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The Rorabaugh Cemetery, located in Mound Prairie Township, Section 9, is maintained by the taxpayers of Jasper County. It is under the supervision of three Trustees and the Clerk of Township. Long before the county took possession of the cemetery, early settlers were using the property for a burial ground. The oldest readable stone that can be identified is that of Garret McQullen (1824-1865) and is located on the first lot in the southwest corner of the cemetery. Although there are several stones in the same area that are not dated, we do not know when these burials took place. In the late 1800's Israel and Phoebe Rorabaugh purchased 100 acres of land from the government on which the burial ground was located. The 4th day of February of 1896, the Rorabaugh' s sold to Mound Prairie Township Trustees, 1 acre of land that contained the cemetery for the sum of $50.00 and it was recorded in the record books in the Jasper County Court House. The main purpose of this site and plat is to have some record of the people who are buried in the Rorabaugh Cemetery and can be identified only by the name and dates on the stones. Wherever there is a space between the lots that are not identified by markers, someone could be buried there, no one knows. Some of the lots have corner markers and some are outlined with cement borders. The north and south alleys do not have all the same distance between them. Also, some of the burial lots are 8' and others are 12'. The section north of the drive is not laid out with any corner stones that we can find. The plat on this site is not drawn to scale but only shows the location of the person who is buried on that number. The information on people buried in the cemetery is organized by number and also alphabetically by last name. All the old records were destroyed years ago in a fire that burned the home of Mrs. Willis Campbell, which was on the west side of the road, across from the cemetery. Over the past years, the Rorabaugh family has taken great pride in the cemetery. They see to it that the cemetery is well taken care of. The cemetery today is well fenced and mowed. John 0. Rorabaugh, township trustee for many years, passed away in 1996 at the age of 87. He carried out his duties as trustee at that age. There are still some Rorabaugh's in the area. Township clerk: Phil Lane. Assistant helps with gathering information: Marjorie Lane, Marvelyn Adams. July 1999 |
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