There is much of interest in the old burying grounds of any section and particularly is that true of those of Vermilion County.  An exhaustive study of these well repay the trouble.  Silent as these spots are, there is a story for one who reads in the recorded lives the conditions of life at any period, better perhaps than in any other way.  The old stones which marked the graves of the citizens of early times were much more satisfactory than are the monuments lately erected, massive and giving an assurance of long existence, but with the most meagre information recording only the date of birth and that of death perhaps.
     The earlier stones were largely made of sandstone, many times wooden slabs taking the place of more substantial material.  These sandstones have almost all of them been destroyed.  In another decade there will be seen even less.  The men and women who lie in these old cemeteries determined his history of this section.  Today it is well to wander among the markers of these lives and note how this one came to his new home with faith and trust, and that one came, each to take his place among men, to live his own life, and to help make the history of his own section of the country.
     Mount Pisgah cemetery has some recent graves but many that are full of interest because of their being the last resting place for some kind and hard working pioneer whose life was the sacrifice, no less noble because unconscious, to advancing civilization.  Without his efforts the wilderness would not now be blossoming like the rose.
     It was in the fifties that David Swank and Levi Long bought the site of the old cemetery and dedicated it for burial purposes.  Before this time it must have been a private burying ground, for thirty or forty years.  This cemetery is three miles west of Georgetown.
     There are two graves made in 1827.  Earlier dates have been found on certain stones.  Mr. W. L. Long claims he found a stone with the date of 1822, but it is not now to be found.  It is possible that such stone was to mark the grave of one of the earliest settlers.  Recently there was a record of a girl of thirteen who had died in 1815 and been buried at that place.
     The first graves in this old burying ground were on the branch of the little stream called Concord branch now in the northeast part of new addition.
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The graves of two men in this part are surrounded with a rail pen.  If any one in this community knows anything about these men it is hardly possible to learn it.  There are old sandstones lying about from which the epitaph had been completely obliterated.  Old cedar posts are standing, with the inscriptions which were rudely made with a knife, yet plain and distinct.  These are seventy-four years old.  One of these have the inscription, "Nancy, wife of William Brown, died June 17, 1863."  Another cedar marker bears the inscription of Mary J. Gephart, Died May 15, 1838.
     Many wooden markers have no inscription, and many of the sandstone markers are so obliterated that they have no definite information of who lies buried in that place to give a passing stranger.
     Among the oldest graves the stones tell the resting place of Elizabeth, wife of J. J. Lyons, who di8ed Christmas day, 1827.  She was the first wife of Jotham Lyons, Sr.  Jotham Lyons Sr., died Aug. 2, 1843, and was buried in this cemetery.  Richard Swank, so says one marker, died 1827.  His descendants in that part of the country are legion.
     Absolom Starr died Oct. 14, 1829, and was buried in this burying ground.  Another marker gives the information that Kansander, wife of John Jones, died Aug. 31, 1834, and yet another that John Jones himself, died Oct. 26, 1837.
     Brazelton Milliken died August 26, 1835.
     Emmanuel Gephart died in 1838
     Josiah Long died about the close of the Mexican war.  George M. Widener died in 1840.
     This burying ground is the resting place for many of the Long and Jones, the Pantas and Hewitt families.
     It was in the middle thirties that the Cumberland Presbyterians established a church in the Mt. Pisgah neighborhood and put up a meeting house on the site of the present house of worship, which was used until after the war, when the present church was built.  This old burying ground is on a high rolling elevation and although is almost completely surrounded with water, is very dry in location.
     To the east of the main highway between Muncie and Fairmount, about two miles south of Muncie, is the old Dalbey burying ground.  It is a very wild part of the country.  It is on a slight elevation, surrounded on the south and east by a small rivulet, beyond which are rugged hills.  The trees fringing these hilltops, are as silent sentinels of the melancholy place of repose.  Al that is needed to make this a dreary spot is the yelping of the wolves and the baying of the panther, which were heard in the days of the pioneer.
     This burying ground was laid out in 1838, and the accompaniment of the wild animals was not lacking.  It was on the joint property of Aaron Dalbey, and James Cass. When the land was donated for the purpose of a common burial ground, Richard Cass, Jr., remarked.  "I would not be buried in such a place."  Alas the irony of fate; his was the first grave made in the grounds.  This place was extensively used until the fifties; but the whole tract has been abandoned and is now turned over to weeds and wild grass.  Grave stones have
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been displaced and markers no longer reliable in the information given because not in place.
     The second grave made in the grounds of that was Elizabeth Cass, mother of Richard, Jr.  Richard Cass, Sr., died in 1843.  Aaron Dudley died in 1855.  Isaac and Felix Radcliff, both young men have markers to show how short their lives were.  There are many graves here of people dying in the forties, fifties and sixties.  The Casses, Dalbeys, McFarlands, Meads, Bayles, Parrish, Drapers, Whitmans and Radcliffs are to be found in this burying ground.
     One of the prettiest spots in Vermilion County is the location of the Gundy Cemetery.  While a part of this cemetery is devoted to the last home of the pioneers of this locality, there has been a new part added and connected with the old part.  The utmost care is taken with this "city of the dead," and there is no neglected portion on the grounds.  This is the last resting place of many a man and woman in that part of the county whose efforts have made Vermilion County.  Here rests the body of a revolutionary soldier as well as that of the later wars.
     A careful and exhaustive list of those buried in the old part gives the following names, and date of death.
     In the southern part of the county where the early settlers lived, the burying grounds are filled with interest.  That of Vermilion grove speaks the story of faithfulness to home ties and devotion to family interests by the many of the same name to be found in the graves.  The Haworths, the Mills, and the Rees family all rest together as they lived together in the Vermilion Grove and Sharon cemeteries.  A careful list of these markers has been obtained through the efforts of Mr. Bertram Rees and follows:

VERMILION GROVE CEMETERY

NAMES OF THOSE BURIED IN THE  OLD PART OF THE
GUNDY CEMETERY AT MEYERSVILLE, ILLINOIS.

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