WTT Summer 2022
Welcome to the Summer, 2022 Issue of Wabash Township Telegraph!
Vol 2022.08.09
In this issue, you will find links to the May 3rd Primary Results, notes from the township board meeting, and developments from the APC. We also complete a two-part series on our local cemeteries.
General Election Tuesday, November 8th, 2022!
The 2022 general election is quickly approaching. If you have not registered to vote, you can click below. Deadline to register is October 11th, 2022.
The primary elections were held on May 3, 2022. Click below to find primary election results and your candidates for the November 2022 general election.
Township Updates
Wabash Township Board
The past two months have kept the township board busy. At the June meeting a new employee handbook was presented as well as the salary guidelines for 2023.
At the July meeting the beginnings of the 2023 township budget framework was presented, as well as the announcement of a few fire department changes. Board meeting minutes from both meetings, the budget framework for the 1111 fund, and the meeting recording can be found here:
You can always find the next meeting here:
A chicken dinner fundraiser will also be held on August 27, 2022, to benefit our township’s fire department. Tickets for the fundraiser can be purchased using the link below.
West Lafayette Council Meeting Agenda
The West Lafayette City Council regularly meets at 6:30 PM every 1st Monday of the month.
You can always find the next meeting and past minutes here:
Area Plan Commission
The Area Plan Commission announced the development of a new master plan for the area in Tippecanoe Township and Wabash Township experiencing the rapid population growth over the past several years. The plan will help guide future developments and will take approximately six months to complete. More details can be found in the following links:
Township Cemeteries Part 2
This month’s edition completes a two-part series on our township’s cemeteries, with some history, notable people laid to rest in them, and other interesting facts. The series is written by David Tate.
Among the various cemeteries in Wabash Township, Sand Ridge, also known as Sandridge in certain links, and Frazier as being a Methodist site in other links, is unique in many ways. While records show the Davis-Higman cemetery in Fairfield township as being the oldest on record, Sand Ridge, established in 1830, has gone by other names. The first being the Old Quiatenon cemetery as a possible site of both Native American and French gravesites due to the proximity to Fort Quiatenon immediately south of the cemetery. As I read further into the history of the cemetery, I was intrigued to learn Indiana, especially our local county, has numerous historical markers related to the period of expansion of the states westward. As I noted earlier in the previous WTT series, there are numerous Trail of Death markers related to the forced march of the Potawatomi plus several Indian Wars Battlefield Trail markers; Eel River Battlefield, Prophet’s Rock, Fall Timbers (Ohio), St. Clair’s Defeat (Ohio), the Battle of Tippecanoe and Fort Quiatenon.
I’ve walked every single cemetery in the township and used a weed eater to clean around the various gravesites and have often stopped to try and decipher the names on many of the older grave markers made from sandstone. Unfortunately, some of these early markers are illegible. That got me to thinking of what a funeral or burial must have been like in the early 1700’s by the inhabitants of the fort and nearby settlements. In the summer of 2021, I walked the entire Sand Ridge cemetery perimeter and found quite a few grave markers that had become broken or given way to the elements. I didn’t find a single site denoting a Native American or French settlers, so where are they? Records indicate the “first” burial was 1830 which led me to find the site had begun as a Methodist chapel on the eastern area and in proximity to a Mount Pleasant addition to the west of the chapel. In searching the various burial records, I found a Keziah Patton Albin, 1775-1830, numerous members of the Best family through the 1850’s, Cadwaller’s and Buck‘s, Cox’s, etc. If you are interested in pursuing your own research, a site I found useful was:
Besides the historical aspect of the site, Sand Ridge stands alone in its native plant and botanical significance due to the type of soil found. This is especially true in the upper section of the cemetery which has a significant sand base left over from the glacier era. With the climate and soil consistency, there are several endangered plant species still thriving including Hills’ Thistle, two species of puccoon (fringed and hairy) and believe it or not, lots of blooming cacti - which floored me the first time I toured the cemetery with the NICHES folks. Let me put a plug in here for NICHES, which is a land trust organization founded in 1995 to protect a “broad area of natural areas ranging from small green spaces to pristine nature preservers of high botanical integrity.” With the site abundant with endangered plant species, the Wabash Township trustee and board work with the volunteers at NICHES to help propagate and save these very rare plants through transplanting seeds to other similar sites including the Granville Sand Barrens. See NICHES at:
One significant aspect of the Wabash Township government is the preservation of our many historical sites for the future. As growth continues, it is even more important that we pay attention to the history of the township and take ownership of the obligation to preserve and protect these valuable resources. In the near future, watch for information related to tours of the various historical sites including the cemeteries and the endangered plant species that thrive there.
Request for Articles, Township News, and Ideas
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Wabash.Telegraph@gmail.com
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