INPCRP-L Archives

Archiver > INPCRP > 1999-05 > 0927064031


From: "Lois Mauk" <>
Subject: Re: [INPCRP-L] Tombstone talk at the Indiana Geological Survey
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 17:47:11 -0400


Erik:

Thanks for letting us know about this meeting. I'm sure a few folks on this
list will be interested.

Lois

-----Original Message-----
From: Kvale, Erik <>
To: <>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1999 5:01 PM
Subject: [INPCRP-L] Tombstone talk at the Indiana Geological Survey

>I am a recent subscriber and hope that I am doing this correctly, but I
>wanted to let those living near Bloomington, Indiana to know that there
>will be a talk hosted by the Indiana Geological Survey, located on the
>Indiana University campus on the 27th of May starting at 4:00 (coffee at
>3:30) that might interest some of you. The talk is by Dr. Richard
>Powell on pioneer gravestones in southern Indiana . The talk will be in
>the Geology Building, S-201 (intersection of 10th street and Walnut
>Grove, north of the Memorial Union). We have sent out a short press
>release through the IU News Bureau but the long version is below.
>
>We could use some help with our research, and if any of you have
>questions please contact me.
>Erik Kvale
>_______________________
>Erik P. Kvale, Associate Professor
>Indiana University
>Indiana Geological Survey/Department of Geological Sciences
>611 N. Walnut Grove
>Bloomington, IN 47405
>(812) 855-1324
>(812) 855-2862 (fax)
>
>
> The Indiana Geological Survey (IGS) needs your help and invites you to
>participate in a state-wide research project. In the pre-Civil War era,
>decades before the introduction of marble and the ornately carved Salem
>Limestone "tree stump" monuments, Indiana's whetstone quarrying
>district in Orange County was producing commercial grade gravestones.
>The apparent extent and historical importance of this industry has gone
>completely unrecognized until now. Erik Kvale and Richard Powell,
>geologists with the IGS and Michael McNerney archeologist and president
>of American Resources Group, Ltd, Carbondale IL, with important
>financial assistance from an Indiana Historical Society Clio Grant, are
>attempting to map the distribution of these gravestones though out
>Indiana and beyond.
> It has long been known that in the 1800s Indiana was a major producer
>of whetstones: stones used to sharpen a variety of implements. This
>mining industry was centered in Orange County where well-sorted,
>uniformly cemented coarse siltstone is common. The stone, known as
>Hindostan whetstone by the trade, was deposited during the Pennsylvanian
>Period, the geological time interval associated with Indiana's coal
>seams. Annual production at the peak of the industry in the late 1800s
>was approximately 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 shipped from the quarries via
>ox wagon to the West Fork of the White River or the Lost River.
>Flatboats, keelboats or barges then float the stones down these rivers
>and eventually onto the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers; in some
>cases they were shipped on to New Orleans and overseas from there. The
>earliest commercial production of whetstone can be tentatively traced
>back to the 1820s and production persisted into the twentieth century
>with the last quarry closing in the late 1980s.
> Strata seen in the Orange County whetstone quarries share many
>similarities with the whetstone headstones found in many cemeteries in
>the region. They are composed of finely layered siltstone (rather than
>sandstone, as stated in some published county histories, which is
>coarser-grained than siltstone). The thickness of each layer is
>measured on a millimeter scale. What is so unique about these deposits
>is the organization of the layers into couplets consisting of a thick
>layer and a thinner layer. These couplets themselves exhibit a large
>scale cycle consisting of a progressive thickening and thinning pattern
>of the stacked couplets.
> Much has been made of this stacking pattern in the past decade.
>Geological investigations have shown that the Hindostan whetstone beds
>were deposited on an ancient tidal flat and that the thickness of each
>siltstone layer can be directly equated to the daily, and sometimes
>semidaily, rise and fall of ancient tides associated with that tidal
>flat. So exact are these ancient recordings that, from precise
>measurements of a series of individual lamina in outcrop or gravestone,
>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 deposit are now known internationally in
>the geological community.
> The pattern of progressive thickening and thinning of the layering in
>the well-sorted siltstone is absolutely diagnostic of the whetstone beds
>and allows us to positively identify this stone when encountered in
>cemeteries.
> Whetstone gravestones are among the oldest preserved in the southern
>part of the state and the graves of several historically important
>persons 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. We have identified whetstone
>headstones in a number of pioneer cemeteries in southwestern Indiana.
>Amazingly, we have also found them in Pope County, Illinois, and a
>number of other Illinois pioneer cemeteries near the Wabash River. We
>are acutely aware that we have not yet discovered the limits of the
>distribution of Hindostan whetstone gravestones and we expect to find
>these stones distributed along the Lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. We
>also expect the distribution of these tombstones to parallel the other
>commercial trading routes of early Indiana, such as along the early
>canal network. Some of these routes are known but others are only
>inferred.
> Please help us by participating in this research. If you encounter a
>whetstone monument or one that you suspect may be such a monument,
>please photograph its face and edge-on view and send these photographs
>to Erik Kvale, Indiana University, Indiana Geological Survey, 611 North
>Walnut Grove, Bloomington Indiana, 47405 or contact Kvale via e-mail at
>. To learn more about this project, you can attend a
>talk by Richard Powell entitled "Whetstone tombstones, a forgotten early
>Indiana Industry," which will be held in the Geology Building at Indiana
>University, Bloomington at 4:00 in room S-201 on May 27th. For more
>information on Richard Powell's talk, contact the Indiana Geological
>Survey, 611 North Walnut Grove, Bloomington, IN 47405 [Telephone: (812)
>855-7636; Fax: (812) 855-2862; E-mail: ].
>
>
>==== INPCRP Mailing List ====
>If you know of some good cemetery related links, send them to
.
>
>

This thread: