, he could have had a falling out with the church even though his family remained active.
It is also possible that the family did not have money at the time for a cemetery plot. Thus, just across the road was close enough to the cemetery.
Another, possibly more likely scenario, is that other members of the family had already been buried across the road before he died and he was simply buried with family. Yet, it is odd that he would be buried somewhere that does not appear to be his property (more research is needed to confirm this assumption) instead of in the cemetery across the road.
Burials Across The Road
The other question is “Who else is buried in the unmarked graves across the road from the official cemetery?” One possibility is Jeremiah Ellis, who lived for a time with Roger and Susannah. A Jeremiah of that approximate age is listed in the Ellis Bible. If that is him, he is likely a nephew of Roger or Roger’s much younger brother.
It is also possible that Roger and Susannah or one of their older children lost a child and they are buried in that location.
We will likely never know for sure where Roger is buried or who else may be buried in the unmarked graves.
Research Notes
My research for this article included records (ancestry, etc.), web searches, and using two AI tools. It demonstrated the limits of AI and the reason you can only use AI to assist in research and not to replace research. One tool had an extremely weak response with almost no information – not even the information I had found about the church(es) involved.
The other was much more thorough. However, it had a great deal of difficulty with the location. It insisted that the original description of the church property was correct until I pointed out that the sources it provided showed it differently. In addition, it kept thinking the church was across the street from the cemetery, which it is not. And, it thought the cemetery was in a different section than the church. It was very clear using official and unofficial maps that this was not the case.
Featured Image: This is not the Benham United Methodist Church. I could not find an image of the church that was free to use. This image is, however, similar to the actual church. Click here to see Benham United Methodist Church. Image features is from Photorama via pixabay.com.
Prompt: Cemetery
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