Steven Mockler (left) and Kevin Matthew Pazour standing near Gilbert Pierce’s marker at Adams Cemetery in Morgan Township, courtesy of Ron Trigg

We invite you to attend a guided tour of historic Adams Cemetery in Morgan Township on Saturday, October 5, 2024. Participants are asked to meet at the cemetery’s gates at the intersection of County Roads 150E and 250S at 2p for an hour’s walk highlighted by stories of the many early residents buried there.

“Adams Cemetery dates from the 1840s, and many of the most prominent Morgan Township families of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are represented here, often with impressive gravestone architecture. This is the first time we will host a tour of this graveyard,” said PoCo Muse Executive Director Kevin Matthew Pazour, who will lead the excursion. Pazour is also the Porter County Historian. “Perhaps the most famous person buried here is Gilbert Ashville Pierce (1838-1901).  He may have the most daunting resume in county history: Civil War officer, state legislator, Governor of Dakota Territory, U.S. Senator from North Dakota, newspaper publisher, author, lawyer, journalist, playwright, literary historian.”

Assisting Pazour at the event will be Steve Mockler, a local historian and Civil War expert, who is a member of the David D. Porter Camp #116 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. “About a dozen Civil War veterans are buried here,” said Mockler, who will add his insights into the lives of military veterans of that era.

“We’ll be making stops at numerous gravesites to tell stories of many of the 1,000 people interred here,” added Pazour. “Every one of them has a tale to tell, and we’re determined to keep their stories alive, so that these people will not be forgotten. We encourage tour participants to share their own memories of the families buried here. Such exchanges of information help to build the historical record of our area.”

This guided tour is free of charge, and no reservations are required. Donations are appreciated.